The field of
battle on grass is drawn - the possible layout of potential seven matches
before one hopes to lay hands on the elusive Wimbledon trophy. Here is the
breakup of two halves of the draw with the top 32 seeds divided as per the
draw.
Top
Half
|
Bottom Half
|
||
1st Quarter
|
2nd Quarter
|
3rd Quarter
|
4th Quarter
|
(1) Novak Djokovic
|
(4) Stan Wawrinka
|
(3) Andy Murray
|
(2) Roger Federer
|
(5) Kei Nishikori
|
(7) Milos Raonic
|
(8) David Ferrer
|
(6) Tomas Berdych
|
(9) Marin Cilic
|
(11) Grigor Dimitrov
|
(10) Rafael Nadal
|
(12) Giles Simon
|
(14) Kevin Anderson
|
(16) David Goffin
|
(13) JW Tsonga
|
(15) Feliciano Lopez
|
(17) John Isner
|
(19) Tommy Robredo
|
(22) Viktor Troicki
|
(18) Gael Monfils
|
(24) Leonardo Mayer
|
(21) Richard Gasquet
|
(23) Ivo Karlovic
|
(20) R Bautista Agut
|
(27) Bernard Tomic
|
(26) Nick Kyrgios
|
(25) Andreas Seppi
|
(29) G Garcia Lopez
|
(28) Pablo Cuevas
|
(32) Dominic Thiem
|
(30) Fabio Fognini
|
(31) Jack Sock
|
Potential
Match-ups for the top four seeds (and Nadal):
(1) Novak
Djokovic: Philip Kohlschreiber à
Lleyton Hewitt à Bernard
Tomic à
Kevin Anderson à
Kei Nishikori/Marin Cilic à
Stan Wawrinka à
Roger Federer/ Andy Murray
(2) Roger Federer:
Damir Dzumhur à
Sam Querrey à
Jack Sock à Feliciano
Lopez à
Tomas Berdych à
Andy Murray/Rafael Nadal à
Novak Djokovic
(3) Andy
Murray: Mikhail Kukushkin à
Robin Hasse/A Falla à
Andreas Seppi/Borna Coric à
JW Tsonga à
Rafael Nadal à
Roger Federer à
Novak Djokovic
(4) Stan
Wawrinka: Joao Sousa à
Benjamin Becker à Fernando
Verdasco/Dominic Thiem à
David Goffin à Dimitrov/Raonic/Kyrgios
à Novak Djokovic à Federer/Murray
(10) Rafael
Nadal: Thomaz Bellucci à
Dustin Brown à Stepanek/Troicki
à David Ferrer à Andy Murray à Roger Federer à Novak Djokovic
On paper the
draw seems nightmarish for Murray and Nadal. While Nadal is seeded 10th
and cannot expect anything else, Murray seems to have hurdles a bit too many
for the title run. Djokovic, though avoids the other members of big four, has
plenty on his plate with dangerous floaters and his newfound rival Stan
Wawrinka. The two Swiss have somewhat favourable draws but the paper drawings
result in nothing substantial. The last two matches (semis & final) are
bound to be against the two top in-form guys and all the favourability or
toughness of the draw goes straight out of the window.
And then, in
the past few years itself, how many times have we seen the draws opening up
with upsets by motivated floaters?
Anyone from
the five above can win it or maybe even someone outside of them but that’s rather
unlikely, not even remotely possible, actually impossible as it seems. One of
these guys will claim it but not without some serious resistance. What we can
be assured of are plenty of high intensity matches, match-ups both old and new,
surging adrenaline, quality and passion.
Time to watch
the white powder fly up from the painted lines on the green surface with the
swirl of the racket and twirl of the tennis ball!