The third round of the singles draws at Wimbledon is expected to be completed on a busy day of action at SW19 on Saturday after the rain returned to mess around with much of the schedule on Friday.
That means we have more matches than we usually would on the schedule on Saturday where Novak Djokovic, Iga Swiatek and Alexander Zverev are among those headlining it as they go in search of places in the second week.
Centre Court
The one remaining British male in the draw opens up the action on Centre Court on Saturday when Cameron Norrie looks to make it back into the second week of the tournament when he faces the French Open finalist Alexander Zverev in a good looking opener. The beaten finalist from last year, Ons Jabeur, then follows them onto the main court when she meets the semi-finalist of a year ago in Elina Svitolina before we close off the show with the man who was beaten in the final here a year ago in the shape of the former winner Novak Djokovic. Alexei Popyrin is his opponent.
Court 1
We have a good schedule over on Court 1 on Saturday too with the conclusion of the two entertaining North American players getting us going when Ben Shelton takes on Denis Shapovalov with their encounter halted in the first set on Friday when the rain arrived. The world number one Iga Swiatek follows them onto court when she looks to make the fourth round at the expense of Yulia Putintseva before the 2022 winner Elena Rybakina aims to make it back to the second week of the tournament when she faces Caroline Wozniacki. If that wasn’t enough action on this court Andy Murray and Emma Raducanu combine in the mixed doubles for the first time to close out the show.
Court 2
We have just the three matches on Court 2 on Saturday with the weather still expected to be hit and miss. We have another British player on show first up as Harriet Dart looks to make it into the fourth round for the first time when she meets the unseeded Chinese player Xinyu Wang. When they are done we will get the conclusion to the match between Daniil Medvedev and Jan-Lennard Struff which was halted in the fourth set with the Russian 2-1 up in sets. When they are done the Eastbourne champion Taylor Fritz will look to make progress when he goes up against the Mallorca winner from the same week in Alejandro Tabilo.
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Court 3
There are just the two singles matches over on Court 3 where the Hertogenbosch winner Alex de Minaur will be looking to make the second week of a second Slam in succession. The former Wimbledon semi-finalist Lucas Pouille will be his opponent. When they are finished the Miami champion Danielle Collins continues competing in her final Wimbledon when she takes on the Brazilian player Beatriz Haddad Maia who has some good grass court form under her belt. A doubles match concludes the action in this part of the grounds.
Best of the Rest
With the rain impacting the schedule on Friday we have more singles matches than usual on the outside courts on Saturday with them spread out further than they normally are with the indifferent forecast for the day too. Over on Court 12 we have Ugo Humbert and Jelena Ostapenko on show while elsewhere other seeds taking to the courts include Anna Kalinskaya, Liudmila Samsonova, Holger Rune, Barbora Krejcikova and Lorenzo Musetti.
Betting
I like a couple of bets over the course of the day on Saturday with the first of those coming in the form of the match between Cameron Norrie and Alexander Zverev. There will be a real British buzz around Centre Court for this match because of the parade of sporting legends before the action begins and Norrie should be able to ride that in a match I expect to be longer than the bookmakers seem to. They might have their game line set at 35.5 because Zverev leads their head to head 5-0 but they went five sets in Australia earlier this year where this line had covered halfway into a fourth set. The other four matches Zverev has won in straight sets but each one had a tiebreak in it bar one so that makes me think that on a surface that assists the Norrie game and isn’t the strong point of the Zverev one that this will be closer. I think we’ll get tight sets here and potentially four or five of them so I like over 35.5 games in this one.
Moving over to the women’s draw and I fancy the world number one Iga Swiatek could be made to work hard on a surface which is clearly the one she likes the least. Yulia Putintseva has already won a tournament in Birmingham this summer and is on a seven match winning streak which includes good wins over Angelique Kerber and Katerina Siniakova here. Swiatek has beaten a couple of solid opponents in Sofia Kenin and Petra Martic so far in this tournament but both have run her closer than the bookmakers assumed and I see no reason why Putintseva, much more suited and comfortable on grass than the Pole, won’t do likewise. You can get Putintseva with a 5.5 game start, a handicap she covered when these two last met on clay which is the dominant surface of Swiatek so here I’ve got to think she can stay inside this line.
Tips
Back C.Norrie vs A.Zverev – Over 35.5 games for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Boylesports
Back it here:
Back Y.Putintseva (+5.5 games) to beat I.Swiatek for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Bet365
