Best Wimbledon ever?

Punters will have their work cut out for them picking winners through the early rounds of the Wimbledon men’s draw next week, with a huge number of grass court players on form.

The big four are as dangerous as always, with Djokovic still reigning number 1, Federer and Murray winning the Halle and Queen’s warm up tournaments respectively, and Nadal sounding the war horn by winning the French Open.

But alongside these usual suspects is a list of quite unusual ones.

Veteran Tommy Haas, at 35, is having a renaissance.  He beat Djokovic in Miami in March, made the quarters at Roland Garros, the semi finals at Halle and is currently sitting at number 13 in the rankings.

Along with Haas, the grass has brought favour to other single handed backhand players, whose slices benefit from the amount the ball skids on grass. Youzhny and Gasquet are both trending well, as is youngster Grigor Dimitrov.

Dimitrov could well be the dark horse of this year’s championships. He beat Djokovic in Madrid on what are notoriously fast courts, and has a game well suited to grass. He takes the ball early, close to the baseline, hits flat and loves getting into the net.

While the grass gets slower, harder and bouncier every year owing to changes in the turf, it remains a unique surface, and still advantages net rushing players.

The low bounce of grass means that playing deep in the court is almost impossible as the ball will not carry that far. Net players can exploit this because their volleys will die out before they can be struck for a pass.

Tsonga has taken ample advantage of this in his many solid runs on grass and will doubtless be a strong contender again this year. 

Another to watch is Feliciano Lopez, who loves to slice and volley and packs a monster serve. He made the quarters last year and may well do so again.  

Not to be written off is former champion Leighton Hewitt, who showed off his grass court skills by making the semi-finals at Queens last week. 

In the quarter finals, Hewitt vanquished Del Potro, who shares many similarities with finalist Marin Cilic. Importantly, their forehand grips are not as extreme as those of many modern players, and they are thus somewhat more comfortable handling the low-bouncing grass court ball. 

With so many top quality players hitting form, this may very well be the best Wimbledon ever. Matches will be tight from round 2, and we should see plenty of distinctly grass court play – fast, cagey and brimming with finesse.

Given how much it is slowing down balls and courts across the globe, it’s obvious the ATP thinks fans want to see long drawn out power rallies.

But hopefully the fans can also appreciate someone hitting a forehand off their toes and ghosting forward to the net, because chances are we will be seeing some textbook demonstrations next week.