From titlist to Next Gen breakthrough star, here are our picks for Wimbledon 2017

Wimbledon is right around the corner and the players have also settled into their places in the draw, knowing who stands before them in the first round. As every year, the tournament is seeing its share of favourites as there is a sense of expectancy about the upsets that could – and would – be brewing parallelly.

Here’s then the Field’s pick – ranging from the champion to the Next Gen player to watch out for – for the Wimbledon fortnight.

Champion

For the first time in almost four years, seven-time former Wimbledon champion Roger Federer goes in as the favourite at the Championships. The Swiss’ results in his two preparatory tournaments on grass were acutely contrasting. He started off with a second-round loss to Tommy Haas in Stuttgart, before winning his ninth title in Halle. The latter without dropping a set in any of his five matches in the tournament.

The eighteen-time Grand Slam champion doesn’t have an easy draw, with a possible fourth round meeting against either the sixth-seeded Milos Raonic or 10th seeded Alexander Zverev. But, as he has kept showing time-and-again this year, Federer is well capable of rolling back the years.

Dark horse

Pertaining to the draw, any player outside of the top-16 bracket in the seeding (excluding the 16th seed as well) can be classified as a dark horse.

At the Championships this year, there’s no better player than the 19th seeded Feliciano Lopez to make the cut in this category. The 35-year-old Spaniard, a southpaw who is more at home on grass than on clay unlike his fellow countrymen, capped of two of the best fortnights of his career these last two weeks. Lopez’s biggest title haul on the ATP circuit came at Queen’s last week, when he defeated Marin Cilic in the final. But, the week before this win, he also made it to the final in Stuttgart where he was pipped in the final by Lucas Pouille.

Lopez could meet Novak Djokovic in the fourth round, against whom he has a 1-9 head-to-head. But, given their respective forms, it wouldn’t be amiss to have Lopez trump the Serbian.

Biggest upset

Thanks to his early ousters in the tournament in the last few years, Rafael Nadal looks to have become a player gone out of vogue in Wimbledon. This time though, a hope’s been reignited that the Mallorcan could (potentially) get his hands onto his third Wimbledon title.

Not only is Nadal playing fit, he’s also been consistent in the first-half of the year. He also does have a decent draw of matchups awaiting him. Which is perhaps also why this time his premature exit from the Championships would be a far bigger ricochet than in all the years previously.

Wild card

Remember Tomas Berdych? The chap who reached the final of the 2010 Wimbledon by way of upsetting Federer in the quarter-finals, before losing to Nadal in the final. In these near seven years, a lot has changed for the Czech though. His results have been inconsistent and there have been several changes to his coaching team as well.

But, the world No 14 can never be counted out and is a dangerous floater for any player on his day. The eleventh seed finds himself in the last quarter, same as Djokovic, and could have a pre-quarter-final clash against the eighth seeded Dominic Thiem. And, deep advances for him the draw would mean considerable opening up of the draw beyond the usual names as well.

Next Gen star

Zverev would have been the ideal player to talk about in this category, with his results speaking for himself. However, with his semi-final finish in Halle that was perked up by attaining a career-high in the ATP ranking, Karen Khachanov is the Next Gen player to keep track of at Wimbledon 2017.

The Russian impressed one-and-all, even Federer, with his tactical manoeuvring in Halle – his first grass court tournament. And at Wimbledon, he will have his chances of adding on to this promise he has had built up. Khachanov is the 30th seed at Wimbledon and opens against fellow Russian Andrey Kuznetsov in the first round. His first test will, however, be against Nadal who is his drawn opponent for the third round.