With just a few days to go, the question on every one’s lips is not who will win the world cup, its…

Who will win Wimbledon 2010?

The 2010 Wimbledon draw has been made and the favorites to lift the title have safely made it through to the second week. Roger Federer, Andy Roddick, Robin Soderling and Lleyton Hewitt have now been eliminated and there are just 4 men left.

Rafael Nadal in the last 3 months has returned to his very best, after a 10 month period that seen him lose for the first time at Roland Garros, unable to defend his Wimbledon title and a string of poor results, the Spaniard looks to be back to his best both physically and mentally. He has regained his French Open title and world number 1 spot and now looks to regain his Wimbledon Title. Though he disappointingly went out of Queens Club at the quarter final stage. In his first match he looked good, though was then pushed to 5 sets in next two matches and looked to be suffering from a recurring knee injury. A straight sets win in the 4th and an impressive quarter fianl win over many folks tournament dark horse Robin Soderling pit any injury doubts to bed.

Despite all this Federer was the favourite ahead of Nadal to lift the 2010 title, something that may seem it little strange when you consider that Rafael Nadal now holds a 14-7 record over Federer and has won 6 of their last 7 matches, but he is the favorite now.

Andy Murray is the bookmakers 2nd favourite to win Wimbledon this year and they certainly believe the event winner will come from winner of the Murray Nadal semi final. His odds were 3 or 4 times that of Nadal or Federer, but those odds have been reducing after five very impressive wins., dropping just 1 set all tournament to date. His form since reaching the final at the Australian Open has been woeful and the Scot was looking like he was suffering from the crushing defeat in Melbourne. That form looks to behind him now and he now looks to be in the right frame of mind to claim his first grand slam.

Novak Djokovic’s failure to ever mount a challenge at Wimbledon and recent average form had seen him drop to 6th favourite but after overcoming tough 4th round match against Lleyton Hewitt and cruising past Lu. Djokovic is now favorite to reach the final from his semi final match.

Tomas Berdych – If you placed a bet on Berdych to win Wimbledon this year at the start of the tournament, then you would be in the running for a mighty profit. The big serving check wasn’t really on anyone’s radar, always consider an “under performer” until he reached the semi finals of Roland Garros last month. He eliminated Roger Federer though so does he really deserve the least likely to win tag?

Betfair have been offering the best odds all week on just about all the potential winners and when you sign up, you’ll receive a free £25 bet.

Favorites already Eliminated…

Roger Federer – 2 years ago after losing to Rafael Nadal in that now infamous Wimbledon final, people started to question whether or not the career of Federer was now on a downward spiral – he proved his critics wrong then, coming back to claim his 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th grand slam titles – though most importantly he never had to face Rafael Nadal in any of those events. Those same question have now surfaced again. To add to his woes he lost the final of Halle where he had been unbeaten since 2002. He was just a few points from being eliminated in the first round by Falla and even struggled past Hasse in the 2nd before looking comfortable against Clement in the 3rd round and Melzer in the 4th Round. It would be Tomas Berdych who eliminated the now former champ.

Andy Roddick was last years champion and was the 4th favourite coming into Wimbledon though he had dropped to 5th favourite to win this year. He took out Britain’s great hope last year in the semi finals before losing an epic final to Roger Federer. He has since had a decent 12 months whilst still not really challenging the top players. Early knock out at Queens was not the best preparations, but had looked decent in the first 3 rounds. He was dumped out though on court 2 in the 4th round by journey man Lu.

Roddick dropped the 4th favourite tag to Robin Soderling – The French Open finalist has cemented his place inside the top 10 and has recent wins over Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray – He had been looking mighty impressive until he met Nadal that is.

We are into the quarter final stages at the 2010 Aegon Championships in London and Rafael Nadal remains the favourite to the lift the title.

We’ve already lost Andy Roddick and Novak Djockovic, they had been 3rd and 4th favourite to lift the trophy this year, but Roddick was conquered by Israel’s Dudi Sela and Djokovic lost to Xavier Malisse

Rafael Nadal is the favourire to lift, he’s undefeated in his 22 matches, which includes 3 masters wins and of course the French Open title. Even though those wins were all in clay, Nadal is actually undefated in hos last 13 grass court matches, having missed last years grass court season the last time enter a grass court event, he won the 2008 Wimbledon title.

2nd favourite to win this week is last years winner and world number 4 Andy Murray, he is drawn in the same half as Nadal and is so far set for a semi final showdown with Nadal. Murray though at the moment is just 3 games away from going out to Mardy Fish and the Scot’s form of late has been poor, with early knockouts in many of recent tournaments, including a loss to the same Mardy Fish in Miami, he’ll be looking to improve on these results.

On the other half of draw with Novak Djokovic and Andy Roddick both out big serving American Sam Querrey has emerged as the favourite to reach the final from the bottom half of the draw.

As usual Betfair are currently offering the best odds on all players winning. They will also give you a free £25 for signing up.

After Robin Soderling eliminated the World No. 1 and defending champion Roger Federer in the quarter finals, this was the final that most people had hoped for and in some ways the Robin Soderling versus Rafael Nadal final  is an even better prospect than the Federer v Nadal match that most folk had been hoping for.

Rafael Nadal has only lost to one person at Roland Garros, namely Robin Soderling  – Nadal has beaten Federer 4 times at the French open and if Federer had made it to the final -  Nadal would have been over whelming odds on favorite to make it 5 in a row.

With Soderling eliminating Federer this could well be the start of the a new French Open rivalry – Soderling has proved that last years run was no fluke and with the knowledge he can beat Nadal at Roland Garros he will go into the match with more belief of winning than say Roger Federer would have had.

This is not exactly reflected in how the bookmakers have it, but that’s likely largely down to the fact that this is a grand slam, Soderling’s performance in last years final was short of his form of the rest of the week. If recent history tells us anything it’s that the most experienced player generally wins the grand slam final. With only Juan Martin Del Potro bucking the trend at last years US Open final.

With just less than a week gone of the 2010 French Open, Rafael Nadal has remained as the overwhelming odds on favorite to lift the title at this years second grand slam.

Rafael Nadal’s return to clay court dominance has seen him unbeaten on the red stuff in the whole of 2010 and better still the world  number 2 has only dropped 2 sets on clay all season. After beating Roger Federer two weeks ago in Madrid, the Spaniards odds lowered whilst Federer’s increased. Unlike Rafa, Federer has struggled on the clay so far this year, though he did improve enough to reach the final in Madrid and has look good so far in his first 3 matches at Rolland Garros.

Andy Murray continues to struggle on clay and is a long shot at 23/1 (Average bookmaker odds), though that does make him 4th favorite – You can though get 35/1 from Betfair if you were thinking of a bet on the Scot.

The only other serious contenders for the title are Novak Djokovic, last years champion Robin Soderling and David Ferrer. Djokovic though has been struggling once again with breathing difficulties, which have plagued him recent years and now hampered his build up to the 2010 French open, though has looked good in his three matches so far. David Ferrer has been the other in-form clay court player in 2010, clocking up 16 wins on clay previosu to the French Open (the highest for any player in 2010). Soderling has sailed through his first 3 matches so far and his moment will likley come in the quarter finals against Federer should both players win their next match.

Betfair as usual have significantly better odds than the average bookmakers.

Andy Murray will continue his 2010 Australian open journey against 33rd seed American John Isner on Sunday. The match will be first match on the Rod Laver arena at 11am (midnight UK time).

So far in the 2010 Ozzy open Murray has yet to drop a set and in fact is the only man to have not dropped a set so far – he’s reached the 4th round on 2 previous occasions, losing to Rafael Nadal in 2007 and Fernando Verdasco in 2009.

