Week one at Wimbledon: SW19 a graveyard for women’s seeds
Published:There was always going to be a new name engraved on the women’s Wimbledon trophy, as Marion Bartoli retired soon after claiming the prize last year.
Had the Frenchwoman decided to extend her career long enough to mount a defence of her title though, it would have been likely she’d have crashed out anyway, as female seeds falling by the wayside has been a common theme throughout the first week of the tournament.
Of the 32 seeds to start, just 12 remain as the Grand Slam heads into the fourth round, with both of the top two no longer participating.
Serena Williams lost in the third round to Alize Cornet (something we predicted would happen prior to the start of the event) while Li Na was dumped out at the same stage.
The American’s loss makes Maria Sharapova the new favourite to claim the title with Ladbrokes, something you can back at 5/2, with number six seed Petra Kvitova (the woman we picked to capitalise on a Williams-less Wimbledon) second in the market at 4/1.
In the men’s competition, the “Big Four” are all through to the second week at SW19, with Novak Djokovic given favouritism to lift the trophy at 7/4.
However, he has a tough fourth-round tie against 14-seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to overcome next (a match he’s still well-fancied to win at 1/9) while all of his three rivals face opponents seeded 20 or lower.
In Nadal’s case, he’s through to the second week at Wimbledon for the first time in three years and has the kindest tie of the four, against wildcard Nick Kyrgios from Australia.
The Spaniard is 1/20 to prevail in that encounter and could set-up a quarter-final clash with Milos Raonic if he prevails.
Unlike the women, all of the top five seeds are still battling it out to be Wimbledon champion and, as we’ve stated before, the winner has historically been one of Djokovic, Nadal, Roger Federer or Andy Murray in recent times.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
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