Wimbledon -The Draw and how it shapes up! -The Mens

The much anticipated Wimbledon draw was made yesterday and here is my summary of how the early rounds shape up  ,firstly the men's.


Rafael Nadal ESP (1) v Michael Russell USA
Pablo Andujar ESP v Ryan Sweeting USA
Gilles Muller LUX v Tommy Haas GER
Fabio Fognini ITA v Milos Raonic CAN (31) 

Heading the top of the draw is defending champion Rafael Nadal who has drawn journeyman Michael Russell unless Rafa plays with no strings he will be in the 2nd round with out much trouble.This section features Tommy Haas who is trying to make a come back and the match up of this part of the draw will be Fognini vs Milos Raonic ,of course Fognini had to withdraw with injury in the French and Raonic who boasts the best serve on tour will I think be too good and he shapes up as going through to meet Nadal,anyone that serves huge at Wimby is a dangerous opponent so Rafa will have to be at his game if he does play the young Canadian.


Mardy Fish USA (10) v Marcel Granollers ESP
Philipp Kohlschreiber GER v Denis Istomin UZB
Robin Haase NED v Pere Riba ESP
Radek Stepanek CZE v Fernando Verdasco ESP (21)

This quarter won't excite too many, One of my least favorite player on tour Mardy Fish heads this section,just a boring tennis player in my mind.A fall in rankings by Fernando Verdasco who is seeded 21 this year plays Stepanek will be close I think and not confident Verdasco will get through.Kohlschreiber the german is always hard to beat at Wimbledon and he may well be the player to beat in this part of the draw.Certainly one of the weakest quarters of the draw which favors Nadal's run if he gets through his section which he should.


Juan Ignacio Chela ARG (25) v Qualifier
Donald Young USA v Alex Bogomolov Jr. USA
Qualifier v Julien Benneteau FRA
Filippo Volandri ITA v Tomas Berdych CZE (6)

 On paper Berdych gets this quarter easily ,his recent grass court results have been nothing to right home about but he will and should get through,Chela the other seed in this section is a clay courter and Donald Young keeps failing to deliver,Can't see any upsets here but then again it is Wimbledon.

Andy Murray GBR (4) v Daniel Gimeno-Traver ESP
Tobias Kamke GER v Blaz Kavcic SLO
Sergiy Stakhovsky UKR v Daniel Cox GBR
Ivan Ljubicic CRO v Marin Cilic CRO (27) 

Murray Mania starts here ,the trick shots wont help but he probably does have enough up his sleeve to get past these players.Ljubicic and Cilic looks to be a great first round match up.Cilic has tested Murray before but his current form is not great.

Richard Gasquet FRA (17) v Santiago Giraldo COL 
Igor Kunitsyn RUS v Qualifier
Qualifier v Qualifier
Potito Starace ITA v Stanislas Wawrinka SUI (14) 

Another interesting section I think Gasquet and Wawrinka will fight this one out,whats interesting the winner of this part of the draw most likely will play Murray so this part of the draw is a "hot"one.


Gael Monfils FRA (9) v Matthias Bachinger GER 
Qualifier v Robert Kendrick USA
Arnaud Clement FRA v Qualifier
Ivo Karlovic CRO v Janko Tipsarevic SRB (23) 

Monfils at least entertains ,especially his facial expressions!Looks good in this section but as we know his results are so unpredictable, Tipsarevic and Karlovic will provide the match of the section with Karlovic and his serve at his best at Wimbledon.I am tipping Karlovic to get this one.Some quality matches at least here.


Thomaz Bellucci BRA (30) v Rainer Schuettler GER 
Feliciano Lopez ESP v Michael Berrer GER
Jaroslav Pospisil CZE v Victor Hanescu ROU
Qualifier v Andy Roddick USA (8)

You would think Roddick is a "shoe in" and looking at the players here he should be,his best days are way behind him and he might come through here but A rod will not be getting to the final but like always will be out there giving the best he can.


David Ferrer ESP (7) v Benoit Paire FRA 
Ivan Dodig CRO v Qualifier
Carlos Berlocq ARG v Qualifier
Andrey Golubev KAZ v Guillermo Garcia-Lopez ESP (26) 


Watching these clay courter's play on grass is like watching paint dry!Berlocq the Argentinian has been in good form of late.Ferrer should come through but Dodig could be a surprise.


Alexandr Dolgopolov UKR (22) v Fernando Gonzalez CHI
Qualifier v Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo ESP
Grigor Dimitrov BUL v Qualifier
Qualifier v Jo-Wilfried Tsonga FRA (12) 

Loaded with qualifiers but also loaded with talent.Tsonga heads the list but the unorthodox Dolgopolov along with former junior champion Dimitrov make this part of the draw very attractive.Tsonga has had good recent form but there are players here that will test him.


Nicolas Almagro ESP (16) v Jarkko Nieminen FIN 
John Isner USA v Nicolas Mahut FRA
Somdev Devvarman IND v Denis Gremelmayr GER
Juan Monaco ARG v Mikhail Youzhny RUS (18)

The biggest story overnight was the first round match up of Mahut and Isner who made history last year with their epic match!Will they be drawn on the same court?Isner has been playing pretty well so it may not be like last year whilst Mahut has been struggling.Isner could be a danger in this half against the seeds.


David Nalbandian ARG (28) v Julian Reister GER 
Florent Serra FRA v Andreas Haider-Maurer AUT
Adrian Mannarino FRA v Qualifier
Mikhail Kukushkin KAZ v Roger Federer SUI (3)


Federer will win this part of the draw with his eyes shut.Say no more.


Robin Soderling SWE (5) v Philipp Petzschner GER
Kei Nishikori JPN v Lleyton Hewitt AUS
Igor Andreev RUS v Teymuraz Gabashvili RUS
Qualifier v Nikolay Davydenko RUS (29) 

Soderling should come through but no certainty ,Nishikori should put paid to former champ Hewitt...retire Lleyton! Davydenko never performs here and his current results show him slipping down the rankings.Petzschner will test Soderling first up.
A competitive section of the draw for sure.


Florian Mayer GER (20) v Daniel Evans GBR 
Xavier Malisse BEL v Mischa Zverev GER
Ernests Gulbis LAT v Dmitry Tursunov RUS
Alejandro Falla COL v Jurgen Melzer AUT (11) 


Really the seeds are just on paper look for upsets here in this section.No Wimbledon winner here.


Viktor Troicki SRB (13) v Maximo Gonzalez ARG
Yen-Hsun Lu TPE v Tommy Robredo ESP
Ricardo Mello BRA v Qualifier
James Ward GBR v Michael Llodra FRA (19)

If fit Troicki is a very hard player to beat I cant see anyone here beating him.Llodra is suited to grass with his serve and volley approach , Robredo is never going to win Wimbledon and a Brit who has had decent form will certainly push Llodra.Would not be surprised if an upset happened in this match.No dangers here although Troicki does push Djokovic who is in the next section.


Marcos Baghdatis CYP (32) v James Blake USA 
Andreas Seppi ITA v Albert Montanes ESP
Kevin Anderson RSA v Illya Marchenko UKR
Jeremy Chardy FRA v Novak Djokovic SRB (2)

So where has Novak been? His lead up to Wimbledon has been low key electing not to play a lead up tournament.Can his game hold up on grass, its not a straight forward section he is in with some talented players here.Baghdatis is a player that can rise to the big occasions.Kevin Anderson is a player that should be at home on the grass huge frame with big serve.