Medvedev and Kyrgios one step closer to blockbuster meeting
Rafa Nadal progressed in four sets after dropping the first against Fabio Fognini, while the likes of Cameron Norrie, Carlos Alcaraz, Andrey Rublev and Jannik Sinner got the job done as strong pre-match favourites as well to continue their tournament into round three, which will take place in the bottom half of the draw on Saturday.
Before that, though, we have round three action from the top half of the draw, and tournament favourite Daniil Medvedev headlines, against qualifier Yibing Wu. Should he win, and the market suggests that's virtually guaranteed, then he will likely face a blockbuster round four against Nick Kyrgios, who is 1.152/13 to get past the American wildcard, Jeffrey John Wolf.
Murray underdog against big-serving Berrettini
With those matches featuring obvious heavy favourites, scrolling down the schedule sees some more competitive clashes, and several featuring British interest. Firstly, Andy Murray faces Matteo Berrettini, with the Italian a 1.511/2 favourite to end Murray's campaign in the third round.
The 13th seed has had a mixed couple of months, winning Queen's Club but then forced to withdraw from Wimbledon following a positive Covid test. In addition, Berrettini's Masters 1000 August series didn't go to plan, with opening round losses to Pablo Carreno-Busta and Frances Tiafoe, and a rather uninspiring victory over lucky loser Hugo Grenier in round two here probably doesn't bring a lot of confidence either.
As for Murray, he roared back from an opening set loss to wild card Emilio Nava last night to drop just four games in three sets, but again has had a tricky run of results in those August tournaments. On hard court this year, Berrettini has a big edge on serve, but a deficiency on return, and I'm not going to get involved at current prices.
Draper justified favourite over Khachanov
According to the market, though, Jack Draper is the Brit with the best chance of making round four tonight, with the 20 year old a slight favourite over Karen Khachanov at 1.758/11. I'm a big fan of the progress which Draper is making (over 104% combined service/return points won on hard court this year) and even against a former top 10 player, Draper deserves his favourite status.
In other matches, Pablo Carreno-Busta looks justified as the marginal 1.768/11 favourite over Alex De Minaur, and the same can be said of Casper Ruud who is 1.625/8 to beat Tommy Paul. Ruud's superior serve should give him the edge here, which will set him up for a very winnable round four meeting with either Pedro Cachin or Corentin Moutet.