The new edition of Wimbledon starts on Monday, July 2nd and it is Spain’s Garbine Muguruza who is the defending champion. The biggest story heading into the Championships is that Serena Williams is not only making her return to the grass courts of SW19 but she has, to the chagrin of other players, been seeded (albeit down in 25th). That didn’t go down too well after having spent over a year away from the game and subsequently having had her rankings drop.
It is Simona Halep, who won her first career Grand Slam title this year at the French Open, who goes as the top seed. But it is Petra Kvitova who has been backed into 9/2 favouritism* (betting odds taken from July 1st, 2018 at 6:05 pm) ahead of the tournament.
Women’s Wimbledon 2018 WInner Odds*
Petra Kvitova 9/2
Serena Williams 6/1
Garbine Muguruza 8/1
Angelique Kerber 12/1
Simona Halep 14/1
Karolina Pliskova 16/1
Sloane Stephens 16/1
Madison Keys 16/1
Caroline Wozniacki 20/1
Maria Sharapova 201/
Elina Svitolina 25/1
Ashleigh Barty 28/1
Venus Williams 40/1
Jelena Ostapenko 40/1
Magdalena Rybarikova 40/1
Naomi Osaka 40/1
Bar 50/1
* (betting odds taken from bet365 on July 1st, 2018 at 6:05 pm)
Top 8 Seeds
Simona Halep
Caroline Wozniacki
Garbine Muguruza
Sloane Stephens
Elina Svitolina
Caroline Garcia
Karolina pliskova
Petra Kvitova
Serena Williams
Let’s start with the inclusion of Williams who enters as the 25th seed and she has ended up in the bottom quarter of the draw. In her section, she will be opposed by fifth seed Elina Svitolina and 10th seed Madison Keys. Williams made her Grand Slam reappearance at the French Open this year and she exited in the fourth round. She was always going to need some time to work her way back to the top but she is going to be a dangerous floater.
She is a seven-time Wimbledon champion let’s not forget, and won the 2015 and 2016 edition before stepping away in 2017. Her seeding means that she won’t get to face another seeded player until the third round and the draw hasn’t been all that unkind to her really. The first seed she could meet is Elina Svitolina. Svitolina has never won on grass and Williams has a 4-1 head to head lead over the Ukrainian.
There is still a lack of game time behind Williams and her Wimbledon challenge but she could start to play her way into form. We are unsure about her going all the way on her comeback, however at 13/8 odds to win the fourth quarter* (betting odds taken from July 1st, 2018 at 6:05 pm) that will have some appeal, because as mentioned, it hasn’t been all that bad of a draw for her. Really beyond Svitolina in the quarter, it is only the potential challenges from Madison Keys and Caroline Wozniacki that Williams looks to really have to worry about.
Simona Halep
The pressure will be off the shoulders of the Romanian after finally making that breakthrough in getting her first ever Grand Slam title. She did that at Roland Garros earlier in the summer. There has been nothing wrong with her form this season at all with a couple of titles to her name and a 36/6 match to take into Wimbledon with her. She has bowed out of Wimbledon at the quarter finals stage in the last two years though and he best ever run at the tournament was a semi-final appearance in 2014. It’s not her best surface but she is the top seed but with a potentially tricky draw ahead as Jo Konta is in her section and there are big threats like Petra Kvitova, Maria Sharapova and Jelena Ostapenko in her quarter.
Caroline Wozniacki
Wozniacki got her second title of the year recently as the Dane collected a grass court title at Eastbourne. That will put her in good stead for her Wimbledon challenge but she has a pretty poor track record at Wimbledon really, never ever having made it past the fourth round. But then she did go out and win this year’s Australian Open with little form in recent seasons there. She has a decent enough chance of making it the fourth round again because the draw has been favourable to her. Any rounds beyond that will be bonuses.
