Tsonga to beat Kohlschreiber in four or five

Philipp Kohlschreiber has enjoyed a dream run to the last eight of the Wimbledon men`s singles but the German`s luck will probably run out when he meets Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Kohlschreiber would not have expected to make it past the third round because he was drawn to play two-time Centre Court champion Rafael Nadal in the last 32. Luckily for the German, Nadal lost in five sets to Lukas Rosol in one of the biggest Grand Slam men`s singles shocks in many, many years.

The number 27 seed has made the most of his good fortune, bringing Rosol down from cloud nine with a 6-2 6-3 7-6 win and defeating another surprise packet, Brian Baker, 6-1 7-6 6-3 in a fourth-round clash that few people had foreseen.

Kohlschreiber is an accomplished grass-court player - he shocked Nadal 6-3 6-4 in Halle last month en route to the semi-finals - but Tsonga is every bit as good as him and, also, the Frenchman has dominated their previous meetings.

Tsonga leads their head-to-head series 5-1. The Frenchman has won his last four meetings with Kohlschreiber without dropping a single set and two of them were earlier this year, on a Miami hard court and a Monte Carlo clay court.

Bookmakers have installed Tsonga as the general 1-3 match favourite. Strictly speaking those may be the correct odds but Tsonga can blow a bit hot and cold and he is not the type of player whom punters want to back at short prices.

Kohlschreiber has served more aces than any other player in the Wimbledon men`s singles - 88 free service points - so there has to be a good chance that he will be difficult to break and take at least one set to a tie-break lottery.

Back Tsonga to win the match in four sets at around 11-4 and, also, in five sets at around 11-2. Splitting your stakes means that you get around 11-8 about the French favourite reaching the semi-finals in a tight tussle.

Home hope Andy Murray is around the 4-9 mark to qualify for his fourth consecutive Wimbledon men`s singles semi-final by beating David Ferrer in the second match on Centre Court.

Murray may knock out Ferrer and go on to become the first British man to win a Wimbledon singles title since Fred Perry triumphed in 1936 but he is not a value betting proposition against his dogged Spanish opponent.

Ferrer is a much better grass-court player than most pundits acknowledge and, as forecast, he was too good for false favourite Juan Martin Del Potro in the round of 16.

Murray and Ferrer have met 10 times during their careers. They are tied at five wins apiece, although the Spaniard has won their most recent two meetings, including a round-robin match at last year`s ATP World Tour Finals in London.

Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic are prohibitively priced favourites for their matches versus Mikhail Youzhny and Florian Mayer respectively. And with good reason, too.

Federer is 13-0 against Youzhny, which includes five wins on grass in which he has lost only two sets, one of them in a tie-break. Bookmakers will get plenty of business at the general 8-11 available about a 3-0 victory for the Swiss.

Djokovic is even shorter odds to eliminate Mayer. They have met once before, with the Serbian winning 7-5 6-1 in Dubai.

Go To bet365

#Ad

03/07/2012     © Frixo 2024