Big Four

The seven-time champion has rolled back the years in 2017, stunning the tennis fraternity to win the Australian Open, before claiming the year’s first Masters 1000 titles at Indian Wells and Miami.

His decision to skip the clay-court season has been vindicated, too.

Victory on the grass in Halle last week – the ninth of his career – proves that he is rested, focused and poised to rack up grand slam No. 19 at .

Federer will not have a clear run at the title, though, and he may well need to beat Grigor Dimitrov and Milos Raonic just to reach the semi-final.

Defending champion Andy Murray may have suffered in 2017, but he has fallen short of the Wimbledon semi-finals just once in the last eight years, and is bound to contend again.

The Scot fell in round one at Queen’s, but that should not deter him. He was, after all, one tie-break away from reaching the French Open final in June, despite poor previous form.  

But taking a poor year and a serious hip concern into account, backing Murray each-way at should be the extent of your support for the home favourite.

Novak Djokovic, whose well-documented struggles – along with Murray’s – really open up this field, should not be discounted.

The Serb has won three of the last six Wimbledon titles, beating Federer in the final of both of the last two, but is out at fourth-favourite to lift the trophy this time.

Entering the Eastbourne International this week – the first time that he has ever played a warm-up tournament in the build up to Wimbledon – betrays understandable concern, but also a desire to rediscover his best form.

At , he is well worth a punt.

Rafael Nadal, meanwhile, looks short at .

The Spaniard cantered to the French Open title, but has only played grass-court exhibition matches coming into the event.

He has not reached the final since 2010, and probably won’t this time.

Best of the rest

Last year’s runner-up Milos Raonic heads the betting outside the top four, but is unlikely to justify odds of .

The Canadian has not enjoyed a prosperous 2017, failing to beat a top 10 player since January, and struggling with intermittent injury problems.

Marin Cilic – – looked in good nick at Queen’s, while Alexander Zverev ( ), Kei Nishikori ( ) and Queen’s champion Feliciano Lopez ( ) are standout names down the list.

But at , Stan Wawrinka is certainly worth considering.

The US Open holder has won all of the other three grand slams, and though he has never reached the final four at Wimbledon, his ability to rise to the occasion is not in question.

An early exit from Queen’s is not particularly an issue – he regularly dips in between big events – while he has been handed a kinder route to the quarter-finals at least.