You can never blame any tournament that has been impacted by poor weather, but the organisers of Wimbledon have to ask themselves some serious questions as to how they have handled the first three days of this year's event.
Nothing could be done about Tuesday and the torrential rain, but they will have been well aware that they are already behind schedule when releasing the order of play for Wednesday. While most expected a drier day, two rain delays have clearly had an impact as to how quickly they could get through the draw, but I am not sure how they can justify being in a position where some players are into the Third Round, while others have not even been able to begin their First Round match.
The uncertainty about how to use the two roofs they do have only compounded this error of judgement when it comes to having their draw become as lopsided as it has become.
I understand there are certainly players that will have the privilege of playing on the big two courts and have deserved those places, but Alexander Zverev and Karolina Muchova have every right to be seriously upset as to how their tournament schedule is going to look. Both have yet to even hit a ball in the First Round and Muchova in particular has to be feeling aggrieved having been seen as a dark horse at a Slam where she has had success in the past and after reaching the French Open Final last month.
At least the next two days look drier as both of these players are going to have to win on likely three straight days to earn their place in the Fourth Round. This is far from ideal, but Wimbledon's organisers are going to have to do a much better job of trying to keep the tournament as fair as possible, especially with more rain expected after Friday.
This also means a number of Picks have yet to be played through the first three days and the large majority of the Second Round Picks I made for Day 3 have been postponed until Day 4. You can have a look at those selections by clicking here and I have written down a few thoughts about a couple of those matches and my reason for making those Picks below.
That link will take you to the Picks for matches that were scheduled to be played on Wednesday, but more Second Round matches have been put together and other selections are added here, while also updating the Wimbledon totals from what has been a busy week.
The quick turnaround for some players also means it takes a touch more time for the markets to be opened up for some of the Second Round matches set to be played on Thursday and it will be the case again ahead of Day 5 as the tournament looks to get back on schedule.
Hubert Hurkacz - 6.5 games v Jan Choinski: The early Rounds of Wimbledon tends to be a time when the home broadcaster will be keen on 'Brit Watch' with a number of familiar names from the grass court portion of the season. A large majority of those British names are pretty low in the World Rankings and have had very little impact at events outside of the grass court events, but even to those who follow Wimbledon will sometimes be surprised by names that represent the home nation.
One of those in the Gentlemen's draw is Jan Choinski who began his career representing Germany before switching to Great Britain four years ago. However, unlike many players from Britain, grass court tennis has been a little alien to Jan Choinski and his poor record on the surface did mean there would have been little fanfare around him.
A Wild Card has earned Jan Choinski a place in the main draw, the first time he has competed in any Grand Slam, and credit has to be given to the World Number 164 for winning a First Round match. The victory over Dusan Lajovic is just the third time Jan Choinski has been able to beat a top 100 Ranked player on the Tour, but the challenge looks much tougher in the Second Round with the British player set to face a former Wimbledon Semi Finalist.
Hubert Hurkacz may have written his name into the quiz books as being the last player to beat Roger Federer in the latter's storied career, but the World Number 18 will have entered Wimbledon with a real ambition to really stamp his mark on tennis history the old fashioned way of winning a Grand Slam title. The Semi Final run in 2021 saw Hubert Hurkacz beat both Daniil Medvedev and Roger Federer on the big show courts at Wimbledon before coming undone against Matteo Berrettini, and the big Pole made relatively easy work of Albert Ramos in the First Round.
There is no doubt that the return game is the weakness for Hubert Hurkacz and it makes covering handicap marks like this one a tough task, but he can make enough balls back in play to put his lower Ranked opponent under pressure.
All credit has to be given to Jan Choinski for the way he won his First Round match, but his form in the warm up events was nothing to write home about. In previous matches against top 100 Ranked opponents before the First Round, Jan Choinski had won just 58% of service points played and that was the percentage when playing the grass court events leading up to this tournament.
It has meant that Jan Choinski has lost serve 28% of the time on the grass, while he has had issues on the return. The latter part of his game is going to be given a severe examination by the serve produced by Hubert Hurkacz and you just have to believe the former Semi Finalist will have enough to find at least four breaks of serve, which could be enough to cover this mark.
Andrey Rublev - 5.5 games v Aslan Karatsev: You cannot ignore the mid-match wobble that Andrey Rublev had in his First Round win over Max Purcell, but the fact is that the top ten Seed was able to avoid dropping a set and make relatively serene progress through to the Second Round. He will look to continue to fly under the radar in the same half of the draw as favourite Novak Djokovic, but Andrey Rublev will know that his level needs to be stronger for longer if he is going to beat his compatriot in the Second Round.
Prior to his breakthrough at the Australian Open in 2021, Aslan Karatsev had been spoken about in glowing terms by Rublev and Daniil Medvedev when joining them at the ATP Cup. The strong run in Melbourne saw Karatsev playing with confidence and momentum that took him up to World Number 14, but he is entering Wimbledon as the Number 50 Ranked player in the world.
And Aslan Karatsev has found it difficult to match the raised expectations that would have come with his run to the Australian Open Semi Final in his debut at Grand Slam level. Since then, Karatsev has played in eight Slam tournaments and he has reached the Third Round just twice, while failing to earn a place in the second week in any of those events.
Playing on the grass has been tough for Aslan Karatsev who has a 6-12 record on the surface after coming from a set down to win his First Round match. That is the first ever win recorded by Aslan Karatsev at Wimbledon and backing that up will not be easy against Andrey Rublev who reached the Halle Final.
The Aslan Karatsev serve can be a pretty effective weapon on the grass, but it is the return where he has struggled to make an impact and that has put pressure on him. His service numbers have been better in 2023 compared with 2022 on this surface, but there has been a real slide when only focusing on the two matches that Karatsev has played against top 50 Ranked players on this surface.
He did take a set against Lorenzo Sonego, but Aslan Karatsev was pretty well beaten in the end and has also lost to Taylor Fritz. While both of those players may feel they are stronger than Andrey Rublev on the grass, the World Number 7 has had some strong victories on the grass this year and he can earn a measure of revenge for the defeat suffered to Aslan Karatsev in Dubai in 2021.
Andrey Rublev serves pretty efficiently on the grass himself, but should have a real edge in the return and that can eventually show up in this Second Round match over the best of five setting.
Casper Ruud - 6.5 games v Liam Broady: The British player might be the lower Ranked of the two, but there are plenty of expectations around Liam Broady in this Second Round match at Wimbledon as he bids for the upset. A lot of the talking heads have given the left hander a real chance of beating Casper Ruud, but I do think that has been overplayed and the French Open Runner Up is someone who should be able to produce solid tennis on the grass courts.
Results have not been the best for Casper Ruud, who is legitimately allergic to grass, but a solid win in the First Round will do him the world of good. He has not played any tennis since losing the French Open Final to Novak Djokovic, but Casper Ruud came out strongly and he was more than worth his win even if he dropped a set.
It might actually do Casper Ruud some good to have had to play a little bit more tennis in the First Round and he was very strong through the last couple of sets having lost the second.
Casper Ruud got a little bit more out of his serve in the First Round and he will believe that he has the tools to have an effective serve on the grass courts. He is facing someone in Liam Broady who is very comfortable on the grass courts, but who has only broken in 11% of return games played on this surface against top 50 Ranked opponents.
You have to credit Liam Broady for his win in the First Round and he did reach the Third Round last year having finally beaten a top 50 Ranked opponent on the grass against Diego Schwartzman. However, he was well beaten by Alex de Minaur in the Third Round and I do think Liam Broady will struggle to stay with Casper Ruud over the course of this one.
It is unlikely to be a one sided blowout throughout, but Casper Ruud should be able to exert his quality on the match after a couple of tight sets.
This has been seen in Liam Broady's previous matches against the better players on the Tour and Ruud should be able to find his rhythm once he gets accustomed to the left handed server he is facing.
Over the course of his career, Liam Broady has won 56% of his service points played against top 50 Ranked opponents and that has seen him hold onto 65% of his service games. That number only marginally increases to 67% when considering his grass court matches, while the British player will have some difficulties getting into the Casper Ruud service games if the Norwegian is serving anywhere near as well as he was in the First Round.
We are asking for a big spread to be covered, but Ruud has the capabilities to be much better on the grass than we have seen so far in his career and he can get the better of the home player on Centre Court on Day 4.
MY PICKS: Casper Ruud - 6.5 Games @ 2.00 Paddy Power (2 Units)
Grigor Dimitrov - 5.5 Games @ 1.83 Bet365 (2 Units)
Frances Tiafoe - 4.5 Games @ 1.72 Bet365 (2 Units)
Taylor Fritz - 5.5 Games @ 2.00 Bet Victor (2 Units)
Denis Shapovalov - 1.5 Sets @ 2.10 Paddy Power (2 Units)
Marton Fucsovics - 1.5 Sets @ 2.00 Paddy Power (2 Units)
Donna Vekic - 3.5 Games @ 1.83 Bet365 (2 Units)
Jessica Pegula - 5.5 Games @ 1.85 Coral (2 Units)
Caroline Garcia - 3.5 Games @ 1.95 Coral (2 Units)
Katie Boulter - 4.5 Games @ 2.10 Paddy Power (2 Units)
Katie Boulter - 4.5 Games @ 2.10 Paddy Power (2 Units)
Beatriz Haddad Maia - 5.5 Games @ 1.95 Bet Victor (2 Units)
Veronika Kudermetova - 1.5 Games @ 1.83 Bet Victor (2 Units)
Jelena Ostapenko - 3.5 Games @ 1.83 Bet Victor (2 Units)
Wimbledon Update: 23-17, + 7.42 Units (80 Units Staked, + 9.28% Yield)
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