Wimbledon, 3rd Round, Friday, 07/07/2023
After beating his Russian compatriot Aslan Karatsev, Andrey Rublev is looking to punch his ticket to the last 16 of Wimbledon on Friday. He will meet David Goffin in the late afternoon.
This duel has already taken place twice. Both times Rublev was the winner. I explain what bets are on offer for the first Wimbledon encounter in my Rublev Goffin tip.
So far, Rublev hasn’t had much trouble when he has met Goffin. As in their first two matches, they are playing out a Grand Slam-level match.
At the 2017 US Open, the final score was 3-0 to Rublev, who made one more error but dominated the winning numbers.
Goffin took a more aggressive approach to the match three years later at the Australian Open, but also ended up with 51 unforced errors.
In the tiebreaks, Rublev was the decisively better player. Already in the first duel, Rublev and Goffin played one out. Will tennis fans see a tiebreak in this duel after another three-year break? Betano thinks that is quite likely with odds of 1.65.
Rublev is also the favourite going into the third duel. With odds of 1.22, however, bettors are quite cautious. With a successful bet on Goffin, the stake can be quadrupled.
The world number seven has played a sovereign grass court season so far. In Halle, he reached the final after wins over Yibing Wu, Yannick Hanfmann, Tallon Griekspoor and Roberto Bautista Agut.
In the deciding match for the title of the popular lawn tournament he had to admit defeat after three sets against Alexander Bublik, who celebrated his first title at 500 level.
Rublev was not deterred by this, he started in Wimbledon with a smooth 3:0 victory against Max Purcell. He made the most of five break chances and only conceded two.
The task in round two against Karatsev was more tricky. After losing a tiebreak, Rublev finally turned the match around and once again took five service games from his opponent.
Goffin is in good form at Wimbledon. However, the former world number seven has struggled to maintain his level for long periods. In the meantime, Goffin has slipped to 123rd place.
He proved that he can go one better at the most prestigious tournament of the year with his quarter-final appearances in 2019 and 2022.
This year, he first took out Fabian Maroszan and then Tomas Barrios Vera. In both matches, he dropped the second set 7-5, then followed it up with a 6-2 and 6-0 clearly.
Barrios Vera had to fight 24 break chances, Marozsan 13. Impressive numbers that Rublev will also have on his mind.
Goffin can be expected to win the set, as he did in the last meeting, in which he even managed one break more at the end. In addition, both players have won at least one set in seven of the last Rublev matches.
My Rublev Goffin Tip
Rublev is also favourite in the third meeting between the two players. But whether he will win the match outright in three sets, I dare to doubt.
Goffin also solved his first matches confidently and worked out all break chances in the return game and Rublev wobbled after second serve in his first games.
Moreover, Goffin has proved several times that he can call up extra power at Wimbledon and in the last duel against Rublev he played at a similar level for long stretches. Therefore, I come to the following recommendation.
My Rublev Goffin tip: Goffin wins a set.
