Wimbledon 2012 Preview

Wimbledon is regarded as the home of tennis. Taking place at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club between 25th June and 8th July this will be the 126th championship and it's now 76 years since Fred Perry became the last English player to lift the coveted trophy.

That is a long time of hurt for the Brits.

Andy Murray is regarded as the UK's greatest and only hope to amend this. But with the likes of Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal competing at this year's competition, once again it seems like they are going to have to keep on waiting.

Last year's winner, Djokovic, has been drawn to possibly meet six-time champion Federer in the semi-finals, who opens up against Albert Ramos of Spain. Nadal, who has won the championship twice, will first meet the Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci and if everything goes to plan will face Scotland's Murray in the semis.

Novak, Rafael, Roger and Andy are the top four ranked players in the world and it seems like most people are picking their favourite from this ensemble. Which is probably the best bet, but who might be able to cause an upset in South London over the next fortnight?

Competition is actually quite rife at this years championships. David Ferrer of Spain has never excelled at Wimbledon, since 2003 he hasn't got past the 4th Round. But having reached the quarter-final and semi-final at Australia and France, respectively already in 2012, his confidence will probably bit a little higher than usual.

Jo-Wilfred Tsonga has always proved to be a formidable opponent at the event and was unlucky to lose in the quarter-finals of the 2012 French Open in five sets to Djokovic, despite holding 4 match point in the 4th set.

Tomas Berdych and Juan Martin del Potro have each cemented their place in the top 10 of the ATP standings in 2012 too, but it would take a monumental effort for them to defeat the behemoths who are ranked above them.

On the women's side of the draw, Maria Sharapova has been awarded the top seed for the first time and her main rivals will come in the shape of Serena Williams, her sister Venus and last year's winner Petra Kvitova, but neither of the trio have been in good form over the last few months. Let's just hope that Maria continues to grunt profusely so that we can simply lean back, close our eyes and dream sordid thought.