It is time for the third round to begin in the singles draws at Wimbledon on Friday and it does so with big names back on the scene at SW19. This is the first round of the event that seeded players can meet each other so the competition goes up a notch from here.
We have the two biggest players in the game on show on Friday with Roger Federer and Serena Williams taking the courts and there are plenty of other leading lights on what is actually a decent enough card given all the shocks we’ve seen.
Day 4 Recap
One of those shocks came last on Court 2 on Thursday evening when the defending ladies champion Garbine Muguruza was dumped out ruthlessly by Alison Van Uytvanck. That wasn’t the only shock we saw on the day as Queens champion Marin Cilic was also well beaten while on Centre Court Jo Konta came a cropper. There were however much easier wins for the likes of Rafael Nadal, Juan Martin del Potro, Novak Djokovic, Simona Halep and Naomi Osaka among others.
It was a level day for us betting wise with Jiri Vesely and Kyle Edmund delivering the goods for us but Jo Konta and Kirsten Flipkens never showed up in their matches. We did get the over land in the held over match from Wednesday too to keep our heads above water for the tournament.
Centre Court
Sam Querrey will be used to Centre Court after his run to the semi-final here last year and he opens up play on Friday when he faces Gael Monfils. Serena Williams is then up second when she takes on Kiki Mladenovic in what is the first real test of the week for the American legend. Speaking of legends it is Roger Federer who finishes off the scheduled action on the main court when he takes on Jan-Lennard Struff.
Court 1
Taylor Fritz and Alexander Zverev are straight back on Court 1 to finish off their match in which the American leads 2-1 in sets when it resumes. Venus Williams then takes on Kiki Bertens in what should be an entertaining third round match before Karolina Pliskova is up to take on Mihaela Buzarnescu for a place in the last 16. Milos Raonic will round off the show when he faces the Austrian player Dennis Novak.
Court 2
Kevin Anderson is the first man to grace Court 2 on Friday when he takes on Philipp Kohlschreiber in what has makings of being a lengthy match. They will be followed by the big hitting Julia Goerges and Barbora Strycova and then it is the turn of John Isner to round off a pretty short day on the court. He takes on Radu Albot of Moldova.
Court 3
Madison Keys will be looking to make it into the second week of another major when she takes on the Russian player Evgeniya Rodina in the first match of the day on Court 3 before Donna Vekic looks to continue her good run when she plays Yanina Wickmayer before Adrian Mannarino meets Daniil Medvedev in the last singles match on the court.
Best of the Rest
There isn’t a huge amount on the outside courts on Friday but there is a tasty opening match out on Court 12 where Ekaterina Makarova faces Lucie Safarova in what should be bombs away on the serve. Man of the moment Stefanos Tsitsipas is last on that court too.
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Men’s Betting
I like two bets in the men’s draw on Friday. I know that Adrian Mannarino has a 2-0 lead over Daniil Medvedev in their career battles but we can excuse the Russian as it was in the early stages of his life on tour. This is the first time they will meet on grass and on this grass I think that Medvedev is a good bet. The ball is bouncing a lot higher this week with the firmness of the courts and it could be the hottest day of the year too so the ball will travel through the air and they are both things which should suit the Russian player. Mannarino hadn’t had a good time of things before his run at Queens. I think his Wimbledon ends here.
Stefanos Tsitsipas is impressing a lot of good judges in the world of tennis and I expect him to continue to do that when he takes on Thomas Fabbiano. The Italian player did well to dump Stan Wawrinka out in the last round but the Swiss ace isn’t the player he was so I think Fabbiano will need more to come through here. Tsitsipas found Jared Donaldson a tough nut to crack in the previous round but he made it through in the end and I think he’ll cover a 3.5 game handicap against the slightly overrated Italian.
Women’s Betting
There is just the one I like in the women’s draw on Friday and it comes in the form of Mihaela Buzarnescu who pretty much had a bye in the previous round against Katie Swan of Great Britain. That is no bad thing given the weather we’ve been having this week though. She now faces Karolina Pliskova who amazingly has never been past this stage at Wimbledon despite her big serve. I thought Victoria Azarenka was just getting on top of her before she fizzled out in the last match but the power of the Romanian can expose Pliskova’s lack of movement and as a result of that she looks a huge price to me.
Tips
Back D.Medvedev to beat A.Mannarino for a 4/10 stake at 1.86 with TLCBet
Back him here:
WON – Back S.Tsitsipas (-3.5 games) to beat T.Fabbiano for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with Fun88
Back him here:
Back M.Buzarnescu to beat K.Pliskova for a 3/10 stake at 2.80 with NetBet
Back her here:
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