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Wimbledon Week Two - Monday

To the start of the second week at Wimbledon, and we are in store for some mouth-watering clashes as the battle for the most prestigious title in tennis reaches its climax.

But first, it should be noted that our outright pick in Dinara Safina lost her third round match to Shahar Peer of Israel. Having saved a match point in the second set where she recovered from 4-1 down, Safina led 5-4 in the third set and failed to see it out. However, we cannot begrudge the effort that she put in as she fought severe cramp in her left leg towards the end of the match, when other players on the circuit wouldn't have thought twice about retiring. In a gruelling and emotional encounter, Safina certainly gave us a run for our money. In an era where the WTA is placing emphasis on the glamour girls such as Ivanovic and Sharapova, it is refreshing to see Safina shun the 'style over substance' ethos which seems endemic on the circuit. Kudos to Marata!

Elena Dementieva faces Shahar Peer in their fourth round encounter. Dementieva struggled against Argentina's Gisela Dulko after a slow start, but showed good courage to come back to win a tight match 7-6, 7-5. Peer held her nerve in the third set of an epic encounter against Dinara Safina, although the fact that she squandered four match points - before winning on a double fault from Safina - against a player who could barely stand up straight, should be a concern. It became painfully obvious how one-dimensional Peer's game-plan can be, and she was incredibly reluctant to come into the net. With a 3:1 H2H in her favour, the Russian's superior experience and variety should see her through comfortably here.

Nicole Vaidisova vs Anna Chakvetadze promises to be a classic WTA encounter with plenty of service breaks, unforced errors, glares at line judges, unashamed fist-pumping - and maybe even a few tears if we're lucky. In what will probably be a match which even the sadists among you and the eventual victor may struggle to enjoy, I fully expect a three-setter. Both players are evenly matched and have been playing similar standards of tennis over the past few weeks. This may well be painful to watch from a viewing point of view, but we can ease the pain by backing there to be over 22.5 games in the match.

Second seed Jelena Jankovic has yet to achieve major success in a Grand Slam, although she has been knocking on the door for a while now. She faces Thai veteran Tamarine Tanasurgan, who surely has a fair chance of causing an upset here. Jankovic dropped the first set against Caroline Wozniacki before coming back impressively to win in three sets. Tanasurgan has enjoyed resurgence in recent weeks, winning the Ordina Open and performing admirably against quality opponents. She may well give Jankovic a scare here but her fitness is probably the biggest concern. Still, I feel this will go the distance with few breaks.

To the ATP, and Roger Federer faces Australian stalwart Lleyton Hewitt in a centre court showdown. Federer has won their last 11 meetings in a row, dropping only four sets in the process. Hewitt is no doubt a champion, but having seen how he was demolished at Queen's Club against Novak Djokovic, Federer should breeze past him in straight sets, but we think that the value is in backing under 34.5 games with William Hill.

Fernando Verdasco takes on Mario Ancic in an intriguing clash between two unfancied yet in-form players. Famed for being the last man to beat Federer on grass, Ancic has struggled with mononucleosis over the past year but has come back with some solid performances this season. Verdasco surprised many by thrashing Tomas Berdych so comprehensively in Round 3, but has only managed to win a single Tier I title since turning pro in 2001, despite maintaining a consistently high ranking in the ATP tour. With both players being strong servers and fairly equally matched in other departments, there should be at least one tie-break in the match and so we'll go long on the total number of games once again.

Big-serving Marin Cilic came out on top of the Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu in the gloomy dusk on Saturday, and faces another Frenchman in Arnaud Clement. We fancy the young Croat to continue his good form and meet Janko Tipsarevic in the quarter finals. Tipsy faces Rainer Schuettler in the fourth round, and having managed to follow up a shock win against Andy Roddick with a straight sets win against Dmitry Tursunov, and he should have too much for the German.

Finally, the two closest and 'must see' matches for Monday are surely Murray vs Gasquet and Safin vs Wawrinka. It's hard to argue with the prices in the latter match, with both players generally available at evens. Wawrinka has a 2:0 H2H in his favour but it's hard to bet against Safin when he's in such a hot streak, so we'll leave this one alone. Having already backed Gasquet to reach the final, we're reluctant to get involved again here, and hopefully the Frenchman will prevail here, although it will no doubt be a tight match.

NJ's picks:

Vaidisova vs Chakvetadze - 1pt over 22.5 games @ 1.93 (Pinnacle)

Tanasurgan vs Jankovic - 1pt over 21 games @ 1.93 (Pinnacle)

Verdasco vs Ancic - 1pt over 40.5 games @ 1.83 (William Hill)

Federer vs Hewitt - 4pts under 34.5 games @ 1.83 (William Hill)

Dementieva, Tipsarevic, Cilic treble - 2.5pts @ 2.79 (BoyleSports)