Djokovic & Williams earn top seeds - Wimbledon Preview

Will Andy Murray be celebrating like this again this year?

Andy Murray has been seeded third but he'll have a tough road to victory in SW19 this time around. Alex Johnson gives the lowdown on Wimbledon fortnight.

Andy Murray will have to fight off a number of different challenges if he is to defend his Wimbledon title in two weeks' time.

Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, both past winners on the lawns of SW19, will be looking to wrest the trophy away from Murray but other less familiar players will feel they have an excellent chance of winning the Grand Slam too. 

Murray himself had a successful French Open tournament, reaching the semi-finals before his defeat to eventual champion Nadal. His run to the last four on his least favourite surface was encouraging and involved closely fought five set wins over Philipp Kohlschreiber and Gael Monfils. 

He went to Queen's last week looking to defend his title but surprisingly lost to Radek Stepanek in the third round. This will have deprived him of some much needed grass court preparation and, having failed to win an event so far in 2014, he will do supremely well to defend the trophy he won last year.

Nadal comes to Wimbledon just a few weeks after winning a record ninth French Open title as the world number one answered all his critics who wondered whether he was losing his form. This season has been the first that he has ever lost more than two matches on clay. However, he returned to form at just the right time, beating David Ferrer and Murray in Paris on the way to the final. After losing the first set to Djokovic, he recovered and won the next three to take a historic ninth French Open crown in 10 years. 

Djokovic himself will want to wreak revenge, both on Nadal for losing in Paris and on Murray, who beat him in last year's Wimbledon final. The world number two is a six-time Grand Slam winner, but his last success was in Melbourne last year and he will want to put his relatively lean spell to an end. He won the tournament in 2011, beating Nadal in the final, and, such is his rivalry with the Spaniard, it would be no great surprise if the two men competed in the final again in two weeks' time. 

Roger Federer has not won a Grand Slam since his success in London in 2012 when he beat Murray in the final. He will turn 33 in August and most observers doubt whether he has another major success in him. If he has, it is most likely to be at Wimbledon. He has won seven of his 17 Grand Slams on grass and can never be written off on his favourite surface. 

Stanislas Wawrinka caused a shock to win the Australian Open earlier this year but he has no record of success in this tournament - fourth round eliminations in 2008 and 2009 being his best performances to date. Having been beaten in the first round in Paris, he received a wildcard for last week's Queen's Club tournament and reached the semi-finals. He will need a repeat of his form in Melbourne if he is to get to the latter stages of Wimbledon this year.

The man who beat him at Queen's, Grigor Dimitrov, is definitely a rising star and worth watching, both at Wimbledon and the US Open a few weeks later. At just 23, he is the youngest man in the world top 20 and is poised to enter the top 10 on the back of his success at Queen's. After beating Wawrinka in straight sets in the semi-finals, he beat grass court specialist Feliciano Lopez in a thrilling three-set final. The Bulgarian has only reached the second round on his three appearances in the main draw at Wimbledon and will be looking to better that record significantly this year. 

Other men looking to have a good tournament include Tomas Berdych, a finalist at Wimbledon in 2010. Having reached the semi-finals at the French Open, the Czech player will want to achieve similar success on grass. 

Milos Raonic has not made the progress at Wimbledon that many had predicted. He has lost in the second round in each of the last three years, yet he potentially has a good grass court game as he possesses one of the most powerful serves on the circuit. He made the quarter-finals in Paris and, still only 23, he will want to make a better impression at Wimbledon than on previous appearances. 

In the women's game, Serena Williams is the favourite, although Maria Sharapova is not far behind. Williams, aged 32, still has the game to succeed at the highest level, especially on grass as the surface suits her powerful serve and groundstrokes. However, although she is a five-time winner at Wimbledon, she lost in the fourth round last year, beaten by eventual finalist Sabine Lisicki. 

This year she suffered a damaging defeat in the second round of the French Open, losing in straight sets to Garbine Muguruza of Spain. She also failed at the Australian Open, losing in the fourth round. Another early exit at Wimbledon and doubts will be cast on her ability to win any more Grand Slams.

Her main rival appears to be Sharapova, fresh from her success at the French Open. Her victory over Simona Halep in a classic three-set final was her first Grand Slam success since 2012, the year she won her first French Open title. It has been a decade since her only success at Wimbledon when, as a 17-year-old, she convincingly beat Serena Williams for her first Grand Slam crown. The nearest she has come since has been an appearance in the 2011 final, where she was beaten in straight sets by Petra Kvitova. 

Kvitova herself will have ambitions of going far in this year's tournament. That triumph in 2011 was her only Grand Slam success so far and, with a world ranking of six, she will look to add to her tally. Her past two Wimbledons have seen her beaten in the quarter-finals, by Serena Williams in 2012 and Kirsten Flipkens last year. 

Halep may have lost the French Open final to Sharapova, but she won many admirers in the process and a first Grand Slam may not be too far away. Aged only 22, she is now up to a career high of three in the world and the last two years have seen her rise rapidly up the rankings. Named the WTA's most improved player in 2013, she has continued her progress this year. She has never reached beyond the second round in her three previous years at Wimbledon, but it would be a surprise if she did not improve substantially on that record this year. 

Another woman with a bright future in the game is Eugenie Bouchard, the 20-year-old Canadian who has reached the semi-finals in each of the two Grand Slams so far in 2014. This year has also seen Bouchard win her first WTA title, the Nurnberger Versicherungscup, a warm-up tournament for the French Open. She reached the third round at last year's Wimbledon, her first time in the main draw, and again she will hope to go further this time. 

Other women with an eye on the Wimbledon title will be Li Na, looking to improve on three quarter-final appearances on grass and Muguruza, who beat Serena Williams in Paris on her way to the quarter-finals. She is another 20-year-old and, alongside Bouchard and Halep, is another who looks set to have a bright future in the game.