As ever at Wimbledon Tennis the second Wednesday is men’s quarter final day with all four matches played out on the two show courts and by the end of the day we will know the line up for the semi-finalists in both the men’s and women’s draw.
All eyes will be on centre court where the British hope Andy Murray will be playing but Roger Federer is also on that court. Despite Novak Djokovic’s early exit the schedule on Court One isn’t too shabby either so this should be a cracking day of tennis.
There are plenty of doubles and boys and girls matches on the outside courts on Wednesday too as the minor schedule looks to catch up to day ahead of the finals at the weekend.
Tuesday Recap
The four ladies quarter finals promised to be intriguing but they disappointed in that regard with all four of them being won in straight sets and the only upset coming when Elena Vesnina saw off Dominika Cibulkova as we thought might have happened but sadly didn’t put our money where our mouth is.
The good thing from all of that is Angelique Kerber, our outright pick in this draw, cruised into the semi-finals where she will face Venus Williams on Thursday but sadly while Serena Williams won in straight sets she didn’t do it quickly enough to cover the handicap we required.
Centre Court
Roger Federer is first up on this court when he takes on Marin Cilic in a repeat of the US Open semi-final of 2014. That was the only time Cilic has beaten Federer but he went on to win the final so maybe there is an omen there for him.
Cilic has looked very good in this tournament so far. He has come through quite nicely and had the bonus of not really having to play in the last round as his opponent Kei Nishikori was restricted by injury. He is serving bombs and crunching ground strokes and you would have to say he is a live danger here.
Federer finally raised his game to the level which suggested he could win this tournament against Steve Johnson in the previous round but he will know he is unlikely to have things all his own way in this match unless he is at his vintage best which now Djokovic is out he might well be.
From what we’ve seen in the tournament so far I like Cilic here but having backed him at 7/1 to win his quarter I am already on him at that price here so I don’t need to go in again so as much as I’m a huge Federer fan I’ll sit this one out hoping Cilic can come through.
The other match on Centre on Wednesday sees Andy Murray facing Jo-Wilfried Tsonga which could be a cracking match if they both play their best. Tsonga is another one who benefitted from an injury to his opponent in the last round so he should be fresh again after that marathon match he played against John Isner in the third round.
Andy Murray wasn’t tested too much by Nick Kyrgios on Monday either. The Australian had one of his temperamental days and Murray was able to cruise through. He hasn’t lost a set in the tournament either so he should be as fresh as possible at this stage of a tournament.
I’m tempted by over 35.5 games here as Tsonga has won a set in all their grass court meetings apart from the Davis Cup tie last year and I fancy he’ll take one here but Murray is playing the big points so well that I’ll sit this one out and hope the Scot comes through for the sake of our outright bet.
Court One
First up on Court One is the big hitting clash between Sam Querrey and Milos Raonic which might take a while to sort because you wouldn’t think there will be too many breaks of serve given the power these two smash their serve down with.
Raonic is the favourite in this one which probably isn’t too unexpected but I’m not so sure he will win the match and if he does I don’t think it will be as straight forward as the odds suggest it will be. Raonic had to come from two sets down to David Goffin in the previous round and Goffin offers nothing like the sort of weapons that Querrey does.
Querrey has put on some serving exhibitions in the last couple of rounds but it has been his returning and ground game which has really caught the eye as he isn’t renowned for that but there were times where he was dominating Djokovic from the back of the court and he outplayed Nicolas Mahut in all departments in the previous round.
I’m expecting plenty of close sets here and I’m not sure Raonic has the ground game to win too many sets by a break of serve against Querrey so the 3.5 game handicap that Querrey starts off with looks quite big to me. If anyone wins a set with a break it may well be Querrey given that he’s had good preparation having just faced Mahut and his serving machine.
Given how well these two both serve you would have to think we’re going to see tie-breaks in this match and the 11/8 we see one in the first set is appealing to me. Raonic’s first three rounds had the first set going to a tie-break while Querrey saw two of his first three rounds go the distance in the first set.
These two played a match here in 2012 where the first three sets all went to tie-breaks and given they’ve not played for three years they might need a while to get their eye in against the serve so with that in mind I fancy an early one here.
The other match sees Tomas Berdych going up against the surprise package Lucas Pouille. Both had marathons in the last match going five sets and indeed Berdych needed to come back on Tuesday to finish his match which was far from ideal. This is their first meeting and while I expect Berdych to win nothing really stands out so I’ll sit this one out.
Best of the Rest
There are plenty of doubles matches on the outside courts and while I might get involved in them over the weekend I’ll sit them out on Wednesday as all pairings have played plenty of tennis since the weekend and fatigue has to be an issue so we might see a few surprise results.
Tips
Back S.Querrey (+3.5 games) to beat M.Raonic for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with Paddy Power
Back him here:
Back S.Querrey vs M.Raonic – 1st set tie-break for a 3/10 stake at 2.38 with Coral
Back it here:
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