By Jake Davies
- Five Reasons why Kevin Anderson will win Wimbledon 2018
WIMBLEDON, UNITED KINGDOM – Kevin Anderson tackles one of the all-time greats, Novak Djokovic in Sunday’s Wimbledon final and we looked at five reasons why we think the South African will come out on top and claim his first major title.
The semi-final marathon actually simplifies the final for Anderson
This will be a first Wimbledon final for the big-serving South African and he prepares for this final with a lot of tennis in his legs. It took him four hours and seventeen minutes to come back against Roger Federer in the quarter-finals and then he required a match lasting six hours and thirty-six minutes to topple John Isner in the semi-final. Many have made growing concerns over the physical recovery of Anderson, but if anything those matches simplify the match for him in this Wimbledon final.
It simplifies the situation in terms of forcing him to play his usual brand of tennis, but maybe pushing the envelope and going for his shots that much more. He will not win the match through outlasting or grinding his way past Novak Djokovic, so he can attempt to play the match on his own terms and that is through keeping the rallies as short as possible and aiming close to the lines to prevent Djokovic from defending as well as he wants.
Anderson is as confident as he has ever been
The second reason why Anderson will win the Wimbledon title is because he is perhaps playing in the purple patch of his career. Now a Top-10 player, excelling on the faster hard courts and the grass courts, Anderson made the first major final of his career at the US Open last year and has backed up that Grand Slam performance by getting to another final in less than a year. Anderson may be vastly inexperienced in comparison to Djokovic, but he is confident and a confident tennis player simply sometimes does not know how to lose and gets into a habit of winning tennis matches on a regular basis. That makes Anderson dangerous for someone like Djokovic.
The US Open final defeat was a big learning experience for Anderson
The experience of losing a US Open final is something that will help Anderson when dealing with the early nerves at the beginning of the match and it will support him in his level of performance in playing his brand of tennis in another major final. The first Grand Slam final is a daunting experience as the player does not quite know how they will respond to the weight on their shoulders, the new surroundings, the pressure of delivering, but Anderson will now know what he did well and what he did not do so well in a major final, where he lost to Rafael Nadal. That is invaluable going into this match.
POLL – Who will win the Gentlemen’s Singles title?
Anderson can dictate proceedings with his serve and forehand
The key for Anderson is maintaining a high percentage of first serves in. The foundations to Anderson’s game is dominating behind the first serve, but also putting away the first forehand in the rally and if he gets enough first forehands in this match-up then it gives him the best possible chance to win this match. If he shows Djokovic way too many second serves then it not only gives a great returner the chance to dictate, but it also puts Anderson on the back-foot far too often and that is not where he wants to be. The serve and forehand are the two key shots for Anderson if he is to win this match.
Djokovic’s hunger for more Grand Slam success can actually be used to help Anderson
The pressure in many ways is firmly on the 12-time Grand Slam champion. He had two years away from being at the top of the game and now he is trying to find the sort of tennis that got him to the No.1 ranking in the world. Djokovic realises that the match on Sunday really makes or breaks his season. If he wins, and has a Grand Slam to show for his season, then it will be seen as a very successful year, but if he were to lose, then that could be a crushing defeat for him. The hunger to return to Grand Slam winning ways is something that Anderson can really use to elevate his own game.
The Gentlemen’s’ Singles final takes place on Sunday at 2pm.
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