Open Draw

Open Draw

If the men’s side of the draw at Wimbledon is something of a two horse race then the Women’s side is as open as it possibly could be. After Ivanovic’s uncertain performance against outsider Dechy in the last round her odds, according to Blue Square, have lengthened and she now finds herself the second favourite for the tournament behind Sharapova.

Behind those two are the ominous forms of the Williams’ sisters, Serena hasn’t experienced a particularly brilliant start to the tournament, but as long as she and Venus are still in it then they represent a serious threat.

The draw is incredibly open, right down the list you could see anyone winning it, Mauresmo and Davenport find themselves at 40/1* and it is not beyond the realms of possibility that one of them could take a place in the final, they do at least have the experience that a lot of other players on the tour do not.

The departure of Henin from the world game has left a gap that is difficult to fill. She was hardly consistent, but she was incredibly plucky and very successful, towards the back end of her career it was relatively safe to say that if Henin was in the draw she would be one of the favourites, if not the outright favourite, and without her Ivanovic and the others have struggled to mark themselves on the world game in quite the same way.

If you’re into sports betting then, there’s something of an embarrassment of riches. No one knows who’s going to come to the fore, the finally will almost certainly not be played out by the top two favourites, it’s difficult to see everything working out to plan. In truth even the bookies haven’t got an idea who’s going to win so with a fair amount of good luck or judgement, it’s altogether possible that someone with relatively long odds will eventually find themselves lifting the trophy.

I have a feeling that Dementieva will win through, or Mauresmo or Davenport, clustered together as they are at the 40/1* mark. There is such a large number of possible winners in the draw that no one will pay any attention to these relative outsiders, and they all have the pedigree to go far in the tournament. Form going into Wimbledon seems to be relatively unimportant, look at players like Venus Williams and Goran Ivanisevic in relatively recent times who have won the entire thing from absolutely nowhere.

Of course it might be better to just keep hold of your money for a few more rounds until the draw begins to separate itself out a little bit and some sort of current form emerges. The odds will inevitably be less rewarding as the competition goes on, but with the incredible difficulty of predicting what will happen you might just end up keeping hold of your money in the long run.

*All sports betting odds taken from Blue Square. Odds are subject to change.