WIMBLEDON TENNIS 2015 – GLOBAL CHICK PERUSES THE GENTLEMEN’S DRAW

Written by: Global Chick on 26th June 2015

WIMBLEDON TENNIS 2015 – GLOBAL CHICK PERUSES THE GENTLEMEN'S DRAW

Roger Federer of Switzerland serves a ball during a training session for the All England Lawn Tennis Championships in Wimbledon, London, Britain, 26 June 2015. The All England Lawn Tennis Championships will take place from 29 June until 12 July 2015. EPA/PETER KLAUNZER |

Wimbledon 2015 – Global Chick casts her eye on the men’s draw

Having scooted off to get a first look at defending champion Novak Djokovic on the grass (and that included the whole helicopter deal) your intrepid Global Chick galloped back to Eastbourne as fast as her steed could carry her to be back in time for the Men’s draw this morning.

Djokovic, who balanced playing to the crowd with at times shaking out his arm/wrist in his first match of sorts against Richard Gasquet, spoke pretty warmly about what Wimbledon means to him and on Monday he gets to put those words into practice once more.

Top Half:

Top Quarter

Let’s start right there shall we? Are we sitting comfortably with a Pimms? Then we’ll begin! Actually Djokovic has a pretty tricky start with Philipp Kohlschreiber in the first round. The German can prove to be a thorn in the side in terms of forcing fourth or fifth set come-backs and for sure this will not want to be the way Djokovic kicked off his campaign. It will be their first match up on grass, and Kohlschrieber’s only win against him came on clay.

“@djokernole & @krajinovic_filip #Aorangi
All that love for the #sport Of #tennis and #grasscourts, is coming out Of the youngster!
#nolefam #idemooo #SerbianDavisCupTeam #proud #love #life #instaSport #Wimbledon #SW19 #london” – Photo by @dulebox via Instagram.

Next up will be the battle of the veterans. Jarkko Nieminen and Lleyton Hewitt are both pretty much mounting their farewell tours this year, and it is sad that only one of them will even advance to the second round, but seeing as he enjoys a comparable head to head lead over both of them, he should advance to potential third round clash against Bernard Tomic. The embattled Aussie is in the midst of a clash against Tennis Australia at the moment, but if he can keep his head about him he might be able to at least emulate his first battle against the Serbian where he took a set off him in the 2011 Wimbledon quarter-final.

The Round of 16 could see him up against Kevin Anderson who made it to the Queen’s Club final against an in-form Andy Murray.

US Open champion and a former Queen’s Club champion Marin Cilic is also no slouch on the green stuff, as he looks set to have a show-down with John Isner in the third round. Although it would be their first match on grass, Cilic has a decent 4-1 lead in their head to head as the pair of them have picked up a few rounds on the grass this year with Isner having performed just a little stronger as well as fitting in some doubles practice.

At the other side of the bracket big things are expected of Kei Nishikori. In fact let’s be honest a lot has been expected of the quiet but determined Japanese player since he made his first Grand Slam final against all odds at the US Open. Still very consistent but just lacking that edge so far this year, he should front up against his Flushing Meadows conqueror in the quarter-final, but can he kick on and flourish on the grass?

Prediction: Djokovic v Cilic

Photo by Dusan Vemic.

Second Quarter

French Open champion Stan Wawrinka is on his weakest surface by far but has been as far as the quarter-finals in Wimbledon before, and it remains to be seen if he suffers the same kind of next-slam-let-down as he did after winning his maiden Slam at the Australian Open before falling in the first round of the French last year.

He is scheduled to meet Dominic Thiem in the third round, who helped contribute to a few slumpy runs on the clay last year and could meet either David Goffin or Tommy Robredo on his way to a possible quarter-final.

We look to be heading for a fourth round clash between last year’s semi-finalists Grigor Dimitrov and Milos Raonic. The Bulgarian has been a man of varying form and to be honest it would not be a surprise to see him go out early – Richard Gasquet is his third round opponent and he looked pretty sharp at the Boodles as part of his warm up. With a spot on the French Davis Cup team potentially up for grabs, as he mentioned to me at The Boodles after his exhibition match with Djokovic, he will be motivated to bring Dimitrov down a peg or to as he attempted to match or better his best Wimbledon performance at the semi-finals (2007).

Meanwhile Milos Raonic will have his hands full with Aussie Nick Kyrgios. There is nothing he loves more than the big stage or occasion for the upset, as he proved last year when he put paid to Rafael Nadal. Raonic is coming back from foot surgery but he did make it to the Queen’s quarter-finals so we give him a slight edge over the Bulgarian.

Prediction: Wawrinka v Raonic.

Bottom Half

Third Quarter:

David Ferrer will want to swiftly erase his grass court warm up this year where he crashed out in the first week of Nottingham and against Brit James Ward – well he should win and set up a potential third round with the mercurial Fabio Fognini. He has been doing the champagne and Pimms circuit at Boodles this summer.

Now on paper we ought to be rubbing our hands with glee at the prospect of a Rafael Nadal/Ferrer fourth round but do keep an eye out for Viktor Troicki. He has been playing some very solid grass court tennis, and while he lost to Nadal in Stuttgart, the Spaniard was less than impressive in Queen’s and to be honest could well be beatable, but we will be charitable nonetheless in our predictions.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has always been a danger on the green-stuff with his one-two punch of a big serve and a clubbing forehand, so he will hope to nullify the effects of the big-serving Ivo Karlovic as his potential third round opponent before coming up against Andy Murray who heads up the rest of that bracket. He starts against Mikhail Kukushkin and should meet up with Andreas Seppi, who enjoyed a gallop to the Halle final. Murray has not always had it his own way on the grass against the Italian, losing to him in their first match in Nottingham. Since then he has beaten him at Queen’s… and pretty much every other time they have met.

Prediction: Nadal v Murray

Bottom quarter:

Will this be the time for Tomas Berdych to make his move and leapfrog the chasing pack? He heads up the last quarter and looks like he is likely to meet, nay advance past Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in the third round and could face one of two tricky Frenchmen in the fourth as Gael Monfils and Gilles Simon round out that part of the bracket. Here’s the thing though – Monfils has basically said he hates the grass (although that does not appear to stop him throwing himself about on the surface – wait… he does that on everything!).

Simon is wily and patient, and we give him the edge for a edge for a fourth round match with Berdych advancing after a grueling slugfest into the quarter-finals.

Bear with us dear readers, we are almost there! Save for a perhaps tricky third round with the ever improving Jack Sock, Roger Federer has quite a steady draw, although never discount Feliciano Lopez to help take a set off you and make for a longer day out than you might have planned.

Prediction: Federer v Berdych.

Get your Pimms out, and get ready as Wimbledon starts on Monday 29 June.

Wimbledon 2015 Men’s Singles Draw - click here

Topics: Andy Murray, Atp World Tour, David Ferrer, Dominic Thiem, Federer, global chick, GRIGOR DIMITROV, Jarkko Nieminen, Jo Wilfried Tsonga, Kei Nishikori, Kevin Anderson, Lleyton Hewitt, Marin Cilic, milos raonic, Nick Kyrgios, Novak Djokovic, Philipp Kohlschreiber, Rafa Nadal, Stan Wawrinka, Tennis, Wimbledon 2015

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10sBalls_com says:

June 26, 2015 at 10:40 am

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