He’s going to have to do it the hard way, but I still think we’ll see Jannik Sinner win his first Wimbledon title.
Champion
I do think the Italian will win, but I hate the price considering how tough Jannik Sinner’s draw is.
The likelihood of Matteo Berrettini in the second-round will be one hell of a contest early in the tournament, but an extremely difficult one for Sinner – while the chance of seeing the booming serve of Shelton in the Round of 16, Medvedev or Dimitrov in the Quarters followed by Alcaraz in the Semi.
The draw really is my only question mark though – assuming he can reach the Semis without burning too much energy, we should see the Italian win his first Wimbledon crown, but not a price I’m comfortable with.
Runner Up
The Pole is serving out of his skin in 2024 with the highest ace percentage on tour along with ranking fourth for service points won.
Reached the Final at Halle where he lost to Sinner in two tiebreaks, while had plenty of opportunities against Djokovic in last year’s Round of 16 clash at Wimbledon, and reached the Semis here in 2021 where he beat both Federer and Medvedev.
Hurkacz will be hard to break this tournament and features in the Djokovic draw who has just recovered from a knee injury. Think he’s a huge chance of reaching the Final here.
Semi Finalists
No grass court lead-up for the French Open Champion, but Carlos Alcaraz has been handed one of the easiest draws of any player.
It’s likely that Alcaraz’s first tough match will be against Tommy Paul in the Quarter Final if the Queen’s Club winner can get there, before facing off against Sinner in another Semi Final.
Very difficult to back-up majors in such a tight turnaround so won’t be taking the price for last year’s Champion.
This could be a throwback to Henman’s Hill and Murray’s Mound with Jack Draper entering Wimbledon full of confidence.
The Brit has the game with a booming left-handed serve, and enters this off the back of winning Stuttgart and reaching the Quarters at Queen’s.
Draper finds himself with a favourable draw with a likely match-up with Alexander Zverev in the third-round, with the German coming off a long French Open campaign to go with Wimbledon being his worst major of the four with his best result a Round of 16.
With Rublev the other high-seed in the third quarter, there’s plenty of surprise packets that could emerge to a Semi Final but I like the look of the Brit.
Roughies
This is one of the Quarter 3 contenders – Sebastian Korda. The American has had a horror run for a long time, but turned his form around on the grass reaching the Final at s Hertogenbosch including a win over Tommy Paul, before reaching the Semi Final at Queen’s Club with a win over Dimitrov.
Made the Round of 16 at Wimbledon in 2021 and has played well on grass historically – but it’s all mental with Korda. He gets a great look at Tsitsipas in the third-round, if he can upstage the Greek we could see him all the way to the Quarters.
Don’t read any of the grass court form or history on this one. Ben Shelton hasn’t set the world on fire in the lead-up, but this is a man with a huge serve, big game and loves the big stage.
Has performed well at majors over the last 18 months and if he manages to reach the Round of 16 he could really give Jannik Sinner a major scare. Has all the weapons to dominate grass.
