Despite the rain of the opening two days, Wimbledon 2021 got back on track on Thursday, which means that the third round of the singles draws can get underway as planned on Friday which means seeded players can face each other for the first time in the tournament.
The big names haven’t all negotiated their way through to this stage but Novak Djokovic, Aryna Sabalenka, Andy Murray and Iga Swiatek are some of those who have and they are all on the schedule on Friday.
Day 4 Recap
Thursday was a day of great action although for many of the bigger names it was something of a cruise. Roger Federer, Daniil Medvedev, Alexander Zverev and Matteo Berrettini all eased through in the men’s draw while in the women’s draw there were straight sets wins for Ash Barty, Barbora Krejcikova and Coco Gauff. There were higher profile exits for the likes of Victoria Azarenka, Elina Svitolina and Gael Monfils while Angelique Kerber and Karolina Muchova came through deciding set epics.
It was another perfect day for us betting wise with both the bets we advised coming in and doing so without any trouble whatsoever. It started in pretty comfortable fashion when Daniil Medvedev picked up the straight sets victory we expected him to. We gave him an under 32.5 games target and he got the job done in 25. The perfect day was then secured when Kaja Juvan wasted no time in seeing off Clara Burel in straight sets. That made it 10 from 10 for 3pt bets for us this week.
Centre Court
The first all-seed match of the tournament on Centre Court gets us underway on Friday when the exciting Ons Jabeur puts her credentials on the line when she takes on the former champion Garbine Muguruza in what is the pick of the ladies matches on paper. It is Britain all the week when they are done as the British number one Dan Evans is second onto the court. He faces a tricky tussle against Sebastian Korda before the greatest British player of the lot is back on the main stage as Andy Murray takes on the exciting and entertaining Denis Shapovalov.
Court 1
The former US Open champion Sloane Stephens gets the action started over on Court 1 on Friday when she meets the recent winner in Berlin in the form of Ludmilla Samsonova. Novak Djokovic has to make a rare appearance over on Court 1 on Friday when he takes on the American qualifier Denis Kudla before a ladies match rounds off the action on the second court. That sees two seeded stars meet when Elise Mertens goes up against a Madison Keys who has looked very impressive to date.
Court 2
There are just the three matches over on Court 2 on Friday with the number of games starting to come down as we progress through the draw. It is Karolina Pliskova who will open up the play. The big serving Czech takes on her countrywoman Tereza Martincova. When they are done the number two seed Aryna Sabalenka is back on court. She faces off against Maria Camila Osorio Serrano in a match she will be expected to progress from. The men round off the action when Roberto Bautista Agut goes up against Dominik Koepfer.
Court 3
Only two matches take place out on Court 3 on Friday and they are both men’s matches so if you have a ticket for that court you should be fully entertained. That is because Fabio Fognini is first up on the court. He has a pretty stern test on his hands though against an Andrey Rublev who was a finalist at Halle a few weeks ago. When they are done Diego Schwartzman will look to make it to the second week of a second successive Grand Slam when he faces the Hungary player Marton Fucsovics.
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Best of the Rest
The other five singles matches come on two other courts on Friday – Court 12 and Court 18. The former French Open champion Iga Swiatek headlines the play on Court 12 while Cristian Garin is another seeded player in action in that part of the grounds. Karen Khachanov and Elena Rybakina are the other two seeds who will be looking to make it into the second week. They are in action over on Court 18.
Men’s Betting
There are two matches in which I expect a lot of action in on Friday and as such I’m happy to play the over in games. The first of those is the one between two men who would rather be on clay than grass in Cristian Garin and Pedro Martinez. To be fair to these two they have come through nicely but not without their issues with Garin having to go to a decider in the opening round and then four sets in the second round. Martinez has gone four sets and all four matches these two have played in the draw this week have contained tight sets throughout. I expect that to be the case here in what could easily be a deciding set cracker so the over 37.5 games looks good to me in this one.
The other match I’m expecting to go on a bit is the marquee match on Centre Court when Denis Shapovalov takes on Andy Murray. This is a match I expect the Canadian youngster to come out on top in but he’s going to have the crowd against him and it never takes too much for him to get onto himself. Murray is clearly going to fight hard here. That’s what he does and he’ll take comfort from the fact that Philipp Kohlscreiber took Shapovalov the distance in the opening round. The strength of the Shapovalov game is the serve which Murray will neutralise quite often with his excellent return game. That makes me think the winner will be the one who outlasts the other and while that is happening we can go beyond 36.5 games.
Women’s Betting
There is only the one I like on a tricky day in the women’s draw on Friday and it comes in the closing match on Court 1 where Elise Mertens takes on Madison Keys in a match which the bookies can’t split the two in but I make Keys a pretty warm favourite in these conditions. I think she has the better game for grass and I guess that is evidenced by the fact that coming into Wimbledon this year Mertens hadn’t won a match on grass. She has won her two matches here very easily but Harriet Dart and Lyn Zhu are ranked 142 and 99 in the world respectively. They’re not Madison Keys.
Keys looked to be going along ok in Berlin as she beat Aryna Sabalenka before running into the eventual winner Ludmilla Samsonova but she has picked up where she left off here and I just sense she has the power to overcome Mertens. I like Mertens but these two have met twice and the American has progressed in straight sets on both occasions. They were both on a hard court but in the second one at the 2019 Australian Open, Mertens won just five games. I expect Keys to come through here.
Tips
Back C.Garin vs P.Martinez – Over 37.5 games for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
Back D.Shapovalov vs A.Murray – Over 36.5 games for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Betway
Back M.Keys to beat E.Mertens for a 3/10 stake at 1.95 with BetVictor
Back her here:
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