The grass is pristine, the qualifying event has begun, and we are ready to look forward towards the most prestigious tournament on the tennis schedule. Wimbledon starts on Monday and, while it’s always a little early to make predictions before seeing the draw, we can identify some of the potential dark horses and bracket-busters before we know where they’ll land.

Dark Horses:

Kei Nishikori:  He showed us in Madrid this year that he can play some beautiful attacking tennis. His surprising power will translate to the grass well, and he will be very dangerous if he can stay healthy. He looked solid against Roger Federer in a semifinal loss at Halle.

Richard Gasquet:  The Frenchman has been consistent in recent years, even if not living up to his full potential. Grass is definitely Gasquet’s best surface, and his elite backhand is even more effective there. When it is on, it is arguably the most beautiful shot in tennis to watch. He played a spectacular match at Wimbledon in a five-set loss to Andy Murray in 2008, although he has not reproduced that form on grass since then. If he can, he can ambush anyone in the world. Gasquet should reach at least the fourth round here, and from then anything can happen.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga:  He has had a poor year by his standards, but the fact remains that he is one of the most talented tennis players in the world. His serve is nearly unbreakable at Wimbledon, and that should be on full display.  Tsonga will be the No. 14 seed in Wimbledon, and you can be sure that each of the Big Four are hoping he’s not in their quarter.

Philipp Kohlschreiber:  He has underperformed for most of his career, but he looks to be in good form heading into Wimbledon. Kohlschreiber just reached the semifinals in Halle and had an impressive showing at the French Open, losing an extremely tight match to Murray. He has reached the quarterfinals in Wimbledon before and, depending on the draw, a repeat of that would not be surprising.

Floating Seeds:

This was a term that we coined back at the French Open. It refers to players who are top-32 talent here but for various reasons aren’t ranked high enough to be seeded. As a result, they can land anywhere in the draw and cause havoc in the early rounds.

Lleyton Hewitt:  He is the quintessential floating seed here. Hewitt is still one of the top players in the world on grass, although he no longer has the stamina to go deep in tournaments or play consecutive long matches. The fact is, though, that he can beat even Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic if he draws them in the first round. Every top player will keep an eye on him, knowing that he is a highly dangerous first-round opponent.

Vasek Pospisil:  The Canadian is a rising star who hasn’t quite risen high enough to be seeded yet. In fact, he is the top-ranked unseeded player at Wimbledon, assuming no more seeds withdraw. Pospisil still needs to mature a little more before he can consistently compete as a top-30 player, and his movement on grass needs work, but he is getting up there and can challenge anyone in a one-match situation.

Yen-Hsun Lu: He has a relatively unusual schedule for a professional tennis player. Lu plays only a handful of Tour-level tournaments and is content to play Challengers close to home to keep his ranking around 60-80 in the world. Grass is undoubtedly his best surface, since he reached the quarterfinals here in 2010, upsetting top-10 man Andy Roddick along the way.  While he won’t shock any top players, Lu can definitely rise up and surprise some of the lower seeds.