If you ask any male or female tennis player the one tournament they would like to win, more often that not, the answer is Wimbledon. Held at All England Club every June it is the only Grand Slam event in Tennis held on grass and has been in existence since 1877.
Wimbledon has been the scene of major shock over the years. Richard Krajicek surprised everyone to win the Men’s singles in 1996 whilst Goran Ivanesivic became the first wildcard to win it in 2001. Maria Sharapova and Boris Becker have also surprises the bookmakers by winning the event at extremely young ages.
That said, recent winners, particularly in the men’s championship, have seen market principals flourish. In fact, no player outside of the ‘Big Four’ of Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal or Andy Murray has won the event since 2002. The female competition is less predictable with five different winners in the last six years. Serena Williams has been successful six times since 2002.
Firstly, Form is crucial. Before placing any bets you should check on the well-being of your selection. Out of form players rarely do well at leading events and neither do players that may be carrying a knock.
It also important to remember not to read to much into seedings. A player may be seeded 18 but on a downward spiral and totally out of form. Conversely, a number 30 seed may be experiencing somewhat of a rejuvenation after some time out of injury and be flying up the rankings. This was the case with last year’s winner, Djokovic.
It is also worth noting that big servers like Wimbledon. With this in mind many sets are tight and go to tie-breaks. A bet on a large amount of games in what looks a tight match is often advisable.
You will make very little money betting on the top seeds in a straight match bet in the early stages of Wimbledon. It is not uncommon to find players are odds of 1/100 (-10,000, 1.01). That said, you can find some match-ups in the early stages that are evenly poised.
To add value to your bet it may be beneficial to dabble in set betting. In these markets you predict the final score and you can inflate the price of an odds-on favourite by predicting on them winning 3-0, 3-1 or 3-2. You can also bet on a number of specials markets and if you believe your player will dominate proceedings from start to finish you could bet on them to win, hit most aces and least double faults in an enhanced treble.
Other popular markets include game betting, set betting, handicap betting and will there be a tie break?
Each of the singles competitions begins with 128 players. Each player is just seven wins from tennis immortality. As previously mentioned their is a seedings format. This means that the alleged best players do not meet until the latter stages of the competition. However, this is not always the case whilst some top seeds tend to fall early. Court 2 is known for this and is known as the “Graveyard of Champions”. Serena Williams and Pete Sampras have both experienced this.
