With just one more match left to cap off another eventful tournament at the All-England Club, let’s take a quick breather and take a quick look back at some of the best moments that Wimbledon 2015 had offered. The ATP’s “Big Four” and Serena Williams will definitely be in the mix, along with a couple of disappointments and one surprising entry.
And even though this year’s Wimbledon is coming to an end, have another helping of that all-white tennis action by reliving some of the greatest matches throughout the history of the famed event. Head on over to our special feature on the Best Wimbledon Matches of All-Time.
[sc:TennisArticles ]Five Incredible Storylines from Wimbledon 2015
Djokovic-Federer at Wimbledon: The Rubber Match
Get ready for another battle between the two best tennis players in the world, literally.
World No. 1 Novak Djokovic faces off against World No. 2 Roger Federer for the third straight year at the Wimbledon final. These two men are going head-to-head for the 40th time in their respective careers, with Federer holding a one-game advantage over Djokovic with a record of 20-19.
[sc:Other240banner ]And as if things could not get any tighter between the Serb and the Swiss, both men have one win over the other at Wimbledon, and both of their encounters were settled at the final round no less. Djokovic is the most recent victor, having won in five grueling sets this past 2014. Federer, meanwhile, won his first match at the All England Club against Djokovic in four sets back in 2013.
Could this be the year (and probably the best and last shot) that Federer gets his record-breaking eighth Wimbledon Title? Not if Djokovic, a -130 favorite to win in London has anything to say about it and bag his third title at Wimbledon, and ninth ATP major title of his own impressive career.
Serena Williams Won the Ladies’ Singles Title (of Course She Did)
Utter domination. That’s been Serena Williams’ calling this season, as it has been for the better part of the past few years. But what exactly does her latest win at the All England Club bring to the table of her already fabled career? Try 21st career WTA Grand Slam title, sixth career Wimbledon title, and fourth consecutive Grand Slam title.
More importantly, she’ll be one U.S. Open victory away from becoming the first tennis player in history to win all four Grand Slam tournaments in the same calendar year since Steffi Graf did it back in 1988. That goes without saying that not even one member of the ATP’s “Big Four” in Djokovic, Federer, Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal has accomplished a single season Grand Slam at all.
Williams is simply bulldozing through the women’s division, and there seems to be nobody who could stop her in her path towards going down in history as the best women’s tennis player of all-time. All Serena’s doing now is putting more icing on her career’s cake, and it seems as if she’s not crashing from that sugar rush from title after sweet title anytime soon.
Nada Wimbledon Title for Nadal
The grass at the All England Club isn’t as green as it used be in the eyes of Rafael Nadal. After a poor showing at the French Open (by far Nadal’s favorite Grand Slam tournament), he followed that lackluster performance with another embarrassing early exit at Wimbledon.
The Spaniard was off to a good start in the first round by defeating Italian Simone Bolelli in straight sets, but ran into Dustin Brown in the second round and lost in four sets. Brown seems to always have Nadal’s number, as the 30-year old German is undefeated in his two career matches against the two-time Wimbledon champion.
But the loss says a lot less about Brown’s domination over Nadal than Nadal’s recent competitive free-fall in and of itself. Nadal has not won a title at the All England Club since 2010, and has failed to get past the fourth round of Wimbledon for the past four years. It will be interesting to see if he can find his majors winning form at the upcoming U.S. Open, an event he last won in 2013.
Just because Wimbledon is over doesn’t mean that you can’t create a betting account now and place bets on all the upcoming tennis events and more.
There’s More Gasquet Left in the Tank
The gentlemen’s semifinal draw looked a whole lot like what we should’ve expected: three “Big Four” members and one outsider. And no, that one other competitor was not defending French Open champion Stan Wawrinka or any of the other top 10 elite. That would be France’s very own Richard Gasquet.
Gasquet entered the tournament as the 21st seed, and did what was expected of him by beating two unknowns in Luke Saville and Kenny De Schepper (both in straight sets all the more). Most expected his third round opponent, 11th-seed Grigor Dimitrov to oust him from the tournament, but Gasquet served another straight-sets victory for the upset.
The 29-year old righty then had a fiery fourth round battle with World No. 26 Nick Kyrgios that went to four sets, which he won to set up his quarterfinal matchup with World No. 4 Stan Wawrinka. The Frenchman took the reigning Roland Garros champion to the distance, and needed an 11-9 fifth set win to seal his spot at the semifinals.
Although Gasquet was handed a straight-set loss at the hands of Djokovic at the semis, his deep run at Wimbledon has got to be one of those watershed moments late in his 13-year professional career. Let’s see if he can bounce back even better from this superb outing at the upcoming ATP tournaments.
Injury Bugging Out
Even with all the great tennis action going down at the All England Club’s Centre Court, there were some unfortunate top-flight casualties that had to bow out of the tournament due to physical illnesses.
World No. 5 and rising ATP star Kei Nishikori was already dealing with a calf injury prior to the start of Wimbledon by having to bow out of his semifinal matchup at the Gerry Weber Open a few weeks prior. Signs of his struggles due to the injury were evident in his first round match at the All England Club, as he needed five sets to defeat Italy’s Simone Bolelli.
Nishikori ultimately had to withdraw from the tournament before the start of his second round match against Santiago Giraldo. Here’s to hoping that the 25-year old Japanese sensation has a speedy and healthy recovery to put on more great tennis matches this season, and for him to have a proper tune-up leading up the the final Grand Slam tournament of the season at the U.S. Open.
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