Wimbledon Nadal

Rafael Nadal will go to Wimbledon as the game's No. 1 player, a ranking he has held since August last year.

Nadal at Wimbledon 2009

There will be plenty of Nadal Wimbledon bets placed this year, on the strength of his win in last year's final against his great rival Roger Federer.

The pair have played each other in seven Grand Slam finals, but 2008 was the first time at Wimbledon that the Spaniard overcame his nemesis, Federer having won their two previous Wimbledon finals.

Though for most of his career he has been seen as a clay court specialist, he showed on the grass at Wimbledon last year that he has shaken off that tag.

Plenty of Nadal Wimbledon bets suggested he could do it in 2008 on the back of his success in the French Open, where he became only the fifth man in the open era to win a Grand Slam singles title without losing a set. Federer was his victim in the final at Roland Garros, the Swiss master only taking four games off Nadal.

The Nadal Wimbledon betting support was strengthened when he breezed through the tournament and went into the final on a 23-match winning streak which had included the warm-up event at Queen's Club.

The final was the longest in Wimbledon history, with Nadal winning the fifth set 9-7 in near-darkness.

By winning his first Wimbledon title, Nadal became only the third man in the open era to win both the French Open and Wimbledon in the same year - he also ended Federer's record streak of five consecutive Wimbledon titles.

There will be a lot of Nadal Wimbledon bets suggesting the Spaniard can at least reach the final, something he has now done for three straight years. He lost in four sets to Federer in 2006 and took him to a fifth set a year later.

His success at Wimbledon dates back to 2003, when he became the youngest man to reach the third round since Boris Becker some 19 years previously.