It’s nearly July! The sun is shining, the grass court season is well and truly underway, and Wimbledon is just around the corner. At String Sports we love the grass court season! Although we don’t have any of our own grass courts to play on in Glasgow, we can’t wait to watch Wimbledon this year! With the few moments we’ve recently had spare in the shop, we’ve been discussing our Wimbledon predictions for this year.
MENS SINGLES DRAW
The Men’s Singles draw is going to be very difficult to predict. Novak Djokovic will be looking to win his 24th Grand Slam title, and an 8th Wimbledon singles title – equalling Federer’s record of 8 wins. However Djokovic does not intend to play any warm up events before Wimbledon – which may affect his match sharpness on the surface.
Looking to stop Novak are a variety of challengers. As seen in last year's tournament, Nick Kyrgios has the ability on paper to beat anyone in the world. However Kyrgios is a major doubt for the tournament, having played only 1 match since the Australian Open this year; losing out to Yibing Wu in straight sets. Additionally it is yet to be seen whether Kyrgios can maintain a high level for 3 sets against Djokovic - although he has beaten Nadal at Wimbledon!
Alternatively, young star Holger Rune is waiting to make a major mark on a grand slam event; could the young Dane make Wimbledon 2023 his major breakthrough? The youngster is up 2-1 in their H2H; however Djokovic leads 1-0 in grand slam meetings. Rune, although limited in his experience on grass, has been performing well on the grass courts this year – reaching the Queens Club semi-final this week, and recently edging out Andy Murray 6-4,6-4 too.
Finally, keep your eyes peeled for our British players! British Number 1 Cameron Norrie will be seeded as well as Dan Evans, however Andy Murray is likely to narrowly miss out on a seeding. Talented youngster Jack Draper will not be playing Wimbledon due to an injury to his shoulder.
On the Men’s side, we predict that the draw will be more open than usual – most top 10 players do not play their best tennis on the grass – keep an eye out for some early upsets! For example Tsitsipas, Rublev, Tiafoe and Medvedev have never passed the 4th round, Ruud has never passed the 2nd round, Fritz and Sinner have made a quarterfinal each and Alcaraz is relatively new to grass court tennis. Lower ranked players such as Hubert Hurkacz and Alex De Minaur are both in great form and will be looking to continue this into the Championships to cause some upsets.
LADIES SINGLES DRAW
On the Ladies side of the tournament, we expect an exciting draw! With world number 1 Iga Swiatek sharing that she feels least comfortable on grass courts, and world number 2 Aryna Sabalenka recording her best results on hard courts, there is no clear favourite. Last year’s winner Elena Rybakina will be looking to retain her maiden Grand Slam title this year. This year the Kazakhstani has already won 2 WTA 1000 titles whilst also reaching the Australian Open final this year – Rybakina is in the form of her career! However a recent illness has thrown her participation into doubt, we hope she recovers in time as we love watching her tennis!
Other notable players to watch include Coco Gauff – a consistent grand slam performer in the past 12 months, Ons Jabeur – last year’s Wimbledon runner up, and 2 time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, who is in a rich vein of form after a great week on the grass courts of Berlin: winning the German Open.
Another exciting area of the Ladies Singles is the number of British Ladies in this year’s draw. There will be a minimum of 6 Brits – Katie Boulter, Harriet Dart, Jodie Burrage, Katie Swan, Sonay Kartal and Heather Watson – with potentially even more featuring in the main draw through qualifying! British players often feel naturally more comfortable on grass, and it’s also common for our British Players to spend longer preparing for the grass court season than the rest of the tour!
Keep a particular eye on Harriet Dart and Jodie Burrage – who have both enjoyed some great wins on the grass so far. Meanwhile Katie Boulter will be looking to extend her reign as British Number 1 with a strong performance at SW19.
Elsewhere...
Outside of the 2 singles draws, there will loads of great tennis to watch! Keep an eye on Alfie Hewett and Glasgow's own Gordon Reid, who will play together in the Wheelchair Doubles draw and also compete in the singles draw. Lucy Shuker will represent Great Britain in the Ladies Wheelchair Singles.
The doubles draws will again be filled with more homegrown representation. On the men's side key pairings to look out for will be Liam Broady and Jonny O'Mara, Julian Cash and Luke Johnson, and recent title winners Johannus Monday and Jacob Fearnley. The Ladies Doubles draw will feature Maia Lumsden and Naiktha Bains as well as an exciting partnership of Heather Watson and Harriet Dart!
The 2023 Wimbledon Championships begin on Monday July 3rd - and culminate two weeks later on Sunday the 16th of July! Keep an eye on our website and socials for some Wimbledon themed surpises!