Wimbledon 2010 Draw Announced

Even before the draw was announced, Roger Federer knew the time and date of his first Wimbledon 2010 match. This because The Championships follow a tradition where the defending champion and top seed gets to open the tournament on Center Court. Thus Federer was only waiting, along with all the other seeds and unseeded players, for the draw to be announced. On Friday, the All England Lawn Tennis club announced the Wimbledon 2010 draw, and let's take a look at how the 4 quarters have panned out.

Wimbledon 2010 Men's Draw

Top Half - Top Quarter
Top seed and defending champion Roger Federer will be in the top quarter of the top half, with 7th seed Nikolay Davydenko at the bottom of the top quarter. This will ensure a quarter final match up between these two, if they both advance to that stage. The other seeds in this quarter of the draw are:

12th seed Tomas Berdych
16th seed Jurgen Melzer
20th seed Stanislas Wawrinka
22nd seed Feliciano Lopez
30th seed Tommy Robredo
31st seed Victor Hanescu

Other than these, players like Janko Tipsarevic, Viktor Troicki, Benjamin Becker, and Igor Andreev ensure that the action in this quarter of the draw remains hot. The most likely scenario is a quarterfinal between Federer and Davydenko, and this will be an interesting match, with Davydenko looking to take revenge for his Australian Open loss to Federer, should both reach there. Federer, on the other hand, will have a lot to prove after having lost the French Open and also his favorite title at Halle. Besides the Davydenko threat, both Melzer and Berdych are playing their best tennis and either of these can oust Federer. As always, Roger Federer will have to step up his game if he wants to qualify for the semifinals from here.

Top Half - Bottom Quarter
The 3rd seed Serbian, Novak Djokovic is at the top of this quarter of the top half, with American Andy Roddick at the bottom. This quarter will see some of the best tennis action should both these players qualify for the quarters. A Roddick vs Djokovic matchup as early as the quarterfinal will ensure that one of the top 5 seeds will not make it to the last eight of the Wimbledon 2010. Other seeds in this quarter are:

28th seed Albert Montanes
21st seed Gael Monfils
15th seed Lleyton Hewitt
11th seed Marin Cilic
17th seed Ivan Ljubicic
29th seed Philipp Kohlschreiber

Apart from these big names, players like Taylor Dent, Mardy Fish, Teimuraz Gabashvili, the man who beat Andy Roddick at the French Open, and Michael Llodra pose a threat to the seeds in this quarter. With Hewitt playing some of his best grass court tennis, and Monfils as well in this quarter, Roddick and Djokovic will have their work cut out for them. However, all said and done, a Roddick Djokovic quarterfinal seems the most likely.

Bottom Half - Top Quarter
British hope Andy Murray is at the bottom of this quarter, with the 8th seed Fernando Verdasco place at the top. If both win all their matches, a Verdasco Murray quarterfinal is on the cards. To stop this, the following seeds will try their best:

32nd seed Julien Benneteau
19th seed Nicolas Almagro
10th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
14th seed Juan Carlos Ferrero
18th seed Sam Querrey
26th seed Gilles Simon

Along with these notable names, Fabio Fognini, Alexandr Dolgopolov, Michael Berrer, and Jarkko Nieminen are all there to try and cause upsets in this quarter. Of all the quarters, Murray seems to have got the easiest, with only Verdasco and Tsonga realistically capable of stopping his way into the last eight. However, the others are not to be counted out, and on the fast courts of Wimbledon anything is possible. That being said, this seems to be the perfect draw for the Brit to win his first Grand Slam, and that too at Wimbledon.

Bottom Half - Bottom Quarter
6th seed Robin Soderling and world number 1 Rafael Nadal are at the top and bottom of the last quarter, making this a very interesting quarter indeed. Soderling was the only person to beat Rafa at Roland Garros in the last 5 years during the course of the 2009 French Open, but in a true champions style, Rafa exacted his revenge in the 2010 French Open, defeating Soderling and lifting the trophy. Soderling will want to get back at Rafa, and if both progress as expected this will end up being the most interesting quarterfinal of Wimbledon 2010. Other seeds in this quarter include:

25th seed Thomaz Bellucci
24th seed Marcos Baghdatis
9th seed David Ferrer
13th seed Mikhail Youzhny
23rd seed John Isner
27th seed Ernests Gulbis

Also playing in this quarter will be Jeremy Chardy, Nicolas Kiefer, Thiemo De Bakker, and James Blake. Again, this seems to be one more of the easier of the quarters, with only Nadal really standing out. Though Soderling has proved he can take down the big guns, his defeat at the hands of Nadal barely 2 weeks ago must be eating his confidence. Baghdatis and Ferrer might provide resistance, but in the end, I think it Rafa who is going ahead from this group.

Top 10 Seeds First Matches

Here is a look at who the top 10 players will be playing in the first round of the Wimbledon 2010 championships

Top Seed Roger Federer vs unseeded Alejandro Falla
2nd seed Rafael Nadal vs unseeded Kei Nishikori
3rd seed Novak Djokovic vs unseeded Olivier Rochus
4th seed Andy Murray vs unseeded Jan Hajek
5th seed Andy Roddick vs unseeded Rajeev Ram
6th seed Robin Soderling vs unseeded Robby Ginepri
7th seed Nikolay Davydenko vs unseeded Kevin Anderson
8th seed Fernando Verdasco vs unseeded Fabio Fognini
9th seed David Ferrer vs unseeded Nicolas Kiefer
10th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga vs unseeded Robert Kendrick

Of course, all these matches are not on Day One, and will take place over the course of the first 2 days, and we hope that there are no upsets in the first round of the Wimbledon 2010 itself.

So, that's it from the draw of The Championships 2010, and if looked at in detail, the draw seems to be pretty fair, with none of the top 5 really having any edge over the others. Only the Roddick and Djokovic quarter seems to be a bit difficult, and it will be interesting to see who comes through as the winner from there. All in all, most of the seeds should be happy with the Wimbledon 2010 draw, and must be looking forward to Monday, the day when all the tennis action starts. As usual, stay tuned for more updates, fixtures and results.