Wimbledon halfway stage - PREVIEW

Wimbledon Betting / Editor / 01 July 2007 / Leave a Comment

Men's
Three down, four to go - and Roger Federer looks bang on schedule to match Bjorn Borg's 1980 feat of five men's singles titles in a row at Wimbledon.

The world number one and top seed is sitting pretty going into the second week after three comfortable straight-sets wins in week one. On Monday he is third match on Centre Court against 13th seed Tommy Haas as he chases the seven wins needed to lift the title again.

Even better for Federer, his great rival for the title, Rafael Nadal, is behind schedule after a soggy Saturday at the All England Club. Nadal only got as far as knocking up with Robin Soderling before the rain drove them off court and they are first on Court 1 at 11am on Monday to try again.

It now means Nadal must win five matches in seven days if he is to spoil Federer's dream. If more rain comes the pressure on the Nadal schedule could increase.

Federer faces Haas in the fourth round boosted by the fact that Australian Open runner-up, Fernando Gonzalez, his expected quarter-final opponent, has been knocked out by Janko Tipsarevic. So the Serbian or Juan Carlos Ferrero would meet him in the last eight.

That leaves number three seed Andy Roddick, twice a runner-up to Federer, as the projected semi-final opponent. Roddick, like Federer, has yet to drop a set as he prepares to take on Paul-Henri Mathieu in the fourth round straight after Federer's match.
In the bottom half Nadal has cruised through his first two matches in straight sets but will be frustrated at not getting started against Soderling.

Fourth-seeded Serbian Novak Djokovic was also beaten by Saturday's weather and must wait to get started against Germany's Nicolas Kiefer.

The two oldest men in the draw will be clashing for a place in the last 16. Wayne Arthurs, the London-based Australian is playing his last Wimbledon at the age of 36 and he is up against Sweden's 2006 semi-finalist Jonas Bjorkman, who is 35. Arthurs, a big-serving left-hander from Adelaide, knocked out 11th seed Tommy Robredo in the second round.

Gonzalez and Robredo were two of three big names to fall in the first week with ninth seed James Blake also going through the exit door, the American going out to 20th seed Ferrero.

So on Monday Nadal will start to play catch-up with a win over Soderling leaving him to face the winner of the clash between 14th seed Mikhail Youzhny and 18th seed Jarkko Nieminen in the last 16. Seventh seed Tomas Berdych is the expected quarter-final opponent and then there should be another semi-final clash with Djokovic in the semi-finals. But as Gonzo and Blake both know, the expected doesn't always happen.

Even so, Nadal is still trading at 2.84 with Betfair to reach the final for the second year running. Djokovic is 5.8 and Berdych is 7.6 to reach the final.

Women's
The big four in the women's singles all avoided the weather problems that hit the bottom half of the men's draw.
Top seed Justine Henin booked her place in the last 16 on Friday and now meets 15th seeded Swiss left-hander Patty Schnyder on Monday in the first match on Centre Court.

Jelena Jankovic, the third seed, survived a scare against Lucie Safarova to come through her third-round clash 5-7 7-6 6-2 and now meets France's 18th seed Mario Bartoli of France on Court One.

And on Saturday defending champion Amelie Mauresmo raced through to the last 16 along with second seed Maria Sharapova in two of only three matches completed.

The biggest women's casualties so far are 1997 champion Martina Hingis, the ninth seed, and Anna Chakvetadze, the Russian eighth seed.