Wimbledon, 2nd Round, Friday, 07.07.2023
Alexander Zverev’s confident debut at Wimbledon. The Hamburg-born player did not let the rain chaos and the resulting postponements of the matches upset him on the court.
In the first round of Wimbledon, Zverev won smoothly in three sets against Gijs Brouwer. Due to the tight schedule, the next match will take place just one day later.
Yosuke Watanuki is waiting in round two, who managed to hold on against Marc-Andrea Huesler. I’ll tell you which bets to place on this match in my Zverev Watanuki tip.
It has not been an easy few days for Alexander Zverev. The rain chaos in the first days of the tournament threw the match schedules into disarray. As a result, the German did not serve on Tuesday or Wednesday, but only on Thursday afternoon.
Meanwhile, other professionals had already successfully mastered two rounds, while the reigning Olympic champion was still waiting for his first match.
He made his criticism of this approach clear at Wimbledon. “There’s a reason why a Grand Slam tournament goes over two weeks: because we need breaks between the best-of-five matches, which I won’t have now in the next few days.”
From Thursday afternoon, he actually has to go straight into the next match on Friday afternoon. There he will face Yosuke Watanuki, who was also still in action yesterday.
Watanuki, however, started his closely contested match already on Wednesday, played out the second half of his four-hour match due to darkness setting in on Thursday.
He ended up taking out Marc-Andrea Huesler (6-7, 5-7, 7-6, 6-3, 6-3), who had a match point in the fourth set but narrowly missed it and will have to continue waiting for his first Grand Slam win.
Zverev was on court for only half as long with a playing time of 2:18 hours. At odds of 1.12, he is the clear favourite in his second-round match. 6.00 are the odds for the Japanese. Bet365 offers 1.90 for another straight 3:0.
Against Brouwer, Zverev did not create as many break chances as usual. He managed the first and only break in the first set.
He laid the foundation with a strong service game. Overall, he bagged 79 per cent of the points on the first serve and 69 per cent on the second.
Similar figures were achieved by the Dutchman, who showed nerves in the two tiebreaks, however, while Zverev finished all three sets with a set.
There were 20 aces in total. Like Zverev, Watanuki also scored 79 percent of the points on his first serve. However, he allowed considerably more after the second service.
In the comeback from a 0:2 deficit, he not only proved his fighting qualities, but also confirmed his good grass court performance. In Stuttgart, he reached the second round after successfully qualifying and almost took Hubert Hurkacz out of the tournament.
Overall, Watanuki now has a 60 per cent win rate on grass. At Wimbledon, he entered the tournament as a lucky loser. He lost his last qualifying match against Dennis Novak in four sets.
Overall, I think Zverev can make it to the next round without too many problems. He has clearly more qualities in the defensive game than Watanuki’s last competition.
Moreover, despite the postponements, Zverev should have a freshness advantage, as Watanuki was on court for around two hours on both Wednesday and Thursday.
3:0 at odds of 1.90 is a strong bet. For a little more risk, the handicap of -7.5 games could also be considered. For this, Bet-at-home offers 2.30 odds.
My Zverev Watanuki Tip
Zverev will face a Watanuki in the second round, having spent two hours on court in each of the last two days in a nerve-wracking first round match against Huesler.
At least in this match, the German is not yet at a competitive disadvantage due to the shortened break between matches. Zverev already put in a strong performance in round one.
Watanuki has shown his talent in several grass court matches, but he should not stand a chance against the German, who has a strong return. I expect Zverev to win his fifth grass-court match this year without dropping a set.
My Zverev Watanuki tip: Zverev to win 3:0
