The Olympic tennis event is really hotting up now as we race towards the medal matches at the weekend and on Tuesday we will see the completion of the second round in the men’s singles as well as the entire last 16 of the women’s draw along with some big doubles matches.
That means we have plenty of big names on show once again including the recent Wimbledon champions Serena Williams and Andy Murray. They are on Centre Court and are the showpiece attractions on the fourth day of tennis action.
Monday Recap
It was the most annoying day of the competition so far for us on Monday. Eugenie Bouchard went 4-1 up on Angelique Kerber but barely won another game and then Kirsten Flipkens won the first set off Lucie Safarova only for the Czech to retire to leave us with a certain winner voided. Scant consolation can be taken by the fact that Marin Cilic, Madison Keys and Svetlana Kuznetsova all made it into the third round.
Elsewhere there were easy wins for Jo Konta and Garbine Muguruza while Serena Williams was made to work hard before she came through but we lost another big name in the men’s draw when Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was knocked out by Gilles Muller.
Monday also signalled the end of Novak Djokovic at this Olympic Games unless he plays mixed doubles. He and his partner Nenad Zimonjic were beaten in the men’s doubles to leave the men’s number one without an Olympic medal still.
Men’s Matches
The second half of second round matches are played out on the men’s draw on Tuesday which means Andy Murray is back in action. He takes on Juan Monaco in a match he should win but which could be a banana skin. Rafael Nadal is the other huge name on show on Tuesday. He takes on Andreas Seppi.
Gilles Simon, David Goffin, David Ferrer and Fabio Fognini are all on show on Tuesday as well on a day where there are a number of one sided favourites, perhaps slightly too one sided albeit I’m not in a rush to go against any of them if I am honest.
The night session match is interesting and the atmosphere is likely to be pretty crazy as Pablo Cuevas takes on Thomaz Bellucci in a Uruguay vs Brazil battle that is always going to ramp the crowd up and I don’t think Bellucci is without a chance in the match.
The Brazilian is going to have the entire crowd on his side and that could prove to be important. We saw him play pretty well in his doubles win over the Murray’s alongside Andre Sa and a repeat of that could well be enough to come through here. Pablo Cuevas dropped a set in the previous round against a relatively low key opponent so there is plenty to like about Bellucci.
Bellucci went into this event having won plenty of matches in Challenger tournaments recently and that momentum can carry him though this one.
Women’s Matches
The last 16 of the women’s draw is played out on Tuesday and there are some really appealing matches on show including the opening match on Centre Court which sees Madison Keys up against Carla Suarez-Navarro while Serena Williams faces Elina Svitolina. Arguably the pick of the games is Svetlana Kuznetsova vs Jo Konta which will have all British eyes on it.
Another decent looking match is Petra Kvitova vs Ekaterina Makarova who meet for the second time in as many months having battled it out at Wimbledon. Makarova won on that occasion, the second time in two meetings between the two this year.
Both have been fairly close though and I fancy this one could be too. Makarova won 6-4 6-4 in Miami and then 7-5 7-6 at Wimbledon and close sets could be the order of the day in this match. Five of their seven completed matches have gone over 21.5 games and this one looks a candidate to do the same. I’ll take the overs here.
Doubles
The men’s doubles play out their quarter finals on Tuesday while the second round of the women’s doubles take place but with a lot of the female doubles players still in the singles and the men’s draw all over the place courtesy of the shocks the time still isn’t right to get involved in anything here.
Tips
WON – Back T.Bellucci to beat P.Cuevas for a 4/10 stake at 2.30 with Winner Sports
Back him here:
WON – Back P.Kvitova vs E.Makarova – Over 21.5 games for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Bet365
Back it here:
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