It should be a thrilling day of quarter-finals at Wimbledon

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There were no surprises yesterday as the top four women’s seeds reached the semis (we thought Azarenka might pull off a shock before remembering she was facing a Williams sister at Wimbledon). The men’s quarter-final draw couldn’t be better though: Federer v Karlovic sees the enduring grass master face the in-form King of Aces, Djokovic v Haas is a repeat of the Halle final, Roddick v Hewitt sees two of the decade’s finest grass court players handed another chance to shine and then there’s Murray v Ferrero, the weakest of the line-up but with huge public interest. Here are three stats on each match:

Tommy Haas (24) v Novak Djokovic (4)
» Djokovic has a 2-1 head-to-head record with Haas but the German beat him in the final at Halle on grass last month.
» This is the furthest Haas has ever got at Wimbledon, continuing a trend where each of the last seven Halle winners have reached the last eight. He has reached three Grand Slam semis but all in Australia.
» Djokovic has won 13 of his last 15 quarter-finals and has reached the last four of six of the last seven tournaments he’s entered.

Lleyton Hewitt v Andy Roddick (6)
» Both men have won 27 career titles, reached four Grand Slam finals and won at Queen’s four times. Therefore it’s no surprise that they are almost inseparable head-to-head, with Hewitt holding a 6-5 advantage.
» Roddick has the advantage on grass though having won their two previous

Posted: July 1st, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | 1 Comment

Fabrice Santoro looks good value at 10/3 in-running

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Fabrice Santoro has won 14 of his last 16 grass court matches against players ranked outside the top 40 but is available at 10/3 with 888sport heading into a first set tie-break.

UPDATE: After winning the first set, the Frenchman is now 5/4, so hopefully you got on early. 5/4 is still a fair price though; the bookmakers tend to stand by their initial favourite even after they lose the first set. This habit also allowed us to profit from Lleyton Hewitt earlier. The Australian was still available at evens after going a set up on Juan Martin del Potro and eventually won in straight sets.

Posted: June 24th, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment