Wimbledon 2018: Men's singles draw preview and analysis

THIRD QUARTER

The World No.3 Alexander Zverev will look to break from the Grand Slam jinx

Projected quarter-finals #4 Alexander Zverev vs #7 Dominic Thiem

In this loaded quarter of the draw, three-time Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic and the mercurial Nick Krygios will add company to Alexander Zverev and Dominic Thiem.

Djokovic’s comeback this season has been gaining momentum lately. After retiring from Wimbledon last year, Djokovic was forced to stay away from the second half of the season with an elbow injury. The Serb has shown marked improvement in the second half of the year by reaching the Finals at Queen’s club last month, although he lost to Marin Cilic after putting up a brave fight.

The Serbian starts against Tenny’s Sandgren. Horacio Zeballos should be his second round opponent and Kyle Edmund should meet him in the third round, while a projected fourth round with Dominic Thiem is possible. But Thiem also is staring at an early struggle against dangerous floater Fernando Verdasco in the third round. Thiem is not very comfortable on grass; the Austrian's best at Wimbledon is the fourth round last year in 2017 where he lost to Tomas Berdych in five sets.

Novak Djokovic looks set to make it to the fourth round to meet Alexander Zverev. The World No 3 Zverev is yet to make a significant impact at Majors, his best result at a Grand Slam being the quarter-final at the French Open this season where he lost to Dominic Thiem in straight sets after pulling off three back to back 5 setters on his way up. In the past three years, Zverev has never managed to go beyond the fourth round at Wimbledon which was in 2017.

The fourth seed, who has three Masters 1000 titles adorning his trophy cabinet, opens against James Duckworth which can be tricky for the German. As the draw suggests, if Taylor fritz can get past Sonego, then he can be a possible second-round opponent for Zverev. Either of Maximilian Marterer, Damir Dzumhur or Ernest Gulbis can meet Zverev in the third round.

A very interesting fourth-round encounter is projected between Zverev and Nick Krygios from this quarter. But then the mercurial Australian is very unpredictable even though he has one of the best serves on the ATP tour. This season Krygios has had semi-final finishes in Stuttgart and Queen's Club, which is very impressive from the World No 19. It will be a visual tennis treat if he carries that momentum into the championships.

Krygios is drawn to meet Denis Istomin in the opening round and could possibly meet Robin Haase in the second round. After that it could probably be Kei Nishikori in the third round for the Australian.

In my opinion, if Krygios keeps his cool, he can most certainly make it to the quarter-finals from this section of the draw.