Wimbledon Men's Singles Day 8 Tips: Eubanks and Tsitsipas likely to be a battle of big servers

• Djokovic leads Hurkacz overnight

• Eubanks can give Tsitsipas a tricky time

• Berrettini a big test for Alcaraz

Djokovic shortening in outrights despite Hurkacz challenge

Novak Djokovic, so far, has found Hubert Hurkacz a tough nut to crack. Identical 8-6 tiebreak wins in the first two sets sees the Serb lead 2-0 overnight, but unable to break serve in 12 return games in what has been a match dominated by serve. Despite this, Djokovic is into 1.618/13 to win the title, with Carlos Alcaraz the clear second favourite at 6.05/1. If you fancy an upset, Hurkacz is currently available at 320.0319/1 in the outright market.

Eubanks' strong serve should create tiebreaks

Action in the men's tournament gets started a little later than has been the case last week with a 12:30 UK time start. Chris Eubanks faces Stefanos Tsitsipas in the opening match of the schedule, with Tsitsipas favourite at 1.384/11.

Eubanks has had a fantastic grass season, winning in Mallorca and then his three victories here, and winning tiebreaks has been his forte, winning the last seven he's played on the surface. That's pretty unsustainable, but it does go some way to explaining how he's managed to win a lot of tight matches of late.

The foundation of Eubanks' success is his big serve, which he's held 93% of the time in the last two years on grass, with a similar figure this season. His return game is pretty limited, which is also the case for the higher-profile Tsitsipas, who has broken opposition just 9% on grass in 2023.

Given this, we should expect more tiebreaks, and a very tight match where the winner of key points should prevail. The general market has over 12.5 games in the first set at around 2.245/4, but the Sportsbook is taking no chances here, pricing it up at even money. If we can get that price on the Exchange in the run up to the match (set 1 correct score market) then it looks a decent spot in my opinion.

Medvedev strong favourite over Lehecka

Moving on, Daniil Medvedev is a strong favourite at 1.282/7 against the continually improving Jiri Lehecka, who will have a career-high ranking after this tournament. Medvedev's return game should be the difference here, and whether Lehecka can back up a five-set win over Tommy Paul in the last round which lasted almost four hours.

Following his impressive win over Francis Tiafoe, the market is keen on Grigor Dimitrov against Holger Rune, although Rune's underwhelming tournament so far probably also has something to do with it. Rune is still yet to defeat a grass courter with any repute on the surface, and Dimitrov should be a step up from the opposition he's beaten so far. Surface numbers suggest the consensus on the Exchange is about right.

Alcaraz could be tested by impressive Berrettini

Finally, top seed Carlos Alcaraz faces the flying Matteo Berrettini, who hasn't dropped a set in his last two matches in the tournament despite facing decent opposition. This has put to bed some of the fitness concerns over the Italian, and if he's in good condition here, should be very capable of causing a shock victory.

Alcaraz struggled past Nicolas Jarry in the last round and is still yet to beat a top 15 player on grass in his career. While Berrettini, due to his injury absence, is not ranked that highly, in normal circumstances he'd be top 10, and represents a real test to Alcaraz which will be useful to see the Spaniard's level on the surface.

The market is arguably taking a chance by pricing up Alcaraz at the current 1.454/9.