Wimbledon: Djokovic In Pole Position For Second Triumph

Djokovic If Novak Djokovic had compiled the draw for this year's Wimbledon himself, he couldn't have come up with a kinder one. The three men who could realistically derail the best player on the planet are all in the other half of the draw. Since Lleyton Hewitt's win in 2002 Wimbledon has been won seven times by Federer, twice by Nadal and and two years ago by Djokovic himself. No one else has had a look-in. Following his Olympic Gold at Wimbledon, the US Open triumph last year and his current ranking of number 2 in the world, Andy Murray has a legitimate claim to be considered a contender for the title. But outside these four, forget it. To win a slam you have to beat not just one but at least two of the four big beasts in the tennis jungle over five sets and the fact that del Potro was the last player to accomplish this, in 2009 at the US Open, says it all. What has skewed the draw is Rafa Nadal's fifth seeding this year. Nadal has just won the French Open for an unbelievable eighth time. He decimated fellow Spaniard David Ferrer in the final but because of the way the world rankings are calculated (and because of Nadal's recent seven month injury lay-off ) he went from 4th to 5th in the world and Ferrer went in the opposite direction. It means that in all likelihood, Nadal will meet Roger Federer in the last eight. With seventeen Grand Slam titles Federer has a strong claim to be regarded as the greatest player of all time but in head to head contests the Spaniard leads 20-10. If they both play well Nadal will probably win because he will pound Federer's back hand relentlessly with his awesome top spin forehand and eventually that elegant single handed stroke will begin to malfunction. If all goes according to plan on the home front Murray will have a reasonably smooth passage to the semis. He could meet Tsonga it the last 8, a potentially dangerous opponent, with his huge serve, but one who Murray seems to hammer on a regular basis. Murray would probably prefer to meet Federer rather than Nadal in the semis, despite the tremendous Wimbledon record of the Swiss and the fact that he lost to him in last year's final. Time is catching up with Federer and I think that Murray feels he knows how to beat him. He probably knows how to beat Nadal as well but the feeling persists that Murray is a little bit in awe of Rafa and he needs to overcome this in order to put him away. One man who isn't in awe of Nadal is Novak Djokovic. He came extremely close to unseating the "King of Clay" at Roland Garros two weeks ago and two years ago he dismantled the Spaniard in the final at Wimbledon. You can see the Serb's eyes light up every time Nadal misses his first serve as he steps in to tee off on the Spaniard's second effort. If this is the match-up in the final then Djokovic is a strong favourite. The winner will almost certainly come from one of the four great players who currently dominate the game. To win the title Federer and Nadal may have to beat three of their fellow titans, Murray will have to beat two and the world number one only one. Novak couldn't have planned it better himself. Do you think Djokovic will be triumphant again? Share your thoughts below.
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Anthony Berman hasn't written a bio just yet, but if they had... it would appear here.