Andy Murray handed no favours in thorny 2015 Wimbledon draw
Published:
A few cliches are likely to leave Andy Murray’s mouth when he’s first asked about his Wimbledon draw. “You have to beat the best to win” and “there are no easy matches” are likely to be two of the stronger candidates, after the Scot landed in the same half as both Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.
Although he had the fortune of avoiding world number one and kryptonite opponent Novak Djokovic, who he can’t meet until the final, the 2013 champion’s luck ended there.
Murray, who is 5/2 to win a second SW19 title, will play Mikhail Kukushkin in his opening round match, but then has banana-skin ties throughout the rest of his stay in London, should he progress.
Potential opponents between the second round and the semis include Robin Haase, Andreas Seppi, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, David Ferrer or Nadal and Federer.
Djokovic, the 5/4 favourite with Ladbrokes, has a tricky opening tie against German Phillipp Kohlschreiber, who pushed Federer close in their recent grass-court clash at Halle, then a possible second-round tussle with crowd favourite Lleyton Hewitt to negotiate.
6/1-shot Federer, a potential quarter-final opponent for out-of-form number-six seed Tomas Berdych, rates the big winner of the draw. His first real test is likely to come in a potential semi-final clash against Murray.
The story of the women’s draw sees the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena, as potential last-16 opponents.
Serena, the 7/4 favourite to win the title, not only fell in the same half of the draw as her elder sister, but also Lucie Safarova, her recent French Open final opponent, Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic.
That lop-sided section means the bottom half could be the place to pick from, where numbers two and three seeds, Petra Kvitova and Simona Halep stand at 7/2 and 16/1 shots respectively.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
Fancy a flutter? Sign up today to claim up to £25 in free bets.
