The second round of both singles draws will come to a close at Wimbledon on Thursday with a slightly longer day of action in store after some surprising rain negated the end of play on Wednesday.
We have some big names on show across the courts on Thursday with Rafael Nadal in action as well as the world number one Simona Halep. Novak Djokovic and Juan Martin del Potro are also on the courts on the fourth day of the tournament.
Day 3 Recap
There were simple wins for the two big names on show on Wednesday as Roger Federer and Serena Williams marched on in straight sets while Marin Cilic was in control of his match when play was suspended. We did have a high profile casualty on the day too with Caroline Wozniacki dumped out by Ekaterina Makarova.
Two of our three bets were settled on Wednesday with the John Isner game safely sailing over the required number of games but unfortunately Tatjana Maria’s good run ended when she was beaten by Kiki Mladenovic. In the other match we need Andreas Seppi to win two more games to land that bet.
Centre Court
Rafael Nadal is first up on what is very much British day on Centre Court on Thursday. He faces the perfectly competent Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan. Then it is the turn of the Brits to take over with Jo Konta stepping onto court to take on the feisty Dominika Cibulkova before Kyle Edmund rounds off the action with a meeting with Bradley Klahn of America.
Court 1
Marin Cilic will return to finish his match against Guido Pella to begin the day and then the world number one Simona Halep will be on court. She takes on Saisai Zheng for a place in the third round. Juan Martin del Potro gets to step onto a show court in the third match of the day when he faces the former Queens champion Feliciano Lopez before Alexander Zverev rounds off the action when he meets Taylor Fritz.
Court 2
Naomi Osaka will be looking to make it into the third round when she faces Britain’s Katie Boulter to start the day before Kevin Anderson and Andreas Seppi return to resume their match which was left unfinished on Wednesday. Novak Djokovic will then be on court when he faces Horacio Zeballos before Kei Nishikori will look to make it into the third round when he faces Bernard Tomic. The action concludes with the defending ladies champion Garbine Muguruza facing Alison Van Uytvanck to end a busy day on the court.
Court 3
An entertaining match gets things going on Court 3 with Ashleigh Barty going up against a Eugenie Bouchard who looked to have found some form from somewhere. They are followed by Thomas Fabbiano and Stan Wawrinka returning to finish their match from Wednesday before Nick Kyrgios is on show against Robin Haase. Denis Shapovalov will look to make it into the third round when he faces the livewire that is Benoit Paire before the former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko meets Kirsten Flipkens to finish off the day.
Best of the Rest
If you have a grounds pass or are surfing the streaming options available to everyone then there is much to see on the outside courts. Angelique Kerber is in action on Court 12 as is John Isner and Daria Kasatkina while Daria Gavrilova and Fabio Fognini are the star shows on Court 18. Diego Schwartzman, Carla Suarez Navarro and Elise Mertens are other seeds on show around the grounds.
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Men’s Betting
There are a couple of bets that I like on Thursday with the first coming in the form of the big hitting Jiri Vesely who arrives here in good form and should feel comfortable at Wimbledon after making the fourth round here a couple of years ago. Schwartzman’s good win in the first round was his first in four attempts at Wimbledon and while he is a class act I just feel this surface does him no favours. Vesely’s power can end up being too much for him.
Kyle Edmund is improving all the time on the grass and I think he can show that level of improvement when he takes on Bradley Klahn. Klahn is playing in his first Grand Slam for four years so he has done very well to make it this far but generally from these lesser players unless they are special we see them ride the wave of qualifying for a match and then the amount of tennis they’ve had to play to reach this stage gets too much for them and they struggle. Throw in the occasion and the home crowd right behind Edmund and I expect a pretty comfortable British success.
Women’s Betting
Two more bets for me in the women’s matches and I’m getting involved in the big game on Centre Court where Jo Konta looks an uneasy favourite. That said I don’t trust the serve of Dominika Cibulkova when things get tight so the best way to attack the match is to get on over 20.5 games. This has tight sets and potentially three of them written all over it. Konta is struggling to deal with pressure these days and there is plenty of it on her ranking this fortnight and Cibulkova would chase down roadrunner if you made her. This looks a great match and we should see more than 20.5 games in it.
I’m a little surprised that Kirsten Flipkens is not a warmer favourite for her clash with Jelena Ostapenko than she actually is. Flipkens can play on grass as she showed her five years ago when she made the semi-finals while Ostapenko has never truly convinced me on the surface. The Latvian was a quarter finalist last year but she was riding the wave from winning the French Open then. Her form doesn’t look as good now and her Slam record is only average since that success in Paris. Flipkens can come through here.
Tips
WON – Back J.Vesely to beat D.Schwartzman for a 4/10 stake at 1.90 with Unibet
Back him here:
WON – Back K.Edmund (-6.5 games) to beat B.Klahn for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with 888sport
Back him here:
Back J.Konta vs D.Cibulkova – Over 20.5 games for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with BetVictor
Back it here:
Back K.Flipkens to beat J.Ostapenko for a 4/10 stake at 1.85 with LeoVegas
Back her here:
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