Fans have been treated to the sight of the pristine lawns of the grass tennis court these last couple of weeks, which means Wimbledon is just around the corner.  Not surprisingly, there is ample discussion about who is most likely to earn the right to hold aloft the trophy at the event that many consider to be the crown jewel of the tennis calendar.

The man on the top of most people's lists is Novak Djokovic.  The Serb has been the favorite at essentially any tournament he has entered for the better part of two years now, and having won Wimbledon the last two seasons, he will be the favorite here once again.   He is firmly entrenched atop the rankings, and with the exception of a couple of shaky performances this past spring, he has looked and proven to be a very difficult man to beat.  In short, the biggest obstacle to Djokovic winning a third consecutive Wimbledon title is himself.

That is where things get interesting, though.  On one hand, the current No. 1 could enter this Wimbledon playing a devastating brand of tennis.  After getting the monkey off his back with his victory in Paris earlier this month, it is difficult to envision his feeling any more confident than he is now.  With nothing left to prove, he should be able to swing away more freely too.  The flip-side to that argument, however, is that by virtue of achieving his dream in Paris, he has also kept alive the possibility of completing a calendar-year Grand Slam.  If Djokovic starts feeling the pressure of trying to pull that off, it could wreak havoc on his game, so it will be up to him to manage the moment.

A man who would dearly love to end the Serb's quest for that kind of tennis immortality is Andy Murray, and few should doubt his ability to do so.  He is quite comfortable on the lawns and did get the better of Djokovic in the final here three years ago.  Murray just won a record fifth title on the Queen's Club grass, and he is coming in confident following the most successful clay-court season of his career.  It is also worth noting that like Djokovic, he has also reached the championship match of the year's first two majors.  Murray will have the home crowd in his back pocket, and perhaps most importantly of all, coach Ivan Lendl is back in his box.  It was with the Czech former star that Murray enjoyed his greatest success, and he is optimistic that they can achieve that level of success again, starting here at Wimbledon.

The list of favorites for the title drops off significantly after Djokovic and Murray, but there are a few others who deserve consideration, starting with Milos Raonic.  The Canadian has increasingly looked like a threat to the world's best in the last six-to-12 months, and between his big serve and his attacking style of play, he has a game that should be well-suited to the grass.  Raonic reached the final of Queen's Club last week, where he went three sets with Murray, and he is a former Wimbledon semifinalist.  Couple that with the fact that he has added John McEnroe to his team, and he may now have all of the pieces in place to enjoy a breakthrough at a major.

Marin Cilic is a player who has already achieved Grand Slam success with his run at the US Open in 2014, and there is no reason why he could not pull off something similar in London.  He moves exceptionally well for his height, gets good pop on his groundstrokes, and employs a highly aggressive style of tennis  He has been to the quarterfinals of this event a few times and reached the semifinals of Queen's Club last week, when he also lost to Murray in three sets.  If he can put it all together, a second major singles title could be in the cards.

Lastly, there is Dominic Thiem, who is assuredly a long shot to win the title but deserves at least a nod for potentially making a deep run here.  He has not done anything spectacular in his prior two appearances at Wimbledon, but it is fair to say that 2016 has been a breakthrough year for him.  Thiem has accumulated some noteworthy victories, and he impressively rose to the occasion following Rafael Nadal's withdrawal in Paris to reach his first major semifinal.  Furthermore, he won the grass event in Stuttgart and backed it up by reaching the final four in Halle.  Nobody should be taking him lightly once Wimbledon gets underway.

Of course, the smart money is on yet another Djokovic vs. Murray final.  But there is a lot of tennis to be played between now and then, and only time will tell if it will be business as usual or if a Cinderella will come along to defy expectations.