The final preparations for Wimbledon begin down at Eastbourne on Monday when eight players get their Rothesay International campaign underway on a day where we have four matches taking place on the two main courts.
We have to wait until later in the week for the top four players in the field to come to the party, and actually the play on Monday is quite light when you consider that just four of the 12 first round matches are on the schedule but we should see some competitive tennis nevertheless.
Centre Court
The men actually get the action underway on the Centre Court on Monday when the all-British clash between the man who got to the quarter finals at Queens last week in Billy Harris and the Nottingham Challenger event winner the week before in Jacob Fearnley takes place. There are then a pair of women’s matches on the main court before the men come back for the last game when Francisco Cerundolo gets his title defence underway. He faces an awkward challenge in the form of Marcos Giron.
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Court 1
There are two matches from the ATP draw over on Court 1 as well but we have to wait for one of the women’s games to conclude before the men are on court. When we get underway with the men the qualifier Max Purcell will look to make it through to the second round when he goes up against Laslo Djere. The other match sees the seventh seed Tomas Martin Etcheverry looking to make it through when he goes up against the Chinese qualifier Juncheng Shang, who has already had plenty of tennis this weekend having needed three sets in his first qualifying match and two tight ones in the second.
Betting
I mentioned last week when I opposed Tomas Martin Etcheverry that he has a dire record on grass and clearly that hasn’t changed given that he lost to Billy Harris in his first round match at Queens and I am a little surprised that Juncheng Shang isn’t a little shorter to beat him on Monday. If we get the negative out of the way first it would be that Shang has spent 1h39 and 1h56 on court on Saturday and Sunday respectively but that isn’t a huge amount of time by modern standards.
The positives for backing the Chinese player is that he is already 4-2 on the grass this season and a few years ago he made the semi-final of the boys event at Wimbledon so he is clearly comfortable on this surface, a lot more comfortable than his Argentine opponent who really wants a clay court under his feet to show his best tennis. He is now 2-7 on the surface at ATP Tour level and I have to think he is a vulnerable seed here. I’ll take the Chinese player to win this one.
Tips
Back J.Shang to beat T-M.Etcheverry for a 3/10 stake at 1.85 with Coral
