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View this email in your browser. WIMBLEDON QUARTER FINALS - MATCH PREVIEWS & PREDICTIONS 🎾 Featured Matches:



Federer vs Anderson



H2H: 4-0 (Federer)

Last Match: 2015, Cincinnati (6-1, 6-1 Federer)

H2H Grass: 1st Meeting



Kando is rated third, behind only Isner and Karlovic, for serving performance in the past 52 weeks on tour. This will be Federer's sternest test so far.



There are two main factors involved in the outcome of this match. The first is Federer's 1st serve %. Recent history on grass suggests that if he's landing lots of 1st serves, he'll almost always win enough of his 1st serve points (especially against non-'Big 4' players) to force a tiebreaker at worst. If this match becomes a battle of the breakers, he should have a significant edge over Anderson: Federer has won 70% of all tiebreaks he's played in the past year, Anderson 60%.



If Fed is having a bad day getting 1st serves in, then the 2nd factor becomes: can Anderson win enough points on Roger's serve, 1st & 2nd. Kando returned OK for parts of his win over Monfils, winning 33% of return points overall. But the problem here is that Federer's 2nd serve is in another league altogether from Monfils, who routinely likes to roll in safe 2nd serves, rather than go for the lethal variation of pace/spin and angles that Federer is capable of. The guys that have beaten Roger at Wimbledon have almost always won at least 45% of 2nd serve return points and 20%+ 1st serve return points: Raonic (2016 but only 18% 1st serve return points won), Novak (2015 & 2014), Stakhovsky (2013), Berdych 2010), Nadal (2008) with the exception being Tsonga (2011). This trend is far from definitive but it does show that it's likely Anderson will need to have a far above average day on return to compete.



Overall, unless Anderson is betting on Federer having an off-day in tiebreakers, he will need to put in a peak display of returning serve, and pray that Fed's 1st serve in % is lower than usual, to stand any real chance. Low margin, high reward is what Anderson needs tomorrow, but as ever, the odds of him, or anyone, pulling that off over 5 sets, are slim.



Prediction: Federer in 3

Nadal vs Del Potro



H2H: 10-5 (Nadal)

Last Match: 2018, French Open (6-4, 6-1, 6-2 Nadal)

H2H Grass: 2-0 (Nadal)



Both these guys will be meeting tomorrow on their least favourite surface, with neither player having had much luck in the past few years at this tournament. Delpo is making his 2nd ever quarterfinal appearance (2013 the first) at Wimbledon and Rafa is playing in his first QF here since 2011. However importantly, out of the two, it's Rafa who seems to adapt better to the grass than Delpo.



Delpo said this in his pre-match presser:



“If I want to beat him, I have to come to the net very often."



This is absolutely true. Delpo will need to try and finish off points far more efficiently and quickly than he has had to against previous opponents (Simon, Paire, Lopez, Gojowczyk). Otherwise he risks getting into patterns where Rafa's forehand exploits his backhand from the baseline. The bad news for Delpo is that, up to this point, his performance at the net is the worst out of all remaining quarterfinalists (yes even worse than John Isner and Kevin Anderson). Del Potro has come to the net 72 times so far this tournament, winning only 39 of those points or 54% (vs. 84% or 66/79 for Nadal). This means that unless Delpo conjures up some very good net play, seemingly out of nowhere, he will be left battling Rafa mostly from the back of the court.



While Delpo has weapons that can blow anyone off court from the baseline, his much improved double-handed backhand and slice is still vulnerable to Rafa's heavy forehand. Delpo is quite comfortable in his backhand corner when he has time on the ball and he is not on the run. However because the post-surgery backhand is mostly a push rather than a conventional full swing with topspin, it can be exploited if he is made to stretch or run on to the ball. If you watch Delpo hit backhands, post-surgery, he will almost always use the slice when on the run. This is of course a shot that Rafa, at his best, will destroy.



