Wimbledon, 3rd round, Friday, 05.07.2024, 14:30
He’s the defending champion, the big favorite for the 2024 final, the man to beat in London! Carlos Alcaraz has big plans for Wimbledon 2024, but will face a very well-known opponent in the 3rd round.
On Friday, he will face the world number 29, which is anything but an easy task. And although the Spaniard is heavily favored as usual, I’ll tell you in my Alcaraz Tiafoe tip why I expect the underdog to win the set!
For years, everyone agreed that Novak Djokovic was the absolute favorite whenever he competed at a major. The Serb may still always be right at the front, but another name is now at the top!
Carlos Alcaraz is the man who stands above the rest. The French Open champion, who beat Jannik Sinner here by a wafer-thin margin, only took part in the preparatory tournament in Queens.
With success? Not really, as he was beaten by Jack Draper in his second match. Quite surprising, but when switching from clay to grass, even the best sometimes despair.
Of course, the Spaniard doesn’t want to show his hand at Wimbledon. At first glance, everything seems to be going well – two matches, two wins. But then one or two difficulties crept in
He started with a 7-6, 7-5, 6-2 against the underdog Mark Lajal from Estonia and found it extremely difficult to get into the match. He then faced Aleksandar Vukic in the second round, where the problems were only evident in the first set.
The result: 7-6, 6-2, 6-2, the next match was over. Alcaraz is not yet brilliant, but perhaps he is simply saving his gala performances for the later rounds.
He is the defending champion in London, having put former champion Novak Djokovic in his place last year. He is by no means facing a bad opponent, but the bookmakers are quite merciless with Frances Tiafoe.
Alcaraz is so clearly ahead with average odds of 1.05 to 9.50 that it can really only be about the size of the win. For example, where would such an outright 3:0 be?
At Bet365, this bet would be just under 1.70, so the stake would be worth it. Once in 2021, once in 2022, only twice have the two players faced each other directly.
Of course, those two games were a while ago, so I don’t attach much importance to the 1:1 in the direct comparison. How does Tiafoe deal with the fact that hardly anyone has confidence in him?
The US-American has clearly declined over the past year, moving further away from the top 10. At the French Open, for example, he failed in the second round and then prepared for Wimbledon.
Stuttgart and Queens, success failed to materialize. On German soil, Tiafoe won by the skin of his teeth 7-5, 7-6 against Yannick Hanfmann, but immediately afterwards lost in three sets to Jack Draper
His performance in Queens? It ended involuntarily when he retired with an injury in the match against Rinky Hijikata. He didn’t want to take any risks before the start on the holy grass. But how did the Wimbledon adventure begin for him?
Tiafoe tortured his way to a 5-7, 2-6, 6-1, 6-3, 6-3 win over Matteo Arnaldi, just barely avoiding elimination. After his victory, he caused a stir by calling his opponents “clowns”.
“Literally a year ago this week I was number ten in the world and now I’m just about seeded here. And losing to clowns. I hate to say that.”
Of course, the US-American is alluding to his form crisis. In the 2nd round, he finally managed a smooth victory, winning 7-6, 6-1, 6-3 against Borna Coric. He only conceded one break and also won 87% of his points on his first serve.
He will have to produce exactly the same performance against Carlos Alcaraz if he is to have any chance of progressing. In fact, his opponent needs an evening in which he barely manages anything
My Alcaraz Tiafoe tip
A good horse only jumps as high as it has to! Carlos Alcaraz got off to a flying start at Wimbledon, but didn’t have to push himself to the limit. Now the struggling Frances Tiafoe awaits.
We never really know what we can expect from the American at the moment. However, his performance in the 2nd round promised considerable improvement. And since Alcaraz is struggling a bit at the start of the game, I’m also betting on him:
Tiafoe takes a set against Alcaraz!
