Wimbledon Tennis: Quarter-Final Preview

Murray Just Three Matches Away From Immortality

In 2013, British No.1 Andy Murray cemented his place in a nation’s history by ending Britain’s 73-year wait for a Men’s singles champion. Twelve months later he is just three matches shy of retaining his crown, and securing his place amongst the immortals.

Every British tennis fan will be praying to see the champion successfully defend his title on Sunday, but Murray knows that there is plenty of work left to do if he wants to lift a third Grand Slam trophy. Murray faces Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov in the last eight and could face Novak Djokovic in the semi-final.

Murray infamously defeated the Serb in last year’s final, but Djokovic will fancy his chances at SW19. The No.1 seed is up against Marin Cilic next and will be fully expected to book his place in another semi-final.

Arguably the tie of the round, though, sees Swiss stars Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka do battle on Centre Court. The Fed Express will be desperate to deliver one final Grand Slam and this is probably the 32-year-old’s best chance of doing that. However, his compatriot has already lifted the Australian Open title in 2014 and will be confident of claiming another huge victory here.

In the final quarter-final, wildcard Nick Kyrgios will hope to continue his incredible adventure by causing another upset against Canadian Milos Raonic. The Australian teenage entered the tournament outside of the world’s top 100 but has already been touted as the future of tennis. If his confident 4th round win over World No.1 Rafael Nadal is anything to judge by, those supporters may just be right.

It’s crunch time at SW19 and every point is crucial at this stage. We should be in for some thrilling action.

Czech’s Dominate Women’s Draw

In the Women’s draw, we’re actually down to six as Lucie Safarova has already beaten Russia’ Ekaterina Makarova to book her place in the semi-final,, where She will meet fellow Czech star Petra Kvitova.

That means we are guaranteed a Czech finalist and many fans will insist that will be Petra Kvitova. The 2011 beat another compatriot, Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova, in the quarter-final but the No.6 seed will need to remain focused if she wants to keep her hopes of a second Wimbledon crown.

The top half of the draw could be much harder to call, as all four women will think that this is their year. Sabine Lisicki advanced all the way to the final in 2013 before falling to Marion Bartoli at the final hurdle. The German will be in high spirits as she aims to go one step further this time but must first overcome a difficult quarter-final against No.3 seed Simona Halep. If she does, it could set up an all-German semi against Angelique Kerber.

Kerber knocked out Russia Maria Sharapova in round 4 and will be supremely confident ahead of her quarter-final meeting with Eugenie Bouchard. However, the Candadian underdog has already reached the last four in both Australia and France this year and will be quietly confident of completing that particularly hat-trick here.
Expect plenty of drama over the coming days.

Wimbledon Tennis: Quarter-Final Betting

Andy Murray is now just three matches away from a second successive Wimbledon crown and we’re backing the British No.1 to take one step closer to that landmark achievement in style.

Murray has spent the best part of a year preparing for this event, after receiving back surgery towards the end of 2013, but is reaping the benefits and yet to drop a single set at SW19. We think he may drop the first of his title defence against Dimitrov, but should still sail through with some ease.

Andy Murray to win 3-1 in sets is 5/2 with Bet365

We’ve also put together the following treble, in which we are backing the King of Swiss tennis to overcome the prince along with Bouchard and Halep in the Women’s draw.

Federer -1.5 sets; Eugenie Bouchard to win; and Simona Help to win pays 3.09/1 with Paddy Power