Rafa is definitely no stranger to Centre Court here in London. He has already won this tournament twice (2008 and 2010), and he has been a finalist and lost to Roger Federer twice before. Nadal has already won four of the last five Grand Slam events, with his lone exit coming this year in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open. The Spaniard would love nothing more than to be able to claim yet another crown, which would be his 11th major title in his career. This has definitely been a man that has looked relatively mortal along the way to the Wimbledon finale, as Nadal had to play four sets against Juan Martin Del Potro, Mardy Fish, and Andy Murray to reach this point, but there hasn’t been a player push Rafa to the brink with that fifth set since a first round match against John Isner at the French Open a few weeks ago. About the only thing that can keep Nadal down is his serve, which at times is certainly not as dominating as that of some of his peers, including that of Djokovic. However, with 27 service breaks already under his belt, there is no doubt that Nadal can return like none other in the world.

Performing in Grand Slam events has always been a bugaboo for Djokovic, especially against the likes of Federer and Nadal. It seems like he is always a semifinalist, but rarely a finalist in events like this one, and claiming glory is even more elusive. The Serb has reached the semifinals of three Wimbledon championships, but this is his first finale. He has only won the Australian Open twice in his career, and Djokovic would love to add his second Grand Slam win of the year and his third in his career on Sunday. However, the Serb has another big time hurdle to overcome. He is just 11-16 in his career against Nadal, and he is only 0-5 all-time against him in major events, including last year at the US Open when he lost in four sets in the finale. The good news though, is that Djokovic has already beaten Nadal four times this year, including twice on clay courts, where the Spaniard is the king. The only question is whether Djokovic is ready to step up and perform admirably in the big time, and whether that will be enough.

We just don’t see it happening when push comes to shove. There are still better days ahead for Djokovic, but all too often when we see a change in the world’s No. 1 rankings, we see the man that is abdicating that top spot come forth with a dominating effort against the man that is going to be taking his throne. Djokovic will be the top ranked man in the world when this is said and done, but Nadal -155 is clearly the right play to make on the Wimbledon odds in the men’s final.

It seems like forever since won her first Wimbledon way back in 2004. Since that point, she really had only seemed to go backwards. She was a semifinalist in both 2005 and 2006 and didn’t make it beyond the second Monday of the tournament after that until this year. Now, she’s back in the finale for the first time in a Grand Slam event since the 2008 Australian Open. Things didn’t look all that promising in the second semifinal of the day on Thursday, as Sharapova was down 3-0 in the first set against Sabine Lisicki. However, from that point on, it was a total romp in favor of the Russian. Sharapova only lost four more games in the entire match, and she ended the dreams of the German qualifier with a 6-4, 6-3 ‘W’. Sharapova still hasn’t dropped a set in this tournament. Though that is awfully impressive, we have to remember that the No. 5 ranked player in this tournament still hasn’t played anyone ranked in the Top 20 yet, something that she will have to do when she runs up against Kvitova on Saturday.

Is this the time for Kvitova to really shine? She made it to the semifinals last year at Wimbledon in shocking fashion, and this year, she is proving that she was no fluke whatsoever. This is clearly a case of a young lady running up the ranks of women’s tennis, as the Czech native is only just barely 21 years old. And, the way that women’s tennis is going right now, Kvitova has a chance to really be the next big thing. She has stormed through this tournament with flying colors, and she proved on Thursday that she can play with the best in the world when she bounced Victoria Azarenka in three sets, dominating the third set 6-2. Just as Sharapova had to deal with a big server in the semifinals against Lisicki, Kvitova has really kicked it up a notch with her serve as well of late. She has won at least 72 percent of her first service points in all of her matches in this tournament, and she has nine aces in each of her last two matches.

This is the day for Kvitova to finally shine. Sharapova was the only woman in the last eight that had ever won a Wimbledon before, but she has definitely had her problems. Kvitova seems like she is getting better and better with every passing moment, and she will be the winner when this is said and done on Saturday. Go with Petra Kvitova in the finale.