Garbine Muguruza
The Spaniard is, without question, the best grass court player around. She has yet to pick up a title on the tour this season, which is a little surprising. She gets an opener against Britain’s Naomi Broady so won’t have the crowd behind her. Another interesting stat about the Spaniard is that Muguruza has never before managed to successfully defend a title. With that said she should be a lock for the fourth round where the dangerous Daria Kasatkina (who has beaten Muguruza this year) could be waiting. Loves a good Wimbledon performances does the Spaniard and overall, looking at the draw she isn’t bad value at all to win outright.
Johanna Konta
She is one of the better players on the Tour on grass and maybe that will help her string something positive together here. She went to the final of Nottingham recently and failed to deliver and then was stopped in a high profile clash with Caroline Wozniacki at Eastbourne. Konta made a great run to the semi finals of Wimbledon last year through sheer grit and determination. We can’t quite see her getting back to that stage and the draw won’t help her.
Petra Kvitova
Kvitova has been one of the stand-out performers on the WTA this season with five titles to her name and she is a former winner of Wimbledon as well. She collected the title in 2011 and in 2014 and she looks to be in pretty good shape to launch another assault in this one. She is at 15/8 odds* (betting odds taken from July 1st, 2018 at 6:05 pm) to win the first quarter. No-one is going to want to face her and she is going to have time to work her way into this tournament with a nice draw ahead through the first few rounds.
1st Quarter
This is a congested battle in the first quarter because you have Petra Kvitova, Simona halep, Maria Sharapova, Johanna Konta and Jelena Ostapenko there. So at the end of the day you are going to have to try and pick a semi-finalists out of that. Out of them, we do see Halep and Kvotiva having the easiest runs to the fourth round to set themselves up with a good chance. We are going to roll with Kvitova because she delivers on grass and has massive form.
2nd Quarter
We like Garbine Muguruza for the second quarter because while there are some tough battlers in this section, like Belinda Bencic, Naomi Osaka and Caroline Garcia, we are going to roll with the experience of Muguerza to come through and take the quarter. The biggest threat we can actually see to her is Daria Kasatkina and the youngster is raising her stock all the time. Kasatkina got the better of her opponent in both meetings this season. There is an each way appeal at 12/1* (betting odds taken from July 1st, 2018 at 6:05 pm) on Kasatkina coming through and topping this quarter.
3rd Quarter
All of the tournament’s big threats that we can see are in the top half of the draw. Sloane Stephens heads up the third quarter as 3/1 favourite* (betting odds taken from July 1st, 2018 at 6:05 pm) with Karolina Pliskova hot on her heels. This should be a pretty competitive quarter as Venus William, Julia Goerges, Victoria Azarenka and impressive youngster Aryna Sabalenka is in there. This is a tough one to call, but we are going to roll with Sloane Stephens to hold form together better on the grass.
4th Quarter
Serena Williams heads up the fourth quarter. It’s still hard to judge where she is at because of so little tennis behind her. But the draw ahead for her sees Williams open against No.107 Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands and then she would move on to face either No.136 Viktoriya Tomova or No.167 Tereza Smitkova in the second round. So there is room in this for her to open with and ease her way into things, instead of having been a wildcard and pitted against a top seed. In the third round, she would be Magdalena Rybarikova or Madison Keys. You would have to imagine that she can handle that and then there could be Wozniacki to come in the quarters.
Predictions
We can’t put a lot of stock in Serena Williams going all the way. There just hasn’t been enough games under her belt to suggest that she is going to withstand the rigours of two weeks at Wimbledon. This year’s US Open has to be a more serious target for her. So if not Williams then who? The top quarter is going to be such a slog that we can see whoever prevails there, going all the way. We are rolling with 2/1 odds at bet365* (betting odds taken from July 1st, 2018 at 6:05 pm) on the Wimbledon winner being whoever wins that 1st Quarter.
If you are looking at form this season, if you are looking at the proven track record on grass, then we can’t look past the 15/8 odds on Petra Kvitova To Reach The Final* (betting odds taken from bet365 on July 1st, 2018 at 6:05 pm). Our big underdog for the tournament is Daria Kasatkina who is 12/1 odds to win that second quarter* (betting odds taken from July 1st, 2018 at 6:05 pm).
