Catch a big Fish before he gets away

It is not often that you can back a seeded player with decent grass-court numbers at odds against when he faces a relatively inexperienced unseeded opponent at Wimbledon.

But there is an opportunity to do precisely that when Mardy Fish, the number 10 seed, encounters the world`s 70th-ranked player, David Goffin, in the men`s singles third round.

There is no doubt that Goffin possesses talent and he will, sooner rather than later, break into the upper echelons of men`s tennis. But surely bookmakers are getting carried away with his recent victories in chalking up odds-on quotes.

Goffin, who has beaten Bernard Tomic and Jesse Levine, both in four sets, to reach the last 32, is around the 8-11 mark to defeat Fish in what will be their first meeting ever.

Fish, a quarter-finalist at Wimbledon last year, has got to the third round by beating Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo in straight sets and James Ward in five sets. On another day, Fish would have defeated the British wild card in three sets and had an early mark. The sets that Fish dropped were 5-7 and 6-7.

The value bet is Fish at around 5-4, which is coincidentally the same odds that bookmakers are offering about Lukas Rosol building on his defeat of Rafael Nadal and qualifying for the fourth round at the expense of Philipp Kohlschreiber.

But while Fish is very interesting at 5-4, Rosol is not for the simple reason that, if you are thinking about backing the Czech because he beat Nadal, you need to inspect Kohlschreiber`s form before investing your money.

Kohlschreiber, you see, defeated Nadal 6-3 6-4 in Halle earlier this month so they both boast the same form line.

None of the other men`s singles matches set for Saturday 30 June 2012 appeal, although you could make a case for a small bet on Marcos Baghdatis upsetting home hero Andy Murray.

Baghdatis and Murray have met six times during their careers for three wins apiece but the Cypriot leads 1-0 on grass as a consequence of their clash at Wimbledon in 2006 which went the way of the demonstrative character 6-3 6-4 7-6.

Admittedly, Baghdatis was in the form of his life in 2006 and Murray had only just turned 19 but some punters will be sufficiently brave to snap up odds of around 6-1 about the Cypriot knocking out Britain`s best hope of a major winner.

In the Wimbledon women singles, taking into account the odds, the players of most interest are Ana Ivanovic and Yaroslava Shvedova - one favourite and one outsider.

Ivanovic is around 8-15 to register her fourth win in five matches versus Julia Goerges. Their most recent meeting was on grass at Queen`s Club last year and Ivanovic coasted to a 6-4 6-3 over their lower ranked opponent from Germany.

Shvedova is around 7-4 to stretch her head-to-head advantage over Sara Errani to 3-1. The women have not met on grass but the Kazakhstani did beat this year`s French Open runner-up 6-3 5-7 7-6 when they met on a Miami hard court in 2011.

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29/06/2012     © Frixo 2026