Wimbledon 2010 Preview: Men

Yes it’s time to crack out the champagne as well as the strawberries and cream as Wimbledon has rolled around once again, it doesn’t seem five minutes since that epic final where Andy Roddick almost beat Roger Federer to take the title.

But twelve months on and it’s Nadal who is the top of the world rankings while the two Grand Slam titles have been shared between the Spaniard and Federer.

So with Wimbledon getting underway at lunchtime tomorrow we take a look at the men who are in serious contention for the title.

Despite being demoted to world number two Roger Federer, because of the slightly odd seeding rules which takes into account previous grass court performances, is the top seed at SW19.

And while he may be the favourite he has been seriously off the boil since lifting the Australian Open back in January.

His clay court season has below par, suffering a shock early exit at the Rome Masters before losing to Nadal in Madrid, failing to defend his title.

While everyone was anticipating a Rafa - Roger final in Paris it wasn’t to be as Robin Soderling ended his twelve match losing streak to the Swiss and dumped him out of the competition in the quarter finals.

And another shock followed in Halle a couple of weeks later as Lleyton Hewitt battled back to beat him in the final.

So far 2010 has been an up and down form for Federer and he goes into Wimbledon on not to convincing form.

But he does have a fairly straight forward draw meeting the likes of Alejandro Fella. Janko Tipsarevic in the opening rounds and will possibly not face any real threat until Feliciano Lopez in the fourth round and Tomas Berdych in the quarter final.

Since returning from injury in Indian Wells back in late march Rafael Nadal has been the man to beat and the man in form.
 
He showed his prowess on the clay as he collected the Monte Carlo, Rome and Madrid Masters titles before reclaiming the French Open crown.

While he crashed out of Queen’s earlier that expected Nadal goes into Wimbledon as the world number one and has nothing to lose at AW19.

Having not played last year the Spaniard has no ranking points to defend or worry about and is free to just go out and play.

But having been given the second seeding instead of the top seed he has a much tougher draw his opening match sees him face Kei Nishikori.

Players in his half of the draw include James Blake, John Isner, David Ferrer and Mikhail Youzhny and while he is expected to at least reach the semi final he may have to exert a bit of energy to get there.

Novak Djokovic’s clay court season did not go as well as twelve months ago when he was a consistent thorn in Nadal’s side.

However what a difference a year makes as the Serb has struggled with allergy problems and has looked out of form in recent weeks.

At the French Open his looked to be cruising to a semi final spot but Jurgen Melzer battled from two sets down to stun the world number three.

Like so many of the big names at Queen’s it was a disappointing early exit for Djokovic and he comes into Wimbledon with little talk about him.

He finds himself in the same side of the draw as Roger Federer and faces a couple of tricky early encounter. His first match sees him play Olivier Rochus and will face either Taylor Dent or Juan Ignacio Chela in the second.

His part of the draw also includes Gael Monfils, Lleyton Hewitt and Andy Roddick so it will be less than straightforward for the Serb.

It’s fair to say that not much is expected of Andy Murray this time around with the poor form that he has shown since reaching the Australian Open final.

Murray has struggled with form as well as mental strength over the last few weeks and made a fourth round exit at the hands of Tomas Berdych before failing to defend his title at Queen’s.  

Murray has Jan Hajek to contend with in his opening match and could face the likes of Juan Carlos Ferrero, Sam Querrey, Fernando Verdasco or Jo-Wilfred Tsonga just to get to the semi final… where he could potentially met Nadal.

Other players in the draw that could be a real threat include last year’s runner up Andy Roddick, who could meet Roger Federer along the way.

And Roddick is not the other American who can do some damage in the draw as Aegon Champion Sam Querrey showed that he’s quite handy on the grass ass has Mardy Fish.

It will be interesting to see the transition from clay to grass for French Open runner up Robin Soderling while Nikolay Davydenko is back from injury.

But one name to keep an eye on is former champion Lleyton Hewitt as he beat Federer in the final of Halle just a couple of weeks ago and looks ready to cause an upset in the draw.

Tip To Win - Rafael Nadal