Betfair tennis preview Wimbledon Day Six
Wimbledon Betting
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Editor /
29 June 2007 /
AT LAST a few upsets with fifth seed Fernando Gonzalez and ninth seed James Blake among the men's singles casualties and former champion Martina Hingis taking a tumble in the women's singles yesterday.
But hot favourite Roger Federer and third seed Andy Roddick powered their way on towards a potential semi-final showdown on Friday. So what does Day Six hold for Betfair fans? After Paul-Henri Mathieu's upset win over Ivan Ljubicic yesterday, who will provide the fireworks today? Here are the Betfair Four to follow on Day Six - weather permitting. And, if the forecast rains come bucketing down, will there be a People's Sunday? Wimbledon will leave it late before deciding.
Lleyton Hewitt (Australia, 16) v Guillermo Canas (Argentina, 22)
Lleyton Hewitt, the 2001 US Open champion and 2002 Wimbledon winner, faces an intriguing contest on Centre Court as the draw at last starts to throw up some top-quality contests.
Hewitt will find Guillermo Canas a far different proposition to Thursday's outclassed opponent Simone Bolelli. Canas, of course, is the Argentine comeback star who beat Roger Federer in back-to-back Masters events in Indian Wells and Miami earlier this year.
Hewitt is looking to match his quarter-final effort of last year - at least - while Canas has only reached the fourth round once, back in 2001.
They have met seven times and Hewitt leads 5-2, including wins in their two meetings on grass. However, Canas won their last clash in four sets way back at the 2002 French Open.
Hewitt, a quarter-finalist twice and a semi-finalist once in the last three years, is strongly fancied at 1.33 to make the last 16 for the sixth time. Canas is on offer at 3.85 to spring a grass-court surprise.
David Nalbandian (Argentina, 23) v Marcos Baghdatis (Cyprus, 10)
Now here's a Court 1 match which pits the experience and guile of David Nalbandian against the youthful exuberance of Marcos Baghdatis.
Nalbandian was the 2002 runner-up on his Wimbledon debut and the 25-year-old has already maintained his record of reaching the third round or better on this, his fifth visit to the Championships.
Baghdatis, who is 22, is only playing his third Wimbledon and after a first-round exit in 2005, he reached the semi-final last year to follow up his runners-up effort at the Australian Open at the start of 2006.
They have met three times and Baghdatis has won the last two to lead 2-1. Their most recent contest was in the Australian Open semi-finals last year when the young man from Cyprus came from two sets down to win.
He is the favourite at 1.85 with Betfair to win again today but it may be just as close as in Melbourne last time and Nalbandian is trading at 2.16.
Nikolay Davydenko (Russia, 6) v Gael Monfils (France)
This is 26-year-old Nikolay Davydenko's sixth Wimbledon and the first time he has been beyond the second round. Maybe the sixth seed is getting the hang of playing on grass but he is going to have his work cut out on Court 2 against 6ft 4in 20-year-old Gael Monfils. The Parisian is six inches taller and that means Davydenko will have to return well if he is to keep his opponent's big serve in check.
It is Monfils' third Wimbledon and after reaching the third round on his first visit, he went out in the first round last year.
He and Davydenko have met once and that was at the 2005 Miami Masters when Monfils won. Monfils is trading at 1.66 with Betfair to upset a 69-place ranking difference and knock out the world No 4. Davydenko is available at 2.48.
Ai Sugiyama (Japan, 26) v Maria Sharapova (Russia, 2)
A tricky one for 2004 champion Maria Sharapova on Court 1 as she looks to make it into the second week.
Sugiyama, 32 on Thursday, is playing her 15th consecutive Wimbledon and is looking to match her best effort of a quarter-final place in 2004 - when Sharapova came back from a set down to beat her on the way to taking the title.
She had to do the same thing in their other meeting earlier this year when the 6ft 2in 20-year-old again came from behind to topple the 5ft 4in Japanese star in her home city of Tokyo. Sharapova is an overwhelming favourite at 1.05 to make the fourth round but it is likely to be harder than it looks. You can get 17.5 on a Sugiyama win.
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