The second week of Wimbledon 2021 begins with the last ever ‘Manic Monday’, the only day in the entire tournament where a whole round of matches in both singles draws are played out. We play on the middle Sunday from next year so this Wimbledon traditional ends on what should fittingly be a decent day of tennis.
Plenty of big names have made it through to the fourth round of the competition which means we have a lit up schedule on all the main courts as the likes of Novak Djokovic, Ash Barty, Roger Federer, Iga Swiatek and Daniil Medvedev are just some of the stars looking for a quarter final spot.
Day 6 Recap
There was a mixture of easy wins and dramatic endings on a day where the rain got involved on Saturday. Roger Federer came through in four sets while Daniil Medvedev had to come from two sets down to make it through but the likes of Ash Barty, Coco Gauff and Matteo Berrettini cruised into this stage. Angelique Kerber, Paula Badosa and the French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova all came through a deciding set.
It was the first day of the tournament where things went wrong for us from a betting point of view as two of our three bets were beaten and the other was voided when Nick Kyrgios has to retire with an injury. Jordan Thompson and Kaja Juvan had no answer to Ilya Ivashka and Coco Gauff respectively though. To make things worse we lost two of our outright bets in Jelena Ostapenko and Marin Cilic, the latter from two sets up.
Centre Court
The defending men’s champion Novak Djokovic will continue his title defence first up on the Centre Court on Monday when he goes up against a Cristian Garin who was meant to be a clay court specialist but who has shown a liking for the grass here too. When they are done the former champion Angelique Kerber takes on the likely winner in waiting in the future in Coco Gauff before the king of Centre Court once again steps onto the iconic grass as Roger Federer goes up against the dangerous Italian player Lorenzo Sonego.
Court 1
The women’s number one seed Ash Barty is given the honour of getting the action underway over on Court 1 on Sunday. She is in a high profile clash with the French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova, who will look to move to within three wins of a second successive Grand Slam title. The one men’s match on this court on Monday sees the entertaining Felix Auger-Aliassime meeting the US Open finalist Alexander Zverev before the one remaining Brit in singles action, Emma Raducanu, meets Ajla Tomljanovic for a place in the quarter final.
Court 2
The former French Open champion Iga Swiatek is first up on Court 2. She takes on the Tunisian star Ons Jabeur who has been a breath of fresh air in the tournament so far. Andrey Rublev is having a wonderful year but he is still yet to really do it in the Grand Slam arena so he should be extra motivated to see off the challenge of Marton Fucsovics. The final match on this court on Monday sees the second seed Daniil Medvedev looking to make the last eight for the first time when he plays the Polish number one Hubert Hurkacz.
Court 3
There are only a couple of singles matches on the card over on Court 3 on Monday before the doubles action kicks in. The first of those comes in the women’s draw and is a candidate for being the match of the day as Elena Rybakina takes on Aryna Sabalenka in a battle of two very powerful women. When they are done the extremely entertaining Denis Shapovalov is back on court for what could be a brutal encounter with the 2019 semi-finalist Roberto Bautista Agut.
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Best of the Rest
That leaves us with five singles matches on the outside courts and there are some cracking players on show with the Queens winner Matteo Berrettini out on Court 12 along with the big serving Czech player Karolina Pliskova and the Berlin winner Ludmilla Samsonova while Paula Badosa and Karolina Muchova also clash on that court. The other singles action comes on Court 18 where Karen Khachanov meets the rising American star Sebastian Korda and Madison Keys takes on Viktoria Golubic.
Men’s Betting
I’m a little surprised that Roberto Bautista Agut is the outsider for his match against Denis Shapovalov. I say this for a couple of reasons. The first of those being that the Spaniard reached the semi-final of the last Wimbledon event so he has good memories here. The other reason is because it isn’t easy to judge Shapovalov on his exploits so far because he needed a deciding set to see off Philipp Kohlschreiber in the opening round, had a walkover in the second round and then Andy Murray was way off it against him in the third round.
I suspect that Shapovalov is there for the taking. We don’t know that for sure but that is the suspicion I get based on his previous grass court record and his former Grand Slam results where he has grossly underachieved. You could argue that Bautista Agut has overachieved in the Slams having reached a quarter final in Australia and semi-final here. He doesn’t make a lot of mistakes and he is experienced enough to play smart and let Shapovalov beat himself almost. RBA looks a big price here at 6/5.
Women’s Betting
I can’t hide the fact that it isn’t a worry to me that Angelique Kerber has been on court for so long in this tournament already but I still can’t ignore the price on her to beat Coco Gauff here. Kerber looks back to the form which won this tournament three years ago after she won the tournament in the lead up to this event and came through that epic second round match last week. Gauff has come through the draw without losing a set but she has played in bursts a little too much for my liking to date.
We have one of those classic clashes between an aggressive player and a defensive master here which always make for great watches and I expect no different in that regard here. When she is at her best Kerber can be impossible to get the ball past. In that tournament she won heading into this tournament Kerber beat Petra Kvitova and a couple of other powerful players so she won’t be fazed by this one and I expect her to keep making Gauff play that extra ball. I think Gauff will be special in the future but right now the experience of Kerber could be too much for her.
Tips
Back R.Bautista Agut to beat D.Shapovalov for a 3/10 stake at 2.20 with Boylesports
Back him here:
Back A.Kerber to beat C.Gauff for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with William Hill
Back her here: