Over 3.5 sets in Murray v Querrey – evens
Benoit Paire was in a comfortable position twice to take a set away from Andy Murray and failed worse than this recent trend of cringeworthy transfer announcements to do so.
Similarly as in his match against Fabio Fognini, Sir Andy didn’t really have to do much. The Scot just had to get the ball back and his opponent did the rest, as the eccentric Frenchman made sure he was going to make more errors than a Donald Trump tweet.
It’s hard to be optimistic about Murray’s game as he wasn’t even properly tested on Monday and the two-time champion still seems to lack the conviction in his victories.
* Andy’s never shy of a grunt, see if you can pick him of in our Groan Set & Match game here.
Fortunately though, it looks like of collective rubbing Andy’s hip (kudos to Uri Geller) has worked and he’s not showing any negative effects with the injury he picked before the tournament.
This will be a different kind of contest though, as a rejuvenated Sam Querrey is playing the tennis of his career this year. The beanpole-like American beat Novak Djokovic at SW19 last year and will stick to the following game-plan against Andy: Ace-winner-ace-winner.
Despite slower courts helping him a bit, Murray will have a tough time and if Uri’s magic loosens up just a bit then Querrey may be few inches closer to another big win against a world number 1.
Power serve your way over to PaddyPower.com for the latest odds
Federer (-4.5) games v Raonic – 8/11
The Swiss maestro looks as unstoppable as Chelsea did on their march to the Premier League title.
Fair enough, Grigor Dimitrov isn’t on top of his game at the moment, but the ease with which Roger Federer cruised through that match is simply amazing.
His outings have been smoother than strawberries and cream since that shocking loss to Tommy Haas in Stuttgart.
Federer sorted himself out after that and has returned to performances slicker than his barnet. There’ll be an additional x-factor in this match as Milos Raonic eliminated Federer last year and it took R-Fed a while to recover from that.
Raonic is still trying to figure out how he beat Alexander Zverev, where the young German choked worse than Tim Henman trying to make a Wimbledon final on every possible opportunity he had to advance.
The big-serving Canadian took his chance, but is now presented with biggest challenge of them all.
The fact the grass isn’t playing as fast as a Sampras serve this year will additionally help Federer neutralize big server from the Canadian and he’ll get the job done in his usual quick, efficient way.
From start to finish, a feast for the eyes…
The best points from a #Wimbledon classic 🎥#ManicMonday pic.twitter.com/sUbpM0Ij2A
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 10, 2017
Cilic (-4.5) games v Muller – 5/6
Everyone’s favourite Luxembourger (in your face Andy Schleck) Giles Muller did his part and exceeded all expectations by eliminating Rafael Nadal.
However, as in many previous similar cases, there’s a much bigger challenger waiting in your next match after such a big upset and Marin Cilic isn’t in a forgiving mood at the moment.
The Croat hasn’t dropped a set en route to quarter-finals and is playing some really good tennis over past few weeks.
He usually collapses worse than Tottenham’s title hopes with top 10 on the other side of the net, but this is a golden opportunity to get to the semis.
This could also be his shot to get rid of his mental barriers in matches against top guys (as Murray will most likely await him there). Muller’s done fantastically, but he already has two long five-setters and it’s going to be much harder to recover for this match against an on-song Cilic.
* All odds correct at time of posting.