Wimbledon men’s quarter-finals: Djokovic comes through thriller
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As Wimbledon enters the latter stage of its competition, Coral preview the top half of the men’s singles quarter-finals draw where three reigning Grand Slam winners feature.
Defending All-England Club champion Novak Djokovic duels with Marin Cilic (US Open), while Stan Wawrinka (French Open) is up against Richard Gasquet.
Novak Djokovic v Marin Cilic
Eight-time Grand Slam winner Djokovic had to dig deep to keep his chance of defending his SW19 title alive, as he had to come back from two sets down and play across two days against South African Kevin Anderson to reach the quarters.
The 11/10 title favourite now has to face a similar, and arguably tougher, opponent in tall big-server Cilic, but the Croat has never beaten the world number one in an incredible 12 attempts.
They have, however, met at Wimbledon before, last year at this same stage, with the Serb winning in five sets and he is a tempting 7/1 chance to do so again. Cilic has already faced two five-setters this tournament so far.
Djokovic is the heavy 1/12 odds-on favourite just for victory, with the Croatian priced at 13/2, and the former is more fancied at 4/7 to triumph in straight sets, which he has done eight times against his upcoming opponent before.
Stan Wawrinka v Richard Gasquet
This will be a battle between two of the most stylish single-handed backhanders in the game, and it will be hard to split the talented duo as they have one win apiece against each other.
Recent French Open champion Wawrinka, though, is the odds-on favourite at 4/9, due to his good form and being the only player left in the men’s singles draw yet to drop a set. He is 2/1 to win 3-0 once more.
Gasquet (7/4 chance), however, has looked equally impressive this tournament, after easily dispatching last year’s semi-finalist Grigor Dimitrov, and doing well to keep his focus and knock out belligerent Aussie Nick Kyrgios.
In a tournament that has boasted a number of five-setters so far, this could be another, after Wawrinka beat the Frenchman 3-2 at the 2013 French Open. The Swiss is 5/1 to win by that scoreline again.
Grass may not be Wawrinka’s favourite surface, but he has certainly quietly gone about his business and enroute to his joint-furthest stage at Wimbledon. He won the French Open this year after only previously reaching the quarters at Roland Garros before, so take tempting odds of 8/1 for him to lift the famous All-England Club trophy too.
Coral’s betting tip – Wawrinka beats Gasquet 3-2 @ 5/1
