Love the Wimbledon singles second favourites

What was the Big Four in men`s tennis is now the Big Two and, when it comes to choosing between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal to carry your money in the Wimbledon men`s singles, the pre-tournament betting odds make it easy.

Back Nadal, a Wimbledon finalist in each of the most recent five editions of The Championships in which he has competed, at the generally available and generously offered 9-4.

So good are Nadal`s Wimbledon results that it is easy to forget that in the mid 2000s there was a debate as to whether Nadal would be able to transfer his outstanding clay-court form to other surfaces, particularly grass.

With a 35-5 win-loss Wimbledon record, Nadal has proven the Doubting Thomases wrong in emphatic fashion and, while he dropped last year`s final to Djokovic in four sets, there is little doubt that the tables have turned or are turning in the head-to-head battle between the Spaniard and the Serb.

Nadal has won each of his last three matches versus Djokovic after enduring a horror 0-7 run from Indian Wells in 2011 to the Australian Open in Melbourne earlier this year. Overall, on grass, the Spaniard leads the Serb by two matches to one.

Which segues nicely into the next point: Djokovic may be the reigning Wimbledon champion but, lifetime, his grass-court record does not hold a candle to that of Nadal.

There is little to choose between the draws of Nadal and Djokovic - the Spaniard may have to beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Andy Murray to make the final, while the Serb may have to get the better of Tomas Berdych and Roger Federer - but what little there is favours the title second favourite.

That is because Tsonga is enigmatic and Murray, well, he is yet to really prove that he can handle the pressure at the business end of a Grand Slam event. Berdych is probably the most likely non-member of what was the Big Four to make the transition from pretender to contender and Federer, well, he knows the lawns of London`s SW19 like the back of his hand.

Similarly to the Wimbledon men`s singles, the Wimbledon women`s singles has only a handful of serious title chances based on the ante-post betting. And as is the case with the men, the second favourite looks like the one to support.

Winner of four Wimbledon women`s singles titles, Serena Williams is practically unplayable on grass when she is in the mood and, at odds of about 3-1, she is the bet ahead of marginal market leader Maria Sharapova (about 11-4), Petra Kvitova (about 6-1) and Victoria Azarenka (about 8-1).

Williams is in good form - she had won 17 clay-court matches in a row before the aberration of her French Open defeat to virginie Razzano - and it is fair to overlook her last-16 Wimbledon loss to Marion Bartoli last year when she was one week into her comeback from 11 months off through injury.

The draw could have been kinder to Williams - she is likely to run into defending champion Kvitova in the quarter-finals - but she is the grass-court queen who, if she brings her A-game to SW19, will win the title comfortably and make odds of 3-1 look like the biggest bookmaking rick of all time.

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25/06/2012     © Frixo 2024