Wimbledon Betting / Sean Calvert / 18 June 2010 /

Sean Calvert looks at the favourites, the sleeper and the no-hopers ahead of Wimbledon 2010

At the time of writing, last week's advice of Denis Istomin to win in Eastbourne was still going strong, so let's hope he adds to the coffers ahead of the big one - well for the British public at least.

The draw has been made and as usual Roger Federer has been given a dream opening quarter in which to flex his muscles for the task at hand, which is to equal Pete Sampras's record of seven men's singles titles on the lawns of the All England Club.

The Swiss, who is seeded number one here, ahead of Rafa Nadal thanks to Wimbledon being the only Slam to go against straight rankings, has Nikolay Davydenko in his quarter and the odd decent grass courter, but little else.

And with Davydenko's well-documented dislike for grass and recent injury, Fed's quarter should be a walk in the park. He has some handy grass courters in his section, but the likes of Feliciano Lopez, Istomin, Benjamin Becker and Rainer Schuettler will be wishing they were drawn elsewhere.

Tomas Berdych's recent upturn in form is unlikely to continue on a surface he hates and the Czech has only made it to the last eight once - a stat that is unlikely to improve this year, as he has Federer in the way.

Federer's preparation has been far from ideal, with the loss of his French Open title and a defeat to Lleyton Hewitt in Halle and a repeat of last year's brutal Wimbledon final match-up with Andy Roddick in the semis is probably not what the Swiss wanted.

Roddick finds himself in the adjacent section to Federer and paired with Novak Djokovic, whose own preparation for this was damaged with a poor loss to Xavier Malisse at Queen's.

Coming as it did after a crushing loss to Jurgen Melzer in Paris, the Serbian's confidence won't be great and neither therefore will his tennis, as Djokovic thrives on well-being.

Roddick, himself beaten at Queen's early on, is the more likely semi-finalist, as his mini-section looks poor, with only Marin Cilic and perhaps Mardy Fish with the credentials to take out Roddick, although Michael Llodra can sometimes be dangerous.

Djokovic has Olivier Rochus first up, who beat him in Miami and has a
3-1 head-to-head advantage over the number three seed and Djokovic also has Lleyton Hewitt in his immediate part of the draw, so it will be tough for Novak.

In the bottom half, Andy Murray is in the third section of the draw and the Scot can't have hoped for a much easier start with Jan Hajek first up and either Jarkko Nieminen or Stefan Koubek to follow.

Murray will probably have a half-fit Gilles Simon next and the only player with any real weapons to hurt him is Sam Querrey, who won at Queen's last week, but whose Grand Slam record is poor.

He has never bettered the second round at SW19 and has one solitary fourth round effort at the US Open in 2008 as his best Slam result. At least Querrey will be boosted by that Queen's title and he looks the only one to concern Murray early on.

There isn't a great deal of any note in the adjacent mini-section of Murray's quarter either, with a half-fit Jo Wilfried Tsonga and Fernando Verdasco the most likely opponents for the Scot in the last eight.

Last and by no means least, we have world number one Rafa Nadal's section, which is next to Murray's with the two seeded to meet in the last four.

Rafa has an interesting one first-up with Kei Nishikori, the talented but injury prone Japanese star as his opponent, who will be hoping for a return to the sort of form that saw him reach the last 16 in the US Open a couple of years ago.

He might then play James Blake in the second round, but the American is a shadow of the player of a few years ago on current form and Nadal would fancy that one, but the next round could be tougher.

Ernests Gulbis is having a great year and assuming that the injury that saw him retire at Roland Garros has cleared up, he could present Nadal with a challenge on grass, having been one of only two players to take a set off Rafa on clay this year.

If Nadal reaches the last eight, which he should, then he may meet old foe Robin Soderling once more, as the Swede is the top seed in Rafa's section and a repeat of their tetchy Wimbledon encounter of 2007 could be on.

Soderling has had the misfortune to run into Federer here early in the last two years and before that it was Nadal and Tim Henman (twice), so he's had some tough grass court lessons to learn over the years.

I suspect that his volleying is still too poor for him to be a Wimbledon champ, but I would like to watch him play Nadal again in the quarters.

In conclusion, it's hard to find anyone that stands out other than Federer at around [2.5], with Murray at [11.0] and Djokovic looking very short on confidence at the moment.

Roddick is probably the only other genuine contender at around [17.0] and after that you're into the likes of Djokovic at around [42.0], so the alternatives to Federer look slim and he'll surely make it seven this year.

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