The last 16 of the Rothesay International will be played out in full on what is set to be an absolutely scorching day at Devonshire Park as we look to finalise the quarter final line up at the last warm up event before Wimbledon.
This is the day that the top four seeds enter the tournament so we are guaranteed some decent action over a wide number of courts as the organisers look to ensure the event continues to run to a tight schedule.
Centre Court
As has been the case all week we have just the two men’s matches on the main court with them coming at the start and the close of play. The first match onto the court sees the fourth seed Sebastian Baez opening his campaign when he goes up against Miomir Kecmanovic and then at the end of the day the number one seed and twice former champion here Taylor Fritz begins a quest for a third title when he meets Thiago Seyboth Wild for a spot in the quarter final.
Court 1
We have two more men’s matches over on Court 1 but to avoid a clash they are the middle two matches of the four that take place on this part of the grounds. After a women’s match, when the men come onto court we will see Emil Ruusuvuori going up against the Chinese qualifier Juncheng Shang before the third seed Alexander Bublik will look to make it into the last eight as he begins his tournament against the lucky loser Aleksandar Vukic, who took full advantage of his second chance to dump Fabian Marozsan out earlier in the week.
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Outside Courts
That leaves us with four matches on the outside courts on Wednesday so a grounds pass will get you to see plenty of action. One of those matches takes place on Court 2 where the opening game sees the British wildcard Billy Harris taking on Charles Broom who is back as a lucky loser after the Queens champion Tommy Paul pulled out on Tuesday. Court 5 stages the other three matches and right out of the gate we have Yoshihito Nishioka going up against Marcos Giron before Lorenzo Sonego meets Max Purcell. The last game of the three pits another lucky loser in Giles Hussey, who replaced Kei Nishikori in the field, against Flavio Cobolli.
Betting
There isn’t a huge amount that interests me over the course of the play on Wednesday but there is enough to suggest that Max Purcell is a bit of value at 6/4 to get the better of Lorenzo Sonego. Sonego was 1-4 for his last five grass court matches prior to his win over Henry Searle on Tuesday but while we should never downplay a win of any kind, Searle was a late replacement for Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and the match was already scheduled for the Centre Court where there was a big crowd in which the Briton won’t have experienced too often.
That match was relatively late in the afternoon on Tuesday whereas Purcell played on the Monday so he will be the fresher of the two even allowing for him playing doubles on Tuesday but the match only went a set and a few games. Purcell is improving a lot on the singles court and being an Australian he is going to be comfortable on a grass court. We know he’ll be giving this everything as he looks to rise up the rankings and having won five of his six matches over this week and last I think the Aussie can come through here. Sonego beat Purcell here three years ago in a deciding set but the two are going in opposite directions so I’ll take the Australian in this one.
Tips
Back M.Purcell to beat L.Sonego for a 3/10 stake at 2.50 with William Hill
Back him here:
