Wimbledon Day 6: Federer and Murray Drop Sets Before Advancing to Last 16

So today the remaining third round matches were finished and we are down to the last 16. Today was also the first dropped sets for any of the three big favorites at Wimbledon. Both Federer and Murray dropped the third set in their respective matches against Groth and Seppi. Federer dropped the third set in a tie-break, winning 6-4, 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-2. Groth is a guy with a massive serve and clocked one early on at 147 mph. The rest of his game is pretty mediocre though.

His volleys are not the worst, but they’re not great either. His groundstrokes are quite poor and only started working in the third set. Federer played a poor tiebreak, serving a double fault which cost him the third set. His forehand also showed weakness again because he was mishitting several of them. I wouldn’t say it was a convincing performance. It was the first signs of weakness he showed. But a win is a win. As for Murray, I only watched a bit in the first set where Murray was playing attacking tennis and looking quite impressive.

But since he lost a set I guess you can say that is a sign of weakness too. Federer now plays Bautista Agut who he really should beat in straight sets given his lack of weapons. He can’t afford to drop too many sets given his age either. As for Murray, he now plays Karlovic who defeated Tsonga after a controversial double-hit on set point for Tsonga in the fourth set. It was clearly a double hit by Karlovic but the umpire missed it and Karlovic failed to acknowledge it.

It’s hard to blame him though. I think very few players would admit a double hit in that situation. Maybe Djokovic would. Anyway, not a bad effort from Karlovic at age 36 and he is a tough match for anyone on grass, but Murray does lead the head-to-head 5-0. Murray won’t have that tough a match if he comes through there while Federer could play Berdych. But given Simon’s head-to-head of 6-4 against Berdych he could well beat Berdych. That would certainly help Federer a great deal.

Today our prediction match was Troicki vs Brown and the Nadal curse struck again as Troicki dismissed Brown 6-4, 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-3. When players beat Nadal at Wimbledon and at the other slams too it usually takes their best performance which leaves them flat for the next match. I didn’t watch much, but it looked like Brown lacked inspiration again today. Troicki had a decent grass court season before Wimbledon and it’s not really a surprise he finds himself in the last 16.

He now plays Pospisil who defeated the other British hope Ward 8-6 in the fifth set. I’m happy for Pospisil, but I think he will lose to Troicki. Finally, Cilic came out today against Isner and quickly finished him off 12-10 in the fifth set, which means he is playing Kudla next and looking good for a spot in the quarterfinals. There he could face Djokovic who he already pushed hard last year when he was two sets to one up. Certainly Cilic is a dangerous player who can cause big upsets.

I just realized that there are no matches on first Sunday at Wimbledon, and yet there are on second Sunday. I can’t say this realization made me happy, but at least that leaves an action packed Monday. Today there were several people again who picked the correct winner in our prediction game, but only Dimitris picked the amount of sets and the right order of the sets as well. So congrats Dimitris! He moves up several places in the rankings, but Nakul is now #1 after guessing the winner and amount of sets correct.

As for our Monday prediction match, there are eight matches to choose from but to be honest none of them really intrigues me. In the top half, Djokovic vs Anderson and Kyrgios vs Gasquet will be the most interesting while in the bottom half Murray vs Karlovic and Berdych vs Simon provides some intrigue. I guess since there is men’s tennis only every second day from now on I will choose two predictions matches. So I will go for Kyrgios vs Gasquet and Berdych vs Simon.

You have an opportunity for double points now so make sure you predict for both matches! If I have to choose the winner for the round of 16 matches I would go for Djokovic, Cilic, Stan, Kyrgios, Troicki, Murray, Berdych, and Federer. I think Djokovic has his work cut out in the top half with Cilic and Stan/Kyrgios, but he has looked very comfortable so far. In the bottom half, we are probably looking at a Federer vs Murray semi-final which would be terrific. The top half is too tough to call.

Djokovic could lose to Cilic while either Stan or Kyrgios could make semis.

Happy predicting!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkykLyS0IH8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_yKPLdCaWc

The is in your court.