Tsonga has always been in that next tier of men’s tennis players that could be the next big thing on the courts. However, this is the time that the Frenchman could really be shining. He has been in the semifinals of Grand Slam events twice before, but both of those were on the hard courts of the Australian Open. His previous best effort here at Wimbledon was a quarterfinals appearance last year. Tsonga looked to be down and out in his quarterfinal bout this year with Roger Federer, who was previously 178-0 when ahead two sets to love in Grand Slam events going into the third set in his career. However, Tsonga never gave up and found a way to break Federer one time in each of the last three sets, while holding his serve perfectly through all three of those sets as well. It was the first true struggle for Tsonga in this tournament, and it is clear that he is going to have to put together an even bigger match than what he had against Federer to take care of Djokovic, who has the best record in tennis this year.

The one loss that Djokovic suffered this year was in the semifinals of the French Open, and though he probably would have rather gotten his hands on Federer once again, he has to be relieved that he is going to be dealing with Tsonga instead of arguably the best player in the history of tennis. This is the fifth straight major tournament in which the Serb has made it into the semifinals, but he only has two finals in this stretch to boot. There was just a short period of time in which we had to think that Djokovic was in trouble against Bernard Tomic in the quarterfinals, as Djokovic was down a break in the third set after losing the second set to the Aussie. However, he was absolutely phenomenal from that point forward and dominated the rest of the match as we were expecting at the outset. That second set against Tomic was only the second set in which Djokovic dropped in this tournament, and to some, even that might be remotely surprising.

We love Tsonga, but there is a real question whether he will have anything left in the tank after having to fight for five sets on Wednesday against Federer. This is the type of match that Djokovic has to be salivating over, and when push comes to shove, he shouldn’t drop even a set in this battle. Take Djokovic -200 for an easy romp.

Some of the biggest British dignitaries have been watching as Murray has made his way into the semifinals of Wimbledon this year. This is the third straight year in which he has been a semifinalist in his biggest event of the year, and this is the third straight Grand Slam event this year in which he has made it to this stage. However, at the French Open, it was the King of the Clay Courts that knocked the Brit out, and Murray will hope to avoid that same fate once again in spite of the fact that he is a huge underdog in this test. Murray has only dropped two sets along the way in this tournament, but he has only faced one ranked player, No. 17 Richard Gasquet. A quarterfinals bout against another Spaniard, Feliciano Lopez was no big deal, as Murray prevailed 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 without any hassles. The Scotland native has had at least 13 aces in four of his five matches, and he has only had one match with more than three double faults. He also has held serve beautifully, going two straight matches without dropping a service game.

And then there’s Nadal, who has won four of the last five Grand Slam events and has been a finalist in four straight Wimbledon tournaments in which he has played. There was definitely a level of concern about playing American Mardy Fish in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon this year. Nadal was coming off of a foot injury that he suffered on Monday against Juan Martin Del Potro. Perhaps the Spaniard struggled just a tad, needing four sets, but when push came to shove, he got the job done without all that much of a struggle. Holding serve was tougher than perhaps it should have been against Fish, as Nadal was broken a slew of times. However, he was a fantastic returner in perhaps his best match of this tournament, coming up with six service breaks against just the one that he had against Del Potro two days before that. Aces again are a concern. Rafa has only had double digits worth of aces once this tournament, and just five aces in four sets against Fish really isn’t a good sign going forward.

Friday is a day for England! The first of July will be the beginning of a tremendous accomplishment for Murray, and for the entire United Kingdom. Murray has earned his spot in this match, and he has a great chance to pull off this upset and to get over the hump for his first shot at that elusive Grand Slam title on his home court. Take Murray +160.

