Wimbledon tennis trends: 13 key trends

Tennis
24.06.2013 10:00
Posted by: csabax
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The 2013 Wimbledon championship is the third tennis major of the year and, with its tricky grass surface, is widely considered the showpiece event for the world’s greatest players. In fact, a current or previous World No. 1 has won 57% of championships at SW19. Read more about this and 12 other Wimbledon trends since 1969.

4 – Players have followed French Open win with Wimbledon title

Four players have followed their French Open win by claiming a Wimbledon title in the same year – Rod Laver (1969), Bjorn Borg (1978, 79, 80), Rafael Nadal (2008, 2010) and Roger Federer (2009).

Nadal continued his dominance of the French Open by beating David Ferrer 3-0 earlier this year. Can the Spaniard win back-to-back majors? Pinnacle Sports are offering Nadal as the 4.150* second favourite to lift the Wimbledon title.

5 – Years since a successful title defence

Roger Federer will be hoping to become the only player to defend his Wimbledon title in the last five years. Pinnacle Sports offer odds of 6.380* for him to do so.

Eight players have defended their Wimbledon title in the modern era (since 1968). Rod Laver defended his title first in 1968 and 69, while Federer was the ,most recent to do so from 2003-2007.

7 – Federer on the brink

Federer and Pete Sampras are the most successful men’s single players in Wimbledon history with seven titles apiece. Federer can overtake Sampras by claiming victory again this year. But after a smashing by Tsonga in the French Open, can the Swiss ace do it?

7 (again) – First major won at SW19

Seven players have won their first tennis major at Wimbledon – Boris Becker (1985), Pat Cash (1987), Michael Stich (1991), Andre Agassi (1992), Richard Krajcek (1996), Goran Ivanisevic (2001) and Roger Federer (2003).

With two semi-final appearances in his last two years at Wimbledon, Jo Wilfried Tsonga 22.760* could be best placed to win his first major this time around.

8 – Grass courts prepared to precision

Wimbledon is the only tennis major to be played on grass. Each court is prepared with precision in mind, so every blade of grass on each court is a regulation 8mm. (To read more about how the grass affects ATP players, click here.)

15 – Americans most successful

In the Open era Americans have been the most successful nation at Wimbledon with 15 men’s singles titles. However, an American hasn’t won at Wimbledon since Pete Sampras took the title in 2001. Sam Query 373.240* and John Isner 213.740* are long shots to win in 2013.

17 – Becker youngest winner

In 1985 Boris Becker burst onto the world tennis scene with a victory against Kevin Curren at Wimbeldon aged just 17. His win ensured he is the youngest player to win at SW19, and also made him the first un-seeded player to win at Wimbledon.

57% – Of winners have been World Number One

Despite 11 of the 19 winners since 1967 having been ranked at World No. 1 at some point of their career, the Open Era features a mix of champions. Three champions reached a career high of World No. 2, while four others had a career high of World No. 4.

77 years – Wait for a British winner

It has been 77 years since Fred Perry won the Wimbledon singles title. Last year Andy Murray became the only British player to reach a Wimbledon final since 1938, but despite leading 1-0 he lost 3-1 to Rodger Federer. Murray has won a prestigious competition on the surface, however, achieving gold in the London Olympics last year. The Brit is available at 5.190* to break the British Wimbledon curse in 2013.

125 – Lowest ranked winner

In 2001 the loveable rogue Goran Ivanisevic entered Wimbledon as a wildcard and subsequently became the lowest ranked player (125) to win the prestigious event.

148 – Taylor Dent lets one rip

In 2010 American Taylor Dent sent down the fastest ever recorded serve at Wimbledon, which clocked in at a rapid 148mph against this year’s 2.680* favourite Novak Djokovic. After breaking the record, Dent then double-faulted the next point to lose the game in three sets.

212 – Ivanisevic sends down record aces

2011 saw Croatia’s Goran Ivanisevic slam 212 aces to record the most number of aces in one Wimbledon tournament. Interestingly, the average number of aces at Wimbledon (over the past five years) is 9.96%.

665 – Longest game in history

John Isner and Nicolas Mahut produced a marathon first round game in 2010. Isner finally beat Mahut 3-2 in sets after a total of 665 minutes on the court. American Isner won the tie-break 70-68 in a final set that lasted 8 hours 11 minutes. The game saw 193 aces, which is just 19 less than the record set by Ivanisevic in 2001 for the entire tournament.

Click here to see the best Wimbledon outright odds.

(Source: Pinnacle)