We’ve just seen Rafael Nadal prove once again that he’s the King of the Clay Courts at this year’s French Open. Can hometown favorite Andy Murray pull off a similar feat by winning his third Wimbledon title in five years, or will another one of the ATP Tour’s stars rise up to the occasion at the All England Club?
Let’s get to know more about five sleepers that could each make a solid run for the 2017 Wimbledon crown below.
20-year-old Alexander Zverev’s fantastic 2017 campaign almost reached a new high this past week, nearly pulling off an upset over Roger Federer at the Gerry Weber Open.
That goes without saying that the young German has already had success on the courts this year. Three of his four career singles titles were won this season, including a massive victory over Novak Djokovic at the Italian Open. It’s also worth noting that Zverev’s 68-percent career-winning percentage on grass (17-8) is best amongst the three surfaces, which makes him all the more dangerous of an entrant at the All England Club.
Still playing at a high level is World No. 3 Stan Wawrinka, who came close to beating Rafael Nadal at the final round of the French Open for his fourth-career Grand Slam title.
Wawrinka can complete the career Grand Slam if he wins at Wimbledon this month, so you can be certain that the Swiss standout will be as determined as ever. However, his rather mediocre 18-12 lifetime record at the All England Club knocks his value down a bit, which would also explain why he’s merely considered a sleeper pick at the tournament. Then again, he’s made it to the quarterfinal round of Wimby in two of the past three years, so there’s still plenty of upside in siding with “Stan the Man” nonetheless.
Although Nick Kyrgios has stayed away from controversy of late, he’s yet to taste victory this season. That could very well change at Wimbledon, where he has a 10-3 record in three career appearances and has advanced to the fourth round of the tournament or better in all three instances at that.
Kyrgios has a trio of semifinal appearances as his best results this season, but he’s also picked up a couple of outstanding victories along the way. The outspoken Aussie has two wins over Djokovic already, and would’ve given Roger Federer a run for his money at the Indian Wells quarterfinal if he didn’t suffer from an unfortunate bout of food poisoning prior to their match in March.
Most of Grigor Dimitrov’s success this season came in the first two months of the year, with wins over Kei Nishikori at Brisbane and David Goffin in his own home country at the Sofia Open. Since then, however, the 26-year-old Bulgarian has failed to get any consistent results on the clay-court tournaments of the season.
Nonetheless, Dimitrov appears to be back on track given his strong semifinal push at the recently-concluded Aegon Championships in Birmingham. He’s advanced to the third round of Wimbledon in each of the past three years, meaning he’ll definitely be in better shape on the verdant turfs of the All England Club compared to his performances on clay. Dimitrov also secured career-best finishes at the Aussie Open (semis) and the French Open (third round) this 2017, so he’s well in line to improve upon his career-best semifinal finish at Wimby from 2014 just the same.
Similar to Zverev, 23-year-old Dominic Thiem is having a banner year as an rising contender in the ATP Tour. He’s gone an outstanding 22-5 on clay this season, which includes a win at Rio in February. Furthermore, four of Thiem’s five losses on clay were all against heavyweights in Rafael Nadal (thrice) and Djokovic (once).
The upstart Austrian has seen little action on grass, though, having an even 10-10 record on the surface to date. Still, Thiem already has a victory on grass to his credit, winning at Stuttgart last year wherein he even managed to oust grass-court expert Federer in the semifinal round of the tournament in three hard-fought sets.
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