Wimbledon ladies 3rd round: Kvitova clashes with Jankovic
Petra Kvitova (9/4 tournament chance with Coral) has begun her defence of the Wimbledon ladies’ singles title in thrilling fashion, having smashed her first two opponents, Kiki Bertens and Kurumi Nara, losing just three games in total.
The Czech second seed (1/7 odds-on favourite for victory), though, faces a far tougher test next up against Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic (4/1), who she has lost to twice before in six previous meetings.
Double Wimbledon champion Kvitova is a more tempting 3/1 shout to beat former WTA world number one Jankovic, who won the mixed doubles title at SW19 with Jamie Murray back in 2007, in three sets.
The victor of the above clash is likely to face Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska, who is heavily odds-on to defeat Australian Casey Dellacqua.
There is another tasty encounter between two other seeded stars Sabine Lisicki (4/5 narrow favourite), runner-up here is 2013, and Swiss Timea Bacsinszky (10/11).
You can take enticing odds of 9/4 on the latter winning 2-0, as they has against the German in their last two meetings, including once this year at the Rome Open.
Other top names in action on day six include Caroline Wozniacki (4/9), who takes on Italian Camila Giorgi (13/8), and German number one Angelique Kerber (2/7) in her tie with Venezuela-born Spanish player Garbine Muguruza (5/2).
American rising star Madison Keys has the chance to make it third time lucky here, meanwhile, as she attempts to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon for the first time. The Australian Open semi-finalist was due to face last year’s runner-up Eugenie Bouchard at this stage, but the Canadian lost ion the opening round.
Keys clashes with Tatjana Maria (3/1) in their first ever meeting, and the former is odds-on favourite at 2/9 for victory.
The winner of that will face one of seed killers Magdalena Rybarikova and Belarusian qualifier Olga Govortsova, who knocked out Ekaterina Makarova and Alize Cornet respectively. Slovakian Rybarikova is the slight favourite to triumph at 8/15, with Govortsova an 11/8 price.
Czech Kristyna Plískova (13/8) duels with Romania’s Monica Niculescu (4/9) in the other third round ladies singles match on Saturday.
Coral’s betting tip – Bacsinszky beats Lisicki 2-0 at 9/4