The second round of the cinch Championships gets up and running at Queens Club on Wednesday when the first four matches take place and with the entire singles event now on the Centre Court the profile of the tournament is yet to go up a notch.
Although we only have two seeded players on show on Wednesday, we have a couple of former Wimbledon finalists on top of that and a pair of young guns who will be looking to show they can play on this surface.
Rinki Hijikata vs Matteo Arnaldi
The opening second round match sees the Australian qualifier Rinki Hijikata going up against the Italian youngster Matteo Arnaldi who will be looking to follow in the footsteps of Matteo Berrettini as an Italian to win this title.
Hijikata might be a little fortunate to be into this second round of the tournament because his opener with Frances Tiafoe was nicely poised when the American took a tumble at the back of the court early in the third set and couldn’t continue. He does have 24 hours recovery on Arnaldi though, who had to go through a final set tiebreak to get the better of Ugo Humbert on Tuesday so it will be interesting to see if that has an impact on this encounter. The odds look about right for this one with Arnaldi being the favourite. I would have happily jumped on a handicap but the extra rest that Hijikata has had is enough to put me off that.
Grigor Dimitrov vs Seb Korda
The second match of a decent schedule on Centre Court on Wednesday should be a cracker as the former champion Grigor Dimitrov looks to make another Queens quarter final when he takes on the Hertogenbosch finalist Seb Korda.
Dimitrov was so dominant in his win over Adrian Mannarino in the opening round that it was being described as a high profile practice session and if the Bulgarian plays like that again here then he is going to be a tough nut to crack. Korda was made to work harder for his first round win but he still came through in straight sets against Karen Khachanov and is looking in good form on the grass so this should be a good match. These two met in Marseille earlier in the year and Dimitrov won that in straight sets with the second set being a tiebreak and with Korda’s serve likely to be more of a weapon in this match I think we might get tiebreaks in this one which makes me think that the over 23.5 game line is one which is within reach here. Korda won four matches in Holland last week so he’s in good form and Dimitrov looked supreme in the opening round. We’re in for a tight tussle here.
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Jordan Thompson vs Andy Murray
The third match of the day might be one of the two without a seeded player in it but it is the one which will have most of the crowd attention as Andy Murray looks to return to the last eight in London once again when he goes up against Jordan Thompson.
Both of these men needed three sets to get the better of their first round opponents. Thompson came from a set down to Holger Rune and looked quite impressive in doing so, although the tighter that match got the more the Dane helped out the Australian. Murray won the first set against Alexei Popyrin but was taken to a decider which he got the better in and he’ll be looking for successive victories on the ATP Tour for the first time since Miami in March. I was hoping that the threat of British money might keep Murray in a pick ‘em or marginal favourite but that isn’t the case. I can’t back the Scot to back up the next day but I’m not massively rushing to back Thompson at odds on so I’ll leave this alone.
Milos Raonic vs Taylor Fritz
The Wednesday schedule concludes with two big servers from North America battling it out when the former Wimbledon champion Milos Raonic takes to the court again to take on the number four seed this week in Taylor Fritz.
Raonic came through a tight and tense deciding set tiebreak in a great match with Cameron Norrie in the first round on Monday and I would imagine he took plenty of confidence from that. The acid test now is how his body feels after a match of that length but if he has recovered then he’ll be a threat here. Fritz had a much easier time of it against Taro Daniel on Tuesday afternoon and will be looking to go from strength to strength and launch a challenge from the title from here on in. The obvious way in for a bet on this match is the tiebreaks and the fact that the first set one is odds against I have to get involved. Raonic went to two of them against Norrie in the opening round and both men base their success on a big serve. I’ll back the first set to go the distance here.
Tips
Back G.Dimitrov vs S.Korda – Over 23.5 games for a 3/10 stake at 1.95 with Coral
Back M.Raonic vs T.Fritz – First Set Tiebreak for a 3/10 stake at 2.05 with Boylesports
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