Gulbis vs. Tsonga
Looking to the matches scheduled for this Saturday on the men’s draw, one of the highlights goes to the contest between two former semi-finalists of this event, Ernest Gulbis and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
It was far from an easy match for Tsonga on the previous round against Marcos Baghdatis, with the French recovering from two sets down to emerge victorious by 6 – 7 3 – 6 6 – 3 6 – 2 6 – 2. Tsonga clearly raised the level after losing the first two sets, showing how strong he can be on this event with the support from the crowd.
For the first time in 6 months, Gulbis wins two consecutive matches on the main draw of an ATP event. Gulbis can produce a very high level of tennis with the backhand as his best shot; however, his forehand is extremely inconsistent and one of the main reasons for his poor results since the end of 2014.
If this match was played on a best of 3 sets match Gulbis would have some chances, but in a best of 5 sets in French soil is hard to see how Ernest can defeat Tsonga and for that reason, the French is fairly priced by our Green Listed Bookmakers as favourite for this contest at 23/50 on Pinnacle Sports while Gulbis can be found at 7/4 on Bet365.
Zverev vs. Thiem
Two members of the called “NextGen” will face each other this Saturday, with Alexander Zverev and Dominic Thiem fighting for a place on the 4th round.
With Rafael Nadal out of the competition, Dominic’s chances of reaching his first Grand Slam semi-final are very good. Despite not playing his best tennis on the previous round against Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, Thiem found a way to emerge victorious in straight sets, which shows how strong he is at the time.
It has been a tremendous season for Zverev, reaching his first ATP final last week in Nice and for the first time on the third round of a Grand Slam event. Even though Alexander’s tremendous potential, the German still struggles to perform at a consistent level and his last match is a good example of that, with Zverev losing the 2nd set against Stephane Robert by 1 –6.
As it happened on their previous two meetings this year, Thiem should emerge victorious and for that reason, he’s fairly priced as favourite for this contest at 29/100 on Coral while Zverev is offered at 13/5 on William Hill.