Azarenka might be one of the Top 5 ranked players in the world, but she has never played in a semifinal of a Grand Slam event. However, this time around at Wimbledon, she has gotten the job done in relatively easy fashion, and she just seems like she is getting better and better with every passing point. In fact, the Belarus native has now only lost eight games in total in her last two matches combined and just 10 games in her last five sets combined. Getting breaks has seemed like a second nature to Azarenka. She has had at least five service breaks in four straight matches, accounting for 21 breaks in the process. This is the toughest match that Azarenka has seen to date though, as she has only seen one ranked player en route to the semis. That match came against the No. 25 ranked player in the tournament, Daniela Hantuchova. That being said, this could be culture shock for a player who really doesn’t have a great history against some of the best players in the world in these elite events.

There is only one player of the four that are left standing that has played in back to back semifinals at Wimbledon. Kvitova was a huge shock at this juncture last year, but she flew up the rankings in the last 12 months to make it into the Top 10 in the world. The argument could be made that this has been one of the best players in Grand Slam events this year, as Kvitova has made it to at least the fourth round of all three majors. This is her first semifinal, though. Unlike Azarenka, the road to the semis has been a tough one for the Czech. She has already had to face three ranked players, and it seems like virtually every task has gotten tougher along the way. Roberta Vinci, ranked No. 29 was a relatively easy challenge in a 6-3, 6-3 victory, while Yanina Wickmayer, ranked No. 19, only managed two games against Kvitova. The quarterfinals match against Tsvetana Pironkova was a classic three set battle, but after losing a heartbreaking tiebreaker in the second, Kvitova was able to come back and win 6-2 in the third and decisive set.

As expected, the Wimbledon odds are tight in this one. The meteoric ascent of Kvitova has been quite impressive over these last several years, and we fully expect to see her take the next step, perhaps not just into the finale, but as the champion of this event as well. Take Kvitova -110.

The bracket just continues to open up for Sharapova. She knows that she won’t get a gift in the finale against either Victoria Azarenka or Petra Kvitova, both of which are ranked in the Top 10 in the world, but at least to date, there really couldn’t have been a significantly easier draw than what Sharapova has seen. She has yet to face a player ranked higher than 20 in the world, and as a result, she has stormed through to the semis in straight sets. In fact, there has only been one tiebreaker involved in the bunch to date, and that was way back in the second round. In her most recent match, the Russian absolutely dominated Dominika Cibulkova, winning in straight sets 6-1, 6-1. Sharapova is clearly coming off of her best service match, as she held all of her service games and ended up with a fantastic 74 percent of first service points won. Even more sparkling was her 76 percent first service percentage, the best mark that she has had in this tournament to date. We also have to remember with Sharapova that she is the only player left in the field that has ever won a Grand Slam event.

Lisicki was actually a quarterfinalist here at Wimbledon two years ago at the ripe old age of 19, but now at 21, she has come through qualifying to beat the Wimbledon odds to make it to the semis. Unlike Sharapova, who hasn’t faced any Top 10 players in the world en route to the semifinals, Lisicki has faced two already in Na Li and Marion Bartoli, and she’ll have to beat two more if she is going to pull off the upset of all upsets to win this event. Lisicki has a huge serve which is doing her well at the All England Club. She had nine aces in her quarterfinal tie with Bartoli, and she now has a whopping 44 in her five matches to date. There was only one match, a second round battle with Li in which double faults really became a problem, but considering the number of aces, only 13 double faults isn’t all that bad for the tournament. Lisicki does struggle getting that first serve in, as she is in the high 50s for the tournament, but when she does get that serve in, she is lethal, winning almost 80 percent of her points.

Don’t be surprised if we see another upset in the ladies’ draw once again in this one. Sharapova has the experience, but Lisicki is clearly an up and comer, and she absolutely loves these grass courts at Wimbledon. Youth will be served on Thursday, and our free Wimbledon picks are on Lisicki +215.

