The third round of the singles action at Wimbledon gets underway on Friday which means that for the first time in the tournament the seeded players can finally meet each other as the latest Grand Slam goes up a notch.
There is an open feel to both singles draws heading into the third round and with places in the second week of the marquee grass court event up for grabs, there is little chance of the competitiveness of proceedings diminishing.
Day 4 Recap
It was a day where the two biggest names on show on Thursday were made to work hard for their victories with Rafael Nadal and Iga Swiatek both dropping a set on their way through. There were much more comfortable victories for Stefanos Tsitsipas, Petra Kvitova, Paula Badosa and Simona Halep but we saw another shock when Karolina Pliskova bit the dust. I don’t know whether you can call Diego Schwartzman losing on grass a shock but he was another seed to depart the event.
We put up three bets on Thursday but the rain meant that only two of them were completed. It didn’t start well when Viktorija Golubic couldn’t get the better of Barbora Krejcikova but we came out with a bit of profit courtesy of Brandon Nakashima beating Denis Shapovalov. In the match which wasn’t completed we have had 20 games at the end of the second set so if we get a fourth set between Maxime Cressy and Jack Sock you would think we will get a winner.
Centre Court
For the first time this week the schedule on this half of the draw has had to change on Centre Court after the demise of Emma Raducanu and Andy Murray. Ons Jabeur is the one to benefit from the former exiting the competition as she will open the show against Diane Parry. When they are done the defending champion Novak Djokovic continues his title defence when he meets Miomir Kecmanovic. The final slot on this side of the draw has gone from Andy Murray to the British number one Cameron Norrie. He meets Steve Johnson.
Court 1
There is a British player opening up the show over on Court 1 on Friday as well as Heather Watson gets things up and running when she takes on Kaja Juvan, who had a good win against Beatriz Haddad Maia earlier in the tournament. Once they are done the former champion Angelique Kerber will look to make it back into the second week when she meets Elise Mertens. The men conclude the action on this court and it will be Carlos Alcaraz who gets to entertain the crowds once again. He will take on Oscar Otte in an interesting match.
Court 2
Frances Tiafoe is the man assigned the task of getting the play underway out on Court 2. He will take on Alexander Bublik for the second time in as many weeks after the two met at Eastbourne last week. The Greek ace Maria Sakkari is next up on this court. She has a meeting with Tatjana Maria to negotiate before the man who ended the hopes of Andy Murray, John Isner, is back on the court. He rounds off the schedule on Friday when he takes on the exciting Italian player Jannik Sinner.
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Court 3
The former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko will be the player who gets the action going over on Court 3 on Friday. She meets Irina Begu for a place in the fourth round before the second round clash between Maxime Cressy and Jack Sock gets played to a conclusion. When they are done it is third round action all the way with Tommy Paul taking on Jiri Vesely before the woman who dumped Emma Raducanu out of the competition, Caroline Garcia, has a meeting with Shuai Zhang to round off the day.
Men’s Betting
I’m sure I’m going to regret not having the balls to back Frances Tiafoe who was well on top of Alexander Bublik at Eastbourne last week only to completely collapse from nowhere for no reason. That is enough to put me off but I’m not put off of his American colleague John Isner who put up an absolute clinic to see off Andy Murray on Wednesday evening. The big server never dropped his opening delivery throughout the match which is pretty incredible against a returner of the quality of Murray. Isner now faces Jannik Sinner who I’ve been waiting for the right time to take on as he looks like Bambi on ice on the grass. He might get the hang of it in time but he doesn’t look comfortable at all to me and that is showing in the errors he is making. With Isner serving like a god, if Sinner makes some of those errors at the wrong time he’ll pay the price here.
Another American who is holding serve comfortably at the minute is Steve Johnson and I think he can cause an upset on Centre Court when he takes on Cameron Norrie. Norrie has just gone five sets against a clay court specialist in Jaume Munar and was fortunate that the Spaniard wilted the longer that match went on. Johnson is much more suited to grass and Munar is and you could tell in his interview after beating Ryan Peniston that Johnson is very much enjoying life at the minute. He has a free hit on Centre Court against a player who hasn’t convinced on grass at all this season and at 11/4 I’ll pay to see if he can make the most of it.
Women’s Betting
There isn’t a huge amount I like in the women’s draw on Friday. I’ve been taking Marie Bouzkova so far this week but she might meet her match in the form of Alison Riske, while I am also keen to get Heather Watson beat but the bookies have her as a huge outsider for her match. That leaves me with the one bet here and it comes in the form of the Ukrainian player Lesia Tsurenko to get the better of Jule Niemeier.
Niemeier had a great win over Anett Kontaveit in the previous round but the Estonian was clearly struggling physically and could barely put the ball in court at times. Tsurenko was embroiled in a three-set ding dong with compatriot Anna Kalinina but you could understand the emotions running high in that contest. Tsurenko should be able to settle into her work with more focus here and assuming she doesn’t run into any fitness strife I think she can come out on top here.
Tips
Back J.Isner to beat J.Sinner for a 3/10 stake at 2.50 with Boylesports
Back him here:
Back S.Johnson to beat C.Norrie for a 2/10 stake at 3.75 with Coral
Back him here:
Back L.Tsurenko to beat J.Niemeier for a 3/10 stake at 2.20 with Bet365
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