Wimbledon Predictions

I'm a little behind the eight ball due to the extended holiday weekend. We are already well into the second round of Wimbledon and I haven't even posted about my predictions. On the women's side, with Serena Williams still out on maternity leave, the tournament is wide open. Two past winners who would be expected to be favorites, Venus Williams and Petra Kvitova, are both coming into the fortnight with off-the-court issues. Venus was involved in a fatal car crash here in the States just before the tourney and Kvitova is recovering from injuries she sustained in a home invasion robbery/attack. Another normal favorite would also be Victoria Azarenka, but she has just returned to action from her maternity leave. Angie Kerber has regained some of her form that made her #1 last year but still seems a little fragile and grass is not the surface for the second-seeded Simona Halep.

No one even mentioned Jelena Ostapenko as even a contender in the French, which she won. I think the same pattern holds here at Wimbledon. Venus and Kvitova are in the same section of the draw but I think Venus will find refuge on the court this week and be able to fight her way to the final. On the top half, I think Coco Vandeweghe's game sets up perfectly for this surface and she will be able to fall back on her success here last year and push through to the finals. Prediction: Vandeweghe beats Venus in an all-American final that goes the distance.

On the men's side, this tournament looks far different from the French Open just a few weeks ago where everyone, correctly, was simply ready to hand the trophy to Rafa Nadal before the tourney even began. But it's really not that different. For the last fourteen years, Federer, Djokovic, Nadal, or Murray has won this title. It will be no different this year, although each of them is getting more vulnerable. Murray is coming into the tourney with a hip problem; Nadal may be in form but has hardly played any grass court tennis in a couple of years; and Djokovic has had a horrendous season where he seems to have lost his focus and commitment. Meanwhile Federer keeps rolling along and, incredibly, is probably the favorite.

Federer and Djokovic are in the lower half and Nadal and Murray are in the upper. Murray always loves something to complain about so his hip will be the perfect foil, enabling him to actually play better tennis. In what might be better than the final, I'm looking for an inspired Djokovic to beat Federer in a classic 5-set semifinal. Prediction: Djokovic defeats Murray in final in four sets.

At this point, we should also note that we are probably nearing the end of the golden age of tennis, although the late Bud Collins may correct me on this point. Serena Williams is arguably the best female player in history, although the extended era of Court, King, Evert, Navratilova, and Graf may have had more depth. On the men's side, neither the era of the French Four Musketeers in the 1920s nor the Aussie dominance of the 1960s, nor the Borg, Connors, McEnroe, Sampras, Agassi era of the 1970s and 80s had the dominance that these four legends, Federer, Djokovic, Nadal, and Murray have managed to show over the last decade and a half. And as all of them enter the twilight of their careers, we all should recognize just how good we've had it watching their excellence since the turn of the century.