Delpo can maintain the kind of aggressive level from the baseline that can beat Rafa tomorrow, but it requires him doing more out of the ordinary things vs his normal tennis on grass (and this week) compared to what Rafa has to do. If Del Potro has an incredible serving day and makes sure Rafa can't find his backhand with ease, then he can get the win. But this is a case of Delpo needing to go further outside his comfort zone on this surface, than Rafa does, to get it done.



Prediction: Nadal in 4

Djokovic vs Nishikori



H2H: 13-2 (Djokovic)

Last Match: 2018, Rome (2-6, 6-1, 6-3 Djokovic)

H2H Grass: 1st Meeting



When both these players are at their best, this is just a nightmare matchup for Nishikori. Novak is just ever-so-slightly better at everything both players do well. However it's pretty clear that both players aren't quite at their best at the moment. Kei is dealing with yet another elbow niggle as well as still making his comeback from injury, and Djokovic hasn't won a title for over a year thanks to a longer than expected comeback process.



Before Nishikori's slightly strange, and injury plagued, victory over Gulbis, his return of serve had been looking brilliant. He absolutely dismantled Kyrgios's serve in a straight sets demolition. If Kei can find some of that return form this could definitely become interesting, especially given that Novak's 2nd serve is still a little underpowered vs his pre-injury days. Their USO 2014 match is a good demonstration of what can happen when Kei is just dialled in on return vs Djokovic, winning a ridiculous 63% of 2nd serve return points.



Unfortunately for Kei, he is also facing the best returner and baseliner at Wimbledon so far this tournament (Novak leads with 54% of return games won and 62% of baseline points won), meaning his own serve will likely be coming under serious scrutiny, even if he manages to get himself into Djokovic's service games.



If Nishikori has an out of the ordinary, brilliant serving day, then this match could be close. Otherwise it's hard to see how Novak won't win this in 3 or 4 sets.



Prediction: Djokovic in 4



Also:



Isner vs Raonic: (H2H: 3-1)



Raonic is the better grass court player but this will definitely be tiebreak heavy and very tight. Their most recent scorelines: 6-7(3), 7-6(3), 7-6(5), 6-7(5), 6-7(5)...



Prediction: Raonic in 5 All Results PRE-MATCH INTERVIEW/PRESS TL;DR 🗣 Djokovic requesting for his QF vs Nishikori to be played on Centre court:



- "I think I’ve in a way earned the right to play QF on CC, we’ve put the request with the organizers. Rafa and Roger played all four of their matches on CC, myself only one..."

Source



He got his wish 👍

Andy Murray visited the BBC Wimbledon Studio to give his thoughts on the matches tomorrow:

Full interview



Best bits:



- Novak is playing at a high enough level to win title. Can beat Nadal/Federer. "Seems motivated and much better mentally vs a few months ago"



- Sees no reason Kyle Edmund can't go higher than top 20, has bigger weapons than guys ahead of him.



- Has started practicing on hard courts at Wimbledon, will play Washington in just under a month.



- Stability of hard courts feels better than grass right now.

Delpo on his upcoming Rafa clash:



- “It will be a different match that when we played in Paris (at the French Open) a few weeks ago. I will try to hold my service games most of the time.”



- “If I want to beat him, I have to come to the net very often and play hard with my forehands, with my backhands, and try to take all the chances.”

Source QF'S (WEDNESDAY) OOP ⏰ Match to watch = 🔥 Centre Court

(1pm Start) Djokovic vs Nishikori (H2H: 13-2) 🔥

Prediction: Djokovic in 4



Nadal vs Del Potro (H2H: 10-5) 🔥

Prediction: Nadal in 4



Court 1

(1pm Start) Federer vs Anderson (H2H: 4-0)

Prediction: Federer in 3



Isner vs Raonic (H2H: 3-1)

Prediction: Raonic in 5

Full Order of Play EXTRAS...🔍🎤📊 