Wimbledon glory dependent on Murray upping ante against best

Andy Murray should arrive at Wimbledon brimming with confidence fresh from lifting his fourth Queens Club title, following his best clay court season on record, and arguably never in better shape to win his third Grand Slam.

However, there are a few usual suspects also intent on SW19 glory, well versed at thwarting the Brit at tennis’ blue riband events, and Murray must drastically improve his record against them in Slams, if his name is to be etched on the 2015 trophy.

The Scot’s Grand Slam nemesis in chief is world number one and 5/4 Wimbledon favourite, Novak Djokovic, whose recent French Open semi-final victory over Murray tipped the scales 6-2 in the Serb’s favour.

In fact, Murray’s ongoing Djokovic blind spot stretches to eight clashes (three in Slams) since the world number three scooped his historic Wimbledon crown in 2013.

The Scot is still the 5/2 second favourite to land the SW19 title behind Djokovic and the draw means that the duo cannot meet until the final at SW19.

Murray opens against Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin, an opponent he has defeated in both of their previous meetings.

But as our below graphic spells out in numbers; despite the Queen’s Club champion’s excellent from leading into Wimbledon, Murray must up his game against many of the other top seeds he could potentially collide with on the show courts in the capital.

Versus the other members of the traditional ‘big four’, Murray’s Slam head-to-head record stands at five to 17 in arrears.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.

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