This time though he is not taking on a Spaniard, his opponent tomorrow will be all 6ft 9ins of American John Isner. The 24 year old from Greensboro, North Carolina is currently at a career-high ranking of 28 and the new American number two after overtaking Sam Querrey.

Reaching the 4th round has equaled the American’s grand slam best after he reached the 4th round of the US open last year after 6 consecutive 1st round defeats in his previous grand slam attempts. Though we shouldn’t read too much into this when we look at his recent the big serving Isner has just won his maiden ATP title in Auckland and in the last round he upset 12 seed Gael Monfils and has served 81 aces so far in 3 rounds.

Murray and Isner have never played, though Murray’s record against Americans is pretty good, in the last 3 years he has lost just once in 17 matches – The match he did lose though was a crucial one to Andy Roddick in the semi final of last years Wimbledon.

Bookmakers see this as Andy Murray’s toughest test so far, though he is still odds on favorite to reach the quarter final for the first time. Betfair as usual has the best odds available on both a Murray win and Isner win.

Andy Murray’s thoughts on the 4th round match.

Playing against someone like him is so dangerous. It might come down to a few points. I’ll have to step up to the plate. He’s very similar to Karlovic, None of the guys really enjoy playing against him. He’s a bit better from the back of the court than Karlovic, but Karlovic probably volleys better. It will be a really tough match.

John Isner’s thoughts on the upcoming match,

It’s going to be a challenge to hold serve. That’s going to be my number one focus, and taking it from there, Andy’s such a really, really good player. I’m going to have to play really, really well to have a chance out there. He’s one of the fittest guys on tour. He really can do anything. He can play offence. He can play defence. He can mix it up really well. He’s one of the top favourites for the title I would guess. Him, Federer, Nadal, Del Potro, Djokovic. Andy might even be the favourite. Hopefully I can put an end to his run, but it’s going to be a tough task.

The 2010 Austrailian Open has now reached the last 16 stage, with all the major contenders for the title still in the event.

From start of the event until now Roger Federer has been the favorite to lift his 16th grand slam title, his odds had been slightly higher at the start of the week, but the best you’ll find now is at Betfair with 53/20 (3.65 decimal).

The second favorite is where the changes have been taking place, at the start of the week Rafael Nadal was second favorite and Andy Murray third, however after the first three rounds, they have switched places with Andy Murray now the second favorite and Nadal third. The best odds you’ll get on Murray is 5/1 and Nadal 32/5, both those at Betfair. Murray and Nadal though are scheduled to meet in quarter finals in the bottom quarter.

2008 winner Novak Djokovic is 4th favorite with inform player Nikolay Davydenko fifth favorite. Davydenko on course to meet Federer in the quarter finals.

Current US open champion Juan Martin Del Potro and 2009 Wimbledon finalist are 7th and 8th favorites and they are both on course to meet in their quarters final.

Best outside shot has to be Marn Cilic, who plays Del potro next and 400/1 outside Ivo Karlovic who meets Nadal in next round.

The 2009 Shanghai Masters is in its first year of being a regular masters event – now called Masters 1000 – and before it had even begun was struggling with the withdrawals of two of the top 4 Andy Murray and world number Roger Federer.

Since it’s started things have not got much better, US open Champ Juan Martin del Potro and Wimbledon finalist Andy Roddick have both retired with injury during matches leaving just world number 2 & 3 Rafael Nadal & novak Djokovic as the only member of the top 6 competing.

Previously the ATP Shanghai event was the host for the end of season Tennis Masters Cup, the finale to the ATP tour where the top 8 ranked players meet. This year that even will be held in London for the first time.

Perhaps the fact that it’s a new event or that so many of the top players are out, but for some reason none of the bookmakers with the exception of Betfair is running odds on the outright winner of this event.

Not surprisingly Betfair does have Nadal & Djokovic as almost joint favorites, with Nadal at 23/10 edging Djokovic at 5/2 with the rest of the top 10 ranked players being given odds between 8/1 and 9/1.

Betfair will give you a free £25 bet if you do happen to sign up and place a bet.