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Years of waiting are in the past for Simona Halep and today, the Romanian is more than ready to confirm the good impressions of recent months. Saisai Zheng is far from the class of the French Open champion today.
The Chinese has achieved her success mostly in home tournaments over the years, and the grass court is definitely not good for her. This season she has dropped out of the top 100 of WTA and today Simona is the favourite against her.
Hsieh Su-wei has been a Wimbledon champion in doubles in 2013. She knows very well what it feels like to play on the holy grass in London. The 2018 season has been successful for her and although she has not won a title so far, she has returned to the top 50 of the WTA rankings.
Lara Arruabarrena, in turn, is the typical clay player, like most Spaniards. The grass floor is not as good as it is, and given the fact that Hsieh is a better player at doubles too, my preference is for the Taiwanese.
Dzumhur tipped to beat Gulbis
In the men's section, Alex De Minaur was the junior Wimbledon finalist two years ago. Back then, he lost in the title match to Dennis Shapovalov. The Australian, only 19 years old, has already won his first Grass title at the Challenger Tour in Nottingham.
Today, he faces an extremely experienced rival. Pierre-Hugues Herbert also achieved his greatest success at Wimbledon in 2016 when he won the doubles title. This season he also triumphed at Roland Garros. His strength is in doubles, but this is also useful for the fast grasscourts at SW19. The experience, the green court, and the overall strong performance of French tennis players during the season make me bet on a Herbert victory today.
Undoubtedly, the season for Damir Dzumhur has been incredible. Over the past 12 months, he has made a very strong impression, and the title on the grass of Antalya is a reflection of his good performance. During this campaign, he entered the top 25 of men's tennis for the first time.
Ernests Gulbis is on the opposite pole and for three seasons, he hasn't been able to return to the top 100. The victory in the first round against outsider Jay Clarke came with extreme difficulty. Gulbis has gone through the qualifiers, and has already played four Wimbledon 2018 matches. Dzumhur is the favourite today and will win the contest.