Murray was 22-8 over the course of this year before this tournament, and he really has done a great job for the most part. However, he’s got that “Yeah, but…” in his career. Seventeen singles titles and a doubles title is great, but for a man who has all sorts of hopes on his shoulders, it’s high time that he finally wins one of these Grand Slam events. Murray has been a runner up three times and has been a semifinalist three times in his career in Grand Slam events, including back to back semifinals appearances here in London. Murray got off to a rough start to this tournament, surprisingly dropping a set to Daniel Gimeno-Traver. However, he stormed to two 6-0 set wins in that match to close things out, and he has only dropped one set along the way since that point. Richard Gasquet never really stood a chance against Murray in the fourth round on Monday, as the Brit stormed through to the quarters for the fourth straight year at Wimbledon 7-6 (7-3), 6-3, 6-2.

Lopez has had a nice little career, and for whatever reason, he has had a few fantastic performances here in at the All England Club. This is the third time that he has made it to the quarterfinals of this event, and he has never made it to the quarters in any other Grand Slam event aside from this. Lopez has never been ranked higher than No. 20 in his career in the world, but this is a chance to make a big time statement to the rest of the world that he still has some legs in his career. The Spaniard is still playing in the mixed doubles tournament with Andrea Petkovic, and had he known that he would still be playing in the singles event, he probably wouldn’t have played doubles. However, there really hasn’t been a whole heck of a lot of trouble for Lopez along the way. The only ranked player he ran into was American, Andy Roddick, and that battle was ended in straight sets. A fourth round match against Lukasz Kubot was a heck of a war. This five set epic battle might be the best match thus far in this tournament. Lopez took it down 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-7 (7-9), 7-5, 7-5.

Murray is the biggest favorite on the board in this round of the tournament on the Wimbledon odds, and this one is definitely justified. This is as open as a bracket has really ever looked for the Brit, especially here at Wimbledon, and he can’t let this opportunity go. We’re going to make our free Wimbledon pick on Murray -900 to romp in straight sets.

Nadal knows that he is probably going to lose the No. 1 ranking in the world to Novak Djokovic at some point, potentially in this tournament, but that isn’t going to stop him from marching towards his 11th Grand Slam title just weeks after claiming title No. 10 at the French Open. The Mallorca native has been in four straight Wimbledon finals in which he has played (he missed the 2009 tournament due to injury), and he has won two straight events from 2008 and 2010. Nadal really didn’t have a difficult match until he ran into Juan Martin Del Potro, who is ranked No. 24 in this tournament. However, we know that the Argentine was the man that no one wanted to see in their draw, and for good reason. Nadal struggled mightily in that match, but in the end, he prevailed 7-6 (8-6), 3-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-4. As always, the Spaniard has been taking care of his first serve and keeping his percentage in the 70s in the box. However, he is going to hope for even better against Fish on Wednesday, and he is going to have a heck of a time battling a foot injury that might have taken him out of this tournament.

Fish is 29 years old now, and he is really playing the best tennis of his life. Grand Slam events have really never been the forte for the American. He has played in eight Wimbledon tournaments before this year, but had never made it into the fourth round, let alone here into the quarterfinals. This isn’t the first time that Fish has made it to a Grand Slam quarterfinal, getting here in the 2007 Australian Open and the 2008 US Open. We know that after this tournament, Fish is going to have the highest world ranking that he has ever had in his career, as this is only the second time in his entire career since 2000 in which he is in the Top 10 in the world. After three victories in relatively easy fashion to make it into the second week of the tournament, Tomas Berdych was supposed to give Fish a heck of a lot of problems. However, there were really no such problems when push came to shove. Fish made it through a brutal first set 7-6 (7-5), and from there, he just rolled through with a pair of 6-4 set victories.

Normally speaking, Fish really doesn’t have the goods to be able to take out Nadal. And yes, we wouldn’t be all that surprised if this ended in a straight sets triumph for the Spaniard. However, we have a feeling that this foot injury is a bit worse than Nadal has been letting on to. The Wimbledon odds in this one are just right to go with the American. Take Fish +400.

