posted June 23, 2008 at 17:43 in Tennis Betting Trends

London, England – Online Wimbledon betting gets off to a banging start this week with early round tennis betting action in the BetUS tennis betting market. Defending champion Roger Federer, who seemed never to need any favours in winning five consecutive Wimbledon titles, falls into a draw that has sports bettors speculating whether he may finally need some help. When at the French Open Federer enjoyed the easiest path through the draw – Nadal the toughest – at the All England Club the tables are turned as Federer looks ahead to a path through Robin Soderling in the second round – a player who took Nadal to five sets last year in an epic match that spanned several days with rain delays.

Federer is ever the man of tradition and traditionally, he starts slowly in Grand Slams, amicably trading groundstrokes with lesser opponents, warming up his game in the first week before raising the level of his game in the second week as the final push towards the title looms on the horizon. This year though Federer has not received any favours in the draw and as his first week gets off sports betting fanatics can expect some tougher matches setting the stage for Federer’s bid for a sixth Wimbledon title. Therefore, for all ye online tennis betting enthusiasts, here is a look at how Federer’s quarter can shape up during thefortnight of Wimbledon betting at BetUS.com.

In Federer’s quarter, potential stumbling blocks come in the form of seeded players like fifth seed David Ferrer, 11th Tomas Berdych, 15th Fernando Gonzalez, 20th Lleyton Hewitt and 22nd Fernando Verdasco. As if Federer needed anything more to contend with as outside of the seeded category several threats lie in the unseeded players. Three such players who should give Federer some pause are Robin Soderling in the second round, Simone Bolelli potentially in the fourth round and Mario Ancic (the last player to beat him at Wimbledon in 2002) potentially in the quarterfinals.

Should Federer survive the potential threat Soderling poses in the second round he would receive a bit of a reprieve in the third round with a potential matchup against Marc Gicquel or [lucky loser] Ilia Bozoljac. But in the fourth round, experts slot Hewitt, Gonzalez or even Bolelli, either of which could be a stumbling block for the maestro. In the quarterfinals, experts slot Berdych, Mario Ancic and Ferrer as the most likely challengers and anyone of whom could stretch Federer in an exhaustive match.

Sure Federer has not been in the fine form we in the online betting community have become accustomed to, and betting on him perhaps is not as sure a thing as it was a year ago – at least for the 2008 Wimbledon title. But whilst everyone is anxiously contemplating the changing of guards in tennis betting on Federer to reach the final four is still a good play. In spite of his tough draw, he is a sure thing by me for a berth in the Wimbledon semi-finals. At that point though, most expect a mouth watering semi-final clash against one of the favourites this year at Wimbledon Novak Djokovic to occur. To say anything can happen here is stating the obvious but – and this may surprise some—I still believe Djokovic is not ready to beat Federer on grass. Elsewhere, on a hard surface, Djokovic’s day may come once again as it did at the Australian Open, but not on grass—at least not this year on grass.

Nila Amerova is a freelance sports writer and regular contributor to the BetUS.com Locker Room