By Antony Jordan
It’s that time of the year – strawberries & cream, yum and some tennis
Although there is almost two weeks to go before the start of the most famous and prestigious event on the tennis calendar the grass court season is well underway and now is a great time to get early prices on the victor of the 2015 WTA Wimbledon tournament. We’re taking a look at some of the biggest threats to Petra Kvitova’s title in SW19, as well as our favourite dark horses, with online sportsbook Unibet.com but where do we see the early value? Early look at Wimbledon 2015 picks.
Serena Williams (Odds of 2.88 to win Wimbledon)
It has only be weeks since Williams claimed the French Open title after a thrilling match against a spirited Lucie Safarova at Roland Garros and the world number one, who has stats of 32 wins and just a single defeat in 33 matches this year, can claim to once again have all four Grand Slam titles in her possession with her sixth title in South West London surrounded by almost countless amounts of strawberries and cream. Exactly one quarter of her 20 Grand Slam titles have come at Wimbledon so she is more than capable of taking this title again and, as she showed in Paris, she has learnt lessons from recent years so she will be hoping to make her first final in three years on these luscious grass courts. If she makes it to the final her dominating record against all other players on the tour means that she is sure to snag her 21st Grand Slam trophy this summer too. (hiboost.com) Can we afford to turn down Williams at better than evens odds to win?
Petra Kvitova (Can be backed at 4.50 to retain her Wimbledon title with Unibet.com):
Champion in these parts of London in 2011 and again last year the 25 year old Czech has had her best experiences in Grand Slam events at Wimbledon. She has reached the Quarter Finals or better of the biggest tournaments on the WTA Tour only eight times and five of these have come in her last five appearances at the third Grand Slam of the year. She has never reached the final of a Grand Slam outside of these grass courts so she has the perfect game for this competition and with her recording her first win over Williams in Madrid on clay this year so should be face Williams on grass for the first time since this competition in 2012 she will certainly believe she can win and take a third Wimbledon title on her favoured surface.
Maria Sharapova (9.00 to win the 2015 Wimbledon title):
It has been a long time since the Russian world number four lifted the Wimbledon title when she defeated Serena Williams 6-1, 6-4 eleven years ago, which is half of her victories against the American in 19 meetings, and she has not had the best of times in SW19 since then. She reached the final four stage in 2005 and 2006, but her only appearance after round four since then saw her beaten by Kvitova in 2011. She was beaten by Williams in the Australian Open Final at the start of the year and was beaten by eventual finalist Lucie Safarova in round four at Roland Garros too so we certainly see Sharapova deserving of being the outsider for this title and we cannot see her getting past Williams at any stage of the tournament having lost 17 of 19 matches against the world number one.
Dark Horses:
World number three Simona Halep (18.00) will be looking to bounce back from her disappointment at the French Open where she fell at the second round after reaching the final last year and with her upset by beaten finalist Eugenie Bouchard at the final four stage at Wimbledon last year she will feel that this is a perfect place to impress once again.
2013 Wimbledon finalist Sabine Lisicki (21.00) is another dark horse as she has reached the at least the last eight stage in all of her last four appearances in London with 2011 seeing a semi final spot before her she made her first Grand Slam final in 2013 where she was beaten by Marion Bartoli. She has made the news recently by breaking a WTA record of 27 aces in a single match as she defeated Belinda Bencic in Birmingham this week and the German could certainly surprise many people with her performances in SW19 this summer too.
Final Thoughts:
Having taken a look at the whole picture of those taking part in the 2015 WTA Wimbledon tournament we feel that Serena Williams, the world number one and five time winner of this trophy, is head and shoulders above the rest of the field. Unless the American is injured before or during the competition or there is a superhuman performance from one of the world’s top players we see Williams taking another grass court title.
At odds of 2.88 in the Unibet Sportsbook there is, at least, value on the top player in the world right now and, if you can find somewhere to place each way bets, the reigning champ also offers value in the each way markets too.