It’s hard to pick a winner of the 2012 Wimbledon Men’s Singles Championships outside of the world’s top four, considering that for the past several years, the Grand Slam winners have a surname of Federer, Nadal or Djokovic – with the exception of Juan Martin del Potro who sneaked up in the draw at the 2009 US Open to beat Federer in the final, but that’s another story.
At the 2012 Wimbledon Championships, defending champion Novak Djokovic will start his campaign at the Centre Court against a former top-ranked player, Juan Carlos Ferrer of Spain. While they both have tied their previous two meeting at 1-1, this should be an easy win for Djokovic who had dominated the 2011 season and continued the momentum this year. The Serbian star would find resistance in a projected quarterfinal match against Czech Republic’s Tomas Berdych. The latter has made it as far as the Wimbledon final in 2010 and has no problems playing in grasscourts.
Six-time Wimbledon champion Roger Federer should find himself cruising in the first four rounds here at the All England Club. The Swiss star could potentially meet the following the quarterfinals – 13th seed Gilles Simon or 10th-seeded John Isner. Isner might meet against Nicolas Mahut in the second round again this year and for tennis fans everywhere, it is well-known incident that the two played the longest-ever match in tennis history at Wimbledon 2010, where it took them three days to finish the match with Isner winning the fifth set tiebreaker at 70-68.
Eighth-seeded Janko Tipsarevic faces the toughest opponent in the first round – against Queen’s Club finalist David Nalbandian. Nalbandian has had success here in Wimbledon – reaching the final in the past and might cause an upset in the draw.
Second-seeded Rafael Nadal and fourth-seeded Andy Murray are on course to meet in the semifinals as they are both in the bottom half of the draw. Nadal, the two-time winner of this grasscourt slam, will have no problems in his first two rounds but could find trouble in the third round against German Philipp Kohlschreiber. Kohlscreiber defeated Nadal in his first grasscourt tournament since winning the 2012 Roland Garros last week in Halle. Nadal’s road to the final will be tough with a potential quarterfinal match against last year’s semifinalst Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Tsonga will have to play well in his first round match though since he faces 2002 champion Lleyton Hewitt of Australia.
British hope Andy Murray is aiming to improve from his semifinal finishes in the past three years at the All England Club. He will face former number four Nikolay Davydenko in the first round and could face fierce serve Ivo Karlovic in the second. He may meet big serving stars such as Milos Raonic of Canada or Maric Cilic of Croatia. Murray could also meet three-time Wimbledon finalist Andy Roddick in the third round.
Analysts predict a blockbuster semifinal encounters between Federer vs Djokovic and Nadal vs Murray with the Wimbledon 2012 Men’s Singles Championships title match to feature Roger Federer vs Rafael Nadal. With an added inspiration to win his 7th Wimbledon title – Federer is favored to win this tournament. Who do you think will win?
