Get your strawberries and cream ready because Wimbledon is set to get underway this Monday night! Here, we take a look at both the men’s and ladies draw and provide our best betting tip for what promises to be an exciting fortnight of tennis!
2022 Wimbledon Futures
Men’s Outright
The tennis gods looked after us all with the men’s draw at Wimbledon this year, with 20-time Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic and 22-time GS winner Rafael Nadal getting drawn in opposite sides of the field, which means there’s a real possibility of them meeting in the final. However, there’s a lot of water to go under the bridge until that has the potential to happen, and Nadal’s recent history at Wimbledon coupled with his fitness struggles make it seem highly unlikely the Spaniard will be able to go the distance. With that said, he’s proven all of us wrong time and time again and he’s impossible to truly write off.
I certainly expect Novak Djokovic to be able to hold up his end of the bargain and to at least reach the final of Wimbledon for the eighth time in his career. The Serb has an impeccable 6-1 record in said finals and comes here having won each of the last three editions of Wimbledon. Last year’s runner-up in Matteo Berrettini is the second favourite in the betting and should be able to make another deep run on his preferred surface, but his lack of match fitness and the vulnerability of his backhand make him hard to tip with any confidence. Instead, it’ll be Novak Djokovic who will be my best bet in the outright market, simply because there aren’t any genuine superstars in the current crop who have the ability to challenge him on grass in a best-of-five-sets format.
Ladies Outright
After winning at odds-on favouritism at the French Open only a few weeks ago, Polish sensation Iga Swiatek is the clear pick in the ladies outright market at Wimbledon. She’s on an incredible 35-match win streak, but hasn’t featured since winning the title at Roland Garros and has played just 12 professional matches on grass (7-5 record) in her young career to date. Taking those factors into consideration, coupled with the form of some of the other top hopes, I just can’t see myself taking the $2.50 price on Swiatek this fortnight.
Instead, I’m setting my sights on the current second pick in the market, which is the Tunisian in Ons Jabeur at around $9 at most bookmakers. Although still yet to breakthrough with a GS title in her career, Jabeur has all the right tools to excel on this surface, which is backed up by her 54-16 career record on grass courts. She achieved her best result at this tournament last year where she reached the quarterfinals and has been gifted the draw to help her go even deeper in 2022. It might take a bit of luck and some incredible tennis to knock off Swiatek this fortnight, but Jabeur is the one for me that is the most likely to do so and go onto win the tournament.
Kyrgios Stage of Elimination
For the first time in a long time, Nick Kyrgios has been dealt a favourable draw at a GS tournament, and it comes at a good time because he’s playing some really good tennis this year. Despite being unseeded, Kyrgios will take on a wildcard in the first round followed by the 26th ranked Filip Krajinovic in the second round, both of whom he should defeat without much fuss. Stefanos Tsitsipas is the Aussie’s projected matchup in the third round, but really struggles on grass and is lacking confidence at the moment, as is his potential fourth round opponent in Dennis Shapovalov who’s riding a six-match losing streak.
If Kyrgios can navigate his way through his first four matches, then he will likely find himself in a quarterfinal matchup with last year’s runner-up in Matteo Berrettini. The Italian possesses similar weapons to the Aussie, but is far more consistent over five sets and he’s the man who I expect to end Kyrgios’ run. It’s certainly a speculative bet, although it should prove to be a fun one to ride over the next week or two.
