Early Wimbledon predictions

Wimbledon, is now just a few days away, along with the 1 year anniversary of my blog.:P I feel like there's a lot riding on this particular Wimbledon. For one thing, Federer will have a chance to regain the #1 ranking if he wins the tournament and Nadal loses before the semi-finals. Unlike last year, I won't be favoring Nadal to win the title, it's clear that his knees are very painful, he said in an interview that they have been bothering him for a while and that he can't go on like this. Nadal is scheduled to play an exhibition match against Hewitt on Thursday, to test out his knees. We'll have to wait until after that match to know how he's doing. If by some miracle he's feeling good and they aren't hindering him too much then Federer should be on full guard. Nadal could easily beat him in the finals, but my guess is that it won't happen this year.

So that leaves us with the other Wimby threats: Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, and to a lesser extent Ernest Gulbis, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Robin Soderling, and Andy Roddick. Tsonga, Soderling, Roddick and especially Gulbis are a long shot but I think they'll cause some upsets and go deep into the draw. I'm picking Andy Murray to go all the way to the semi or better this time. I know that McEnroe supports him and says that Murray is in Federer's head. That may be true and Murray has owned Roger in the past but he's never beaten him on grass. He's 0-1 against Federer in grandslams and to be honest I don't think Murray is good enough to beat him on grass. Andy's best surface are the hard courts, he's way more likely to win the US Open than Wimbledon.

As for Novak Djokovic, I think he'll just lose in the early rounds, he said that he's been having a hard time dealing with the loss to Nadal in the Madrid semis. Maybe that partly explains why the 31-year old veteran Haas crushed him in the finals at Halle. That was a huge win for Tommy but it doesn't say much for Nole, if he's struggling against guys like that, what chance does he have of upsetting Roger, or Rafa? I understand that players go through ups and downs. Maybe Novak can turn his slump around, but until he does he's not (in my mind at least) a top level candidate for the Wimbledon title.

Final prediction: Federer wins his sixth Wimbledon title. Andy Murray makes either the semis or the finals depending on what side of the draw he's on in relation to Federer. If Fed beats Murray in the semi-finals, he might face Roddick in the finals.

Hope to hear some feedback from you guys and thanks again for reading my blog. ;)