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Marching to Wimbledon


July 30th 2015, Wimbledon 2015. Andy Murray steps onto center court on Tuesday as one of the two favorites to win the trophy. The other obviously being Novak Djokovic. It is hard to go against these two considering the form they are in heading into this year’s Wimbledon. Although Djokovic was outplayed by Wawrinka at the French Open final, he is by far the best player this season. For Murray, he has been playing well and this has been the best preparation he has ever had coming into this year’s third grand slam tournament. Both Djokovic and Murray are previous winners here in Wimbledon, so they know how to win it all. With both guys on course to meet in the final, Murray might have the slight edge to win this year’s Wimbledon.

Andy Murray was so close to beat Novak Djokovic in the semifinals of the French Open. But, he still comes up short. Murray couldn’t ask for a better clay court season. He won his first ever clay court title at Munich. Then followed up by beating Nadal in Madrid, winning two straight clay court titles before heading to the French Open. Regardless of the defeat, Murray is in the right shape and mind heading into Wimbledon.

Despite suffering massive criticism in hiring a female coach, Murray has been performing well under Amelie Mauresmo. He has done well in recent major tournaments. Apart from the semi-final appearance at Roland Garros, he made it to the final of this year’s Australian Open. Although he has yet to make a significant breakthrough under the guidance of Mauresmo, there is no reason to start thinking of making a change.

The biggest advantage that Murray has is that home crowd. The support that he had that propelled him to victory two years ago, ending Britain’s 77 years wait of a Wimbledon champion. With a much more polished game this time around, expectations are high on him to win his second Wimbledon title and surely, we won’t be seeing another poor performance like the one he had against Dimitrov in the quarter-finals during last year’s tournament.

For most people, Novak Djokovic will be the favorite heading into this year’s Wimbledon. Not only that he is the defending champion, he has been in terrific form this year, capturing five titles in Melbourne, Indian Wells, Miami, Monte Carlo, and Rome. It is interesting to see how well he will perform after that loss in Paris. Despite that, expect Djokovic to play well at this year’s tournament. Without any surprise, we should see him in the final.

It is hard to bet against these two to win the title. But ultimately, Andy Murray might be the more prepared one to win this time. And, the last time Murray won in 2013, he beat Djokovic in the final. Another interesting fact to that, Djokovic has never beaten Murray on grass. In fact, they only met twice on grass. Murray won on both occasions, the other meeting being the final of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games.

Despite the grass being Federer’s most dominant surface, you just sense that age is catching up on Federer’s chances of winning yet another grand slam title. For Nadal, he is still on his way back to top form after spending more than half of the year away from the tennis courts. The grass might not be the surface defending French Open champion Stan Wawrinka loves. Last year’s quarter-final appearance was the best he had ever achieved.

It will take a monumental effort for the other guys not named Djokovic or Murray to win this year’s title. Both guys will be marching to Wimbledon full of confidence knowing that this could be the best shot to add another Wimbledon to their trophy cabinet.

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