The second week of Wimbledon gets going on a history making day at SW19 on Sunday. This will be the first time play has officially been planned for the middle Sunday and with places in the quarter finals on the line we are set for a great day of tennis.
Some big names are on show on this historic day as well with one defending champion continuing his title defence, a leading light in the women’s draw and a couple of Brits all combining to make a very good schedule.
Day 6 Recap
It was one of the most dramatic days in the tournament so far on Saturday, mostly because of the heavyweight showdown between Nick Kyrgios and Stefanos Tsitsipas that promised fireworks and certainly delivered on that score with both men dancing with defaults as Kyrgios won in four sets. Elsewhere there were straight sets wins for Rafael Nadal, Alex de Minaur and Taylor Fritz while Paula Badosa and Simona Halep came through in straight sets too. There was one real upset on the day as the world number one Iga Swiatek finally saw her 37-match winning run ended when Alize Cornet put her out in straight sets. Coco Gauff also bit the dust, beaten in three sets by Amanda Anisimova.
It was a profitable day for us overall on Saturday albeit not as much of one as we were hoping. That profit was secured with the first bet of the day when Petra Martic didn’t just stay within 3.5 games of Jessica Pegula but she actually beat her in straight sets. Unfortunately that profit was eaten into when Lorenzo Sonego battled hard but had no answers to the quality of Rafael Nadal and fell well short of the game line.
Centre Court
Two Britons are on show on Sunday and one of them will open up the play on the main Centre Court when Heather Watson gets her chance to shine on the big stage. She takes on Jule Niemeier in a clash between two unseeded players with a huge opportunity to reach a Wimbledon quarter final. When they are done the pick of the matches of the day takes place as two of the leading youngsters in the game meet when Jannik Sinner faces Carlos Alcaraz before Novak Djokovic continues his title defence in the final game on the Centre Court. Surprise Hertogenbosch champion Tim Van Rijthoven stands in his way of a place in the quarter finals.
Court 1
The former Eastbourne champion Jelena Ostapenko will have the task of getting the second court action underway on Sunday. The past winner of the French Open takes on Tatjana Maria who is enjoying a good run and playing some excellent tennis. When they are done the other British player on show on Sunday takes to the court as Cameron Norrie looks to make the quarter final of a Grand Slam for the first time. He goes up against a Tommy Paul who is yet to drop a set this week. The last match on this court could be another cracker as Ons Jabeur takes on Elise Mertens.
Court 2
That leaves us with two singles matches to be played on Sunday and they both take place on Court 2. Two unseeded players meet in the first of them when Marie Bouzkova goes up against the Bad Homburg winner Caroline Garcia who is looking to extend her winning run to nine. When they are done the American 23 seed Frances Tiafoe bids to make the quarter final of a Grand Slam for just the second time when he takes on a David Goffin who has been here before and will be looking to get back into the last eight after a while himself.
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Men’s Betting
Two bets catch my eye on Sunday with the first of those coming in the form of David Goffin to beat Frances Tiafoe. Goffin leads their head-to-head record 4-1 which includes a win at the French Open a few weeks ago and although this is their first meeting on grass, I don’t think Goffin will be inconvenienced by that. Tiafoe is a great athlete but in terms of his shot making I don’t think this is his best surface and although he had a good win over Alexander Bublik in the previous round, it is never easy to gauge the form of a win over the Kazakh given how enigmatic he is. I certainly think there is more merit in the Goffin wins over Sebastian Baez and even more over Ugo Humbert in the last two rounds and when you add the record between the two and the big match experience edge with the Belgian has I’m happy to take him here:
The other bet I like is for Tommy Paul to take care of Cameron Norrie. I opposed Norrie in the previous round and it didn’t become a particularly great move as he demolished Steve Johnson in straight sets but the American seemed to be bugged by a blister and it affected his performance massively. He put just 53% of his first serves in and hit 43 unforced errors in just 23 games so he clearly wasn’t at the races. To be fair to Norrie he was 24:14 for winners and errors but he was on easy street. I think the previous round where he was taken the distance by Jaume Munar is more significant. Paul hasn’t dropped a set yet this week which is good form when you consider he has also made the last eight at Queens and Eastbourne, losing to Matteo Berrettini and Alex de Minaur in those tournaments which isn’t a bad result. He has beaten Denis Shapovalov and Fernando Verdasco so he has had his fix of lefty serves which will help. He just looks more comfortable on the grass and looks value to come through this one.
Women’s Betting
Earlier in the week I was all over Marie Bouzkova and after not backing her in the third round I’m going to get back to siding with her on Sunday. She meets Caroline Garcia who broke the hearts of the British when she dumped Emma Raducanu out in the second round. She played a brilliant match there and wasn’t any worse in her win over Shuai Zhang in the previous round. Garcia is playing well but I’m not sure she is playing as well as Bouzkova.
The Czech player lost the first set of her tournament against Danielle Collins but she has won the six she has played since then and has only dropped 16 games in that time. The incredible statistic as far as the Czech is concerned though is that she has only made 27 unforced errors in the entire tournament so far. To put that into perspective, Garcia made 32 in her opening match and 20 in a one-sided win over Raducanu. She also fired 27 errors against Zhang so while the French player is delivering a stack of winners, against a player who isn’t making many mistakes I think the number of errors Garcia is making could catch up with her here.
Tips
Back D.Goffin to beat F.Tiafoe for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with William Hill
Back him here:
Back T.Paul to beat C.Norrie for a 3/10 stake at 2.63 with Bet365
Back M.Bouzkova to beat C.Garcia for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Boylesports
Back her here:
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