Wimbledon 2022- Previews for both Men’s and Women’s Tournaments

The world’s greatest tournament, Wimbledon 2022 starts on Monday and for the first time in three years there will be capacity crowds at the fortnight in SW19.

This year will also mark the first year the Championships are set to take place for a full duration of 14 days, with play on the middle Sunday added to the permanent schedule for the first time.

The Sunday of the final day of the tournament will also mark the Centre Court Centenary, celebrating 100 years of the iconic venue at its current location on Church Road.

The Men’s Singles event as ever will be hotly contested with Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic seeded one and two.

Number two seed Nadal, who after last month’s 14^th Roland Garros win, is just one behind Serena Williams with 22 Grand Slam titles to his name.

The Spaniard has already won Wimbledon three times and will be aiming for win number four. He comes into the tournament on the back of some injury issues regarding his foot, but at the weekend he announced he will be playing and is gunning for another title.

Djokovic is another player in the hunt for another Grand Slam singles title after winning Wimbledon last year for the sixth time.

The Serb will be looking to win his fourth consecutive Wimbledon singles title and gain one Slam back on Nadal after a 2022 season that has seen him face issues off the court.

Both players will be looking over their shoulder with the name of Italy’s Matteo Berrettini in their thoughts.

Last years beaten finalist is in the form of his life and last week won the prestigious Queens Club Championships in London and loves playing on grass.

Carlos Alcarez is another young player who is making a big breakthrough in the tennis world, but has played very little tennis on grass.

Polish player Hubert Hurkacz has produced some good results this season, including winning the Halle Open.

The likes of Felix Auger- Aliassime, Casper Rudd and Stefanos Tsitsipas are names that spring to mind who could go far in the tournament.

Home favourite Andy Murray has been in excellent form leading up to Wimbledon., reaching the semi-finals of two grass court events recently in the past two weeks. However, the Brit has recently been struggling with an abdominal injury that forced him out of Queens where he has been a five time champion.

In the women’s event the crowds at SW19 will be awaiting the appearance of Serena Williams in what already appears to be the most open women’s Wimbledon Championships for many a year.

The seven time champion opted for a wild card for this year’s championships. Williams hasn’t played a competitive  singles match between last year’s Wimbledon after withdrawing through injury in the first round- and this year’s championships.

She did feature at Eastbourne last week where she teamed up with Ons Jabeur in the doubles event. Could this be the fairy tale year for the return of Williams to land Grand Slam singles title number 24.?

Current defending champion Ash Barty is enjoying retirement, so another name will be engraved on the trophy in two weeks’ time.

As many as six Russians and Belarussians, who would have been seeded, have been denied the chance top compete this year due to the troubles between Russia and Ukraine.

Last year’s US Open runner up Leylah Fernandez from Canada is another player who won’t be appearing due to a stress fracture in her foot.

One name though stands out above everybody else and that is Iga Swiatek. The Worlds current number one made it 35 wins in a row after winning the recent French Open earlier this month.

She hasn’t lost a match since mid-February and has wrapped up no less than six titles in a row on the WTA Tour.

Although she has yet to win a grass court tournament on the main tour, she is a former junior champion in SW19.

American Coco Gauff reached her maiden Grand Slam fibnal in Paris before losing to Swiatek. She has also reached the last 16 at Wimbledon in both her previous appearances.

Ons Jabeur suffered a shock first round exit at Roland Garros, but knows how to perform on grass. She successfully defended her grass court title in Birmingham and last year knocked out Swiatek at Wimbledon before losing at the quarter-final stage.

Latvian Jelena Ostapenka and last years Wimbledon runners up Karolina Pliskova has plenty of grass court experience with the 30-year-old also expected to go well.

Great Britian’s Emma Raducanu has struggled for form since her stunning victory at the US Open last September. Since then she has reached two quarter-finals while losing 14 of her 24 competitive matches.

Twelve months ago Raducanu reached the fourth round stage of Wimbledon as a wild card entry. With the British public getting fully behind her, this may well be the time we see Raducanu back to her best.

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