Novak Djokovic will be the main favorite of Wimbledon

Wimbledon, the most prestigious tennis tournament, starts in London on Monday, the main favorite of which will be its seven-time champion and 23-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic. The Serbian, who has been undefeated on the courts of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club since 2018, will compete with the leader of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) rating Spaniard Carlos Alcaras and Russian Daniil Medvedev. Among women, the top three favorites included the first racket of the world Iga Swiatek from Poland, last year’s champion Elena Rybakina from Kazakhstan and Arina Sobolenko from Belarus.

The opening match of the current Wimbledon against Argentina’s Pedro Cachin, who at 28 has never made it to the main draw there, Novak Djokovic will start for the first time as a record holder for the number of Grand Slam titles. After Roland Garros, he already has 23, one more than Rafael Nadal. But, perhaps, the fact that he won Wimbledon seven times speaks even more strongly in favor of the illustrious Serb, and on account of the 127 other participants in the men’s bracket there are only two victories of his peer Briton Andy Murray, who today claims only local success. Moreover, none of them, except Murray, have ever beaten Djokovic on the grass.

It is not surprising that, according to the bookmakers, the balance of forces of contenders for the Wimbledon title looks a little different than at the end of May on the eve of the French Open.

If in Paris the chances of Djokovic and the first racket of the world Spaniard Carlos Alcaras looked approximately equal, then in London the Serb looks like a clear favorite.

He is no stranger to playing Wimbledon without a warm-up at other grass tournaments, and Djokovic is certainly quite motivated. After all, in addition to the 24th title in the majors, he probably wants to meet the 400th week on the top line of the world ranking. The Serb has only 11 weeks left to reach it, or less than three months, but first he has to go around Alcaraz again.

True, bookmakers are also wrong. Suffice it to recall how the central match of Roland Garros ended – the Djokovic-Alcaras semi-final, before the start of which bets on the victory of the Spaniard, who at that time looked much more formidable than his opponent, were accepted with a noticeably lower coefficient. Now, everything can turn out the other way around. Compared to Djokovic, the current ATP leader has minimal Wimbledon experience. In 2021, not yet claiming much, he lost to Daniil Medvedev in the second round with almost no options, and a year ago he reached the quarterfinals, losing to Yannick Sinner. But two weeks ago Alcaraz took his first title on grass, winning the 500 category tournament on the courts of London’s Queen’s Club. Tennis players who three weeks later obeyed Wimbledon won nine times during the Open era (since 1968). So this success certainly adds confidence to Alcaraz before meeting the first round with the 36-year-old French veteran Jeremy Chardy, who completely missed last season due to complications caused by the coronavirus vaccine.

Third place in the list of favorites is Daniil Medvedev, and it corresponds to both his seed number and the current position in the rankings. The Russian knows how to play on grass. He took the title at Mallorca two years ago and reached the finals twice last season, but didn’t progress beyond the fourth round at Wimbledon. In addition, after a series of brilliant performances from February to May, Medvedev noticeably slowed down. Having suffered a sensational defeat at the start of Roland Garros, he lost his first match at the tournament in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, and he also dropped out in Halle relatively early – already in the quarterfinals.

Predicting Medvedev’s performance is also not easy because his draw in the first two rounds is quite specific.

In the first round, he got the debutant of the Grand Slam tournaments – the little-known 20-year-old Briton Arthur Fury, who received a wild card, and practice shows that the British at the beginning of Wimbledon are able to present surprises of various sizes. In the 1/32 finals, Medvedev will meet with the same Frenchman Adrian Mannarino, who beat him in ‘s-Hertogenbosch and last week reached the final in Mallorca, or with his compatriot Alexander Shevchenko, and in the 1/16 finals on the horizon, the Russian will have a fast covers the Dutchman Tallon Grikspor or the unpredictable Hungarian Marton Fucovich. In general, each of Medvedev’s matches at the upcoming tournament will be interesting in its own way.

As for the second Russian representative in the top ten, the recent finalist of the tournament in Halle Andrey Rublev, he will play with the first start on Monday with the Australian Max Purcell, last year’s Wimbledon champion in doubles, and then, if successful, with Aslan Karatsev or the young Frenchman Lucas van Hashem. Grass for Rublev is not optimal coverage, which he, in fact, does not hide. But due to a good first serve and a strong right hand, he is quite capable of improving his maximum Wimbledon result – reaching the 1/8 finals.

In the list of contenders for victory at Wimbledon, compared to Roland Garros, there are also almost no changes. It is headed by the first racket of the world, Iga Shventek, followed by last year’s champion Elena Rybakina and the current winner of the Australian Open, the second racket of the world, Arina Sobolenko. Of the Russian tennis players, the best results on grass in June were shown by Ekaterina Aleksandrova, winning in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, and Daria Kasatkina, who on Saturday in the final in Eastbourne on a long tie-break of the second game won back American Madison Keys has four match points, but still lost – 2:6, 6:7 (13:15). True, Kasatkina did not have time to prepare for Wimbledon. She will meet with the hundredth racket of the world, American Caroline Dolehide, on Monday afternoon. But 16-year-old Mirra Andreeva, who qualified quite confidently and attracted increased attention from fans and the press, got into the other, lower half of the grid and will play with Chinese Wang Xiyu on Tuesday.

Evgeny Fedyakov