No Big Upsets in the Cards, Federer and Serena Expected to Roll into the Next Rounds

Published on July 4th, 2018 - 6:33am EST
Written By: Ned Wilson


Top-seeded Federer faces ATP no. 73 Lacko of Slovakia and having only gone past the second round in two of his previous eight appearances at Wimbledon, Wednesday's challenge seems beyond his reach. Federer is in form, he showed some skillful play in disposing of Lajovic in quick three sets in the first round and will certainly not want to spend too much time on court this time around either. Their two previous meetings were also in Grand slams, Australia in 2011 and Roland Garros in 2014, and Federer won both in easy three sets.

World no. 5 Cilic also showed strong form in first round against Nishioka winning the first-round match in three easy sets. In second round he faces no. 82 Pella of Argentina, who should not trouble Cilic much, just as he didn't in their last meeting in 2015 US Open which Cilic won in straight sets. More of the same is in store for tomorrow's match, Cilic is currently one of the hottest players on Tour and Pella simply does not have weapons to match his opponents game.

Some other favorites in action on Wednesday include 13th seed Raonic who faces world no 56 Millman of Australia. Raonic timed his form for Wimbledon and he looked sharp in his first-round match against Broady, similar style player to Millman. Wawrinka, Anderson, Isner and Querrey round out the list of players who should be heavy favorites in their second-round matches. Other matches look equally matched with Monlfis, Pouille and Tsitsipas with solid chances to make it to the third round of the third Grand slam of the year.

On the women's side of the draw, Serena Williams looms large after having rightly been seeded no. 25 despite her ranking falling 181 currently and giving birth to a girl. Her second-round opponent, Tomova of Bulgaria, is playing the best tennis of her life, but which has only brought her to no. 135 currently, five off her career best ranking. Tomova played a lot of tennis at Wimbledon already having come through three three-setters in qualifying rounds and will probably not have much left in a tank to trouble Serena.

Other favorites expected to win their second-round matches, based on their play so far, include Serena's sister Venus who faces world no. 141 Dulgheru, no 10 seed Keys who faces world no. 91 Kumkhum of Thailand and Donna Vekic, a young and in form Croatian who faces Rebecca Peterson of Sweden.

Number of tricky matches are also in store on Wednesday in the women's draw.

Karolina Pliskova facing Victoria Azarenka who beat her in their last meeting in Madrid earlier this year and holds a 3-2 edge in head to head matches so far. Caroline Wozniacki faces a tricky match against world no. 35 Makarova who beat her in their last meeting in US Open, while Kristina Mladenovic is a slight favorite against a German no. 57 Tatjana Maria, having a 4-1 edge in head to head meetings so far.