Ricky Dimon
Second-round competition at Wimbledon comes to a close on Thursday, with the bottom half of the women’s singles draw already depleted. Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula are out, so Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina are among those hoping to avoid the upset bug. On the men’s side, Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic are continuing their title bids on Centre Court. Let’s take a look at the Wimbledon best bets to be made on the Day 4 schedule, and you can also find out my Wimbledon men’s singles predictions and Wimbledon women’s singles picks, which include longshots at +10000 and +5000 odds!
Wimbledon Parlay: Flavio Cobolli ML over Jack Pinnington Jones and Lorenzo Sonego ML over Nikoloz Basilashvili (+114)
Flavio Cobolli will likely be far too good for an opponent who is in the main draw of a Grand Slam for the first time. In fact, Jack Pinnington Jones just concluded his college career at TCU this spring. Meanwhile, few guys on the ATP Tour bash the ball more brainlessly than Lorenzo Sonego – but Nikoloz Basilashvili is one of those guys. Sonego has more variety in his game, which should serve him well on grass against an opponent who is content to stay at the baseline and blast forehands as hard as he can with no apparent tactical strategy. The Georgian can be dangerous because of that all-or-nothing style, but it’s difficult for him to sustain it across a best-of-5-set match. It’s also worth noting that Sonego has already reached a Grand Slam quarterfinal this year at the Australian Open.
Wimbledon best bet: Katie Volynets +4.5 games over Elisabetta Cocciaretto (-130)
Does a tennis name get any better than “Volynets”? Of course, that’s not why I’m backing her. Part of the reason is that the American beat Queen’s Club champion Tatjana Maria in the opening round; that is a stellar grass-court result. Most importantly, Elisabetta Cocciaretto is simply mispriced following her first-round upset of Jessica Pegula. That’s obviously a great result, but the sample size of the Italian’s success is small. Moreover, Pegula was making a quick turnaround after winning the Bad Homburg event this past weekend and clearly wasn’t herself. Cocciaretto had nothing to lose in round 1; now she has the pressure of being favored. I even have Katie Volynets winning this one outright.
Wimbledon prediction: Hailey Baptiste ML over Victoria Mboko (+120)
Victoria Mboko is ranked 42 spots below Baptiste (#97 to #55) and had never played a professional match on grass prior to Wimbledon. The 18-year-old did well to qualify for the main draw, but none of her wins en route were particularly impressive. Although Hailey Baptiste hasn’t played that many matches on grass herself, she at least has more experience than Mboko. The 23-year-old American lost her opening set to Sorana Cirstea in round 1 and then rolled through the next 2 by a 6-1, 6-2 scoreline. It’s hard to fathom why Mboko is favored, but at the same time, there is no reason to think oddsmakers know anything we don’t. It’s simply a misprice, giving Baptiste awesome value as an underdog.
