Wimbledon 2022, 2nd Round, Wednesday, 29.06.2022
How are the German starters doing in Wimbledon? While Oscar Otte is the one you trust the most, the others in black-red-gold also want to surprise. It is especially nice when qualifiers advance to the main draw.
Not only that, Maximilian Marterer has now even reached the second round! On Wednesday he will play again, self-explanatory, In my Tiafoe Marterer tip I reveal why I would rather refrain from betting on the German.
For Maximilian Marterer, the trip to London has already absolutely paid off. For the first time since the 2019 Australian Open, he has made it back to a second round at a Grand Slam, and at Wimbledon this is even an absolute first.
The number 172, of course, had to take the arduous route of qualifying. The spectators were treated to three very intense matches against Juan Pablo Varillas, Andrea Pellegrino and Nicolas Moreno De Alboran.
Especially the third round against the US-American was close, two tiebreaks helped Marterer to enter the main draw. Once there, he naturally found himself in the role of the underdog even before the draw.
His opponent: Aljaz Bedene. The first set went to the Slovenian 6-4, then Marterer rallied. 7-5, 6-4, 7-5, in an enormously combative match, he collected the decisive points at the end.
Whoever thinks that both players stubbornly held their serve without giving up any breaks is mistaken. There were eleven chances each on both sides, Marterer used five, Bedene only three.
51% of the first serve was successful, there is still room for improvement for Marterer. The Nuremberg player cut a good figure in the last two Challengers, but of course the really big opponents were not there.
With Frances Tiafoe, he is now up against a completely different opponent. They have already met twice, in 2017 and 2018, and the American won both matches by a narrow margin. For the fact that Marterer is a qualifier, the odds actually read quite well for him.
1.20 to 4.20, here many players from the qualifiers go into the matches with much higher values. Tiafoe is the number 28 in the world, so a third round is something you can definitely trust him with.
But he didn’t start without difficulties in London. His 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 against Andrea Vavassori was more work than he would have liked. But: 87% won points on the first serve, Marterer could not record such values.
His preparation for Wimbledon was already relatively bumpy. In Queens, he lost to Stan Wawrinka in the first round in a true tiebreak festival, in Eastbourne in three sets, also right at the beginning, to Alexander Bublik.
In the last set, Tiafoe had really collapsed with a 0-6. A year ago, he had been able to really surprise here in London, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Vasek Popisil fell victim to him. However, he has not yet managed more than a third round at Wimbledon.
My Tiafoe Marterer Tip
In my analysis, I could see that Tiafoe has a much better serve. The American is not in top form, but whoever is ranked among the best 25 in the world should still be able to handle a qualifier. My tip is therefore:
Tiafoe wins at under 45.5 games!