What a run this has been for the Aussie! This qualifier had never before made it beyond the third round of a Grand Slam event, and that only came for the first time this year at the Aussie Open. The bad news for this 18 year old is that he had only won eight matches in his career before this event, and this is clearly the biggest stage that he has ever been on in his career. Tomic had to come all the way through qualifying over the course of this tournament, meaning there were three rounds full of action that he had to survive just to get into the field. Upsets have been galore thanks to Tomic. He took out Nikolay Davydenko in straight sets in the first round, but the argument could be made that he has really only had the Wimbledon odds stacked higher and higher against him as this tournament has progressed. He was down two sets to Igor Andreev in the second round before winning the final three sets. The third round marked the biggest upset of Tomic’s career, as he took down Robin Soderling 6-1, 6-4, 7-5. Finally on Monday, Xavier Malisse was the one to fall in the fourth round.

41-1. That’s a heck of a record by any standards. However, for Djokovic, that just isn’t good enough. That one loss to Roger Federer in the semifinals of the French Open is one that the Serb has to be on his mind, especially knowing that this is the likely matchup in the semifinals. However, Djokovic really can’t overlook this match, or he’ll be bitterly disappointed once again. So far in this tournament, there really hasn’t been a challenge to the Serb, as the only set that was lost was the second set to Marcos Baghdatis. The good news for Djokovic is that he really has had a great set of competitors that he has run into along the way. Michael Llodra was ranked No. 19 in this tournament, but he really never had a chance against Djokovic, who rolled 6-3, 6-3, 6-3. What was really most impressive in this match was the fact that the No. 2 ranked player in the world won 73 percent of his second service points. If he keeps this up, there won’t be a player that can beat him.

We do tend to believe that Tomic is going to have the ability to stick around for awhile in this match, and we wouldn’t be surprised if he does steal a set in this match. However, when push comes to shove, this is a match where Djokovic -700 is clearly the right price to take.

Poor Tsonga keeps getting deep into these Grand Slam events, only to be ousted by one of the Top 4 players in the world, all of which seemingly just continue to make semifinal after semifinal. He was a quarterfinalist last year at Wimbledon before getting bounced, and this is the fourth time since the 2008 Australian Open in which he reached this point. He’s just 2-2 in these quarterfinals matches. It hasn’t been the easiest road to reach the quarters for Tsonga, but he really does seem to be getting better and better as this tournament progresses. Grigor Dimitrov was the only man to be able to take a set from the Frenchman in this tournament, and that includes tricky fixtures with Fernando Gonzalez in the third round and No. 7 David Ferrer in the third round. Tsonga was dominating against Ferrer on Monday, coming up with a 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (7-1) victory, and he really was the one dominated play in that third set tiebreaker to ensure that he wouldn’t have to extend that match to a fourth set. Tsonga won a whopping 93 percent of his first service points against Ferrer and is going to need a big time percentage like this again to take care of Federer.

It almost feels like Federer has some unfinished business here at Wimbledon. He was knocked out in the quarterfinals last year of this event, and he hopes to avoid the same type of fate here at the All England Club this year. Federer is now on a five major slump without a title, which is the longest stretch that he has had since he began this remarkable run which is now at 29 straight quarterfinals appearances in Grand Slam events. To no one’s surprise, this hasn’t been a difficult road for the Swiss native to make it into the quarters. Mikhail Youzhny did take the first set against Federer on Monday in the fourth round, but after that, the master dominated with three straight 6-3 victories in the second, third, and fourth sets. Federer has only been pushed to two tiebreakers in this championship to date, and he has been able to finish every other set in 10 games or fewer. Federer needs to be careful with his second serves. He has only won 54 and 51 percent of his second service points in his last two matches respectively.

Tsonga is playing well right now, but there is just no doubt that the chalk should be holding up here in the first match on Centre Court on Wednesday. It’s a chalky play, but Federer -600 is clearly the play to be making in Wimbledon betting action in the quarterfinals.