Murray into quarter-finals
An easy straight sets win against Kevin Anderson took Andy Murray into quarter finals.
The 27-year-old British number one eased to the first set inside 43 minutes before rain halted play for 30 minutes while the roof was closed above Centre Court with the Scot 3-0 up in the second set.
Murray’s towering and big-serving South African opponent threatened a fight-back in the still indoor conditions when play resumed, but a fourth break of serve from the Scot secured him a two-set lead.
All of the players the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam are top 10 players but all I can do is concentrate on my game and if I can play well then I will make it tough for them. Andy Murray
The third set was a closer affair but Murray eventually triumphed in the tie-break to seal a 6-4 6-3 7-6 (8-6) victory in two hours and 33 minutes.
The two-time Grand Slam champion has still yet to drop a set this year and he has also now won 17 consecutive matches at the All England Club, stretching back to his Olympic Gold medal win at London 2012.
Murray, who will face Grigor Dimitrov or Leonardo Mayer in the last-eight, told BBC Sport: “When it was outdoors I played very well and was in a good position, but when we came indoors he was striking the ball better and serving better and I was dropping shorter.
“That meant there was a lot more running at the end because he was playing very well.”
On the quarter-finals, he added: “All of the matches now are tough, all of the players the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam are top 10 players but all I can do is concentrate on my game and if I can play well then I will make it tough for them.
“It’s obviously good to get off in straight sets and I can now rest up get ready the quarter-finals but I don’t know what is going to happen with the other matches.”
Murray’s possible route
- Semi-final: Novak Djokovic (Serbia, 2)
- Final: Rafael Nadal (Spain, 1)
“Each year I’ve played at Wimbledon, I’ve got better. It’s been slow but steady progress.
“Obviously it’s going to be tough to top winning the tournament but, if I can play like I did last year, I’ll definitely be in with a chance.”
Betting…….
Murray is now just 5/2 to defend his Wimbledon title, while Novak Djokovic is 13/8 and world number one Rafael Nadal is 4/1
However, Anderson secured a 6-3 6-1 victory in the Montreal Masters a year later and is 10/1 to defeat Murray at Wimbledon and 22/1 to do so in five sets, while Murray is 4/9 to progress to the quarter-finals in straight sets.
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What’s your strategy for tennis betting…….
Here’s some suggestions as to how can we profit from the fact that men’s tennis is a best of five sets in the major tournaments?
- Lay the player with the shortest odds in the Set Betting market, to win 3-0. Out of 15 matches played on 25 June, 11 of the matches finished without a 3-0 sets win to the shortest-priced player. (Do some basic research perhaps to hone in on matches where both players are likely to win a set. For example, Bernard Tomic and Thomas Berdych played each other at Wimbledon last year, and the first two sets were 7-6 and 6-7 – both players shared the first two very tight sets. Surely there is a reasonable argument for both players to win a set when they met in 2014’s Wimbledon.)
- Wait for a seeded player to find himself one or two sets down at a critical time in the match. In the examples above, Monfils was two sets to nil down. This is a critical time. IF he does not win the next set he is out of Wimbledon. Similarly, if Rafael Nadal is a set and a break of serve down, he needs to fix this as he will then be two sets down and having to win the next three sets to survive.
Ladies’ tennis is better for laying the first set winner, when the first set winner is not the short priced favourite. There is a real urgency in ladies’ tennis as it is a match which is the first to two sets.
If a short-priced favourite loses the first set, she (and other short-priced favourites) will generally win the second set. You can profit by laying the under-dog when a set up, or back the favourite when a set down, and trade out when they wins the second set (for more information on trading and Betfair, go to……. Betfair Trading
Who are YOUR WIMBLEDON fancies??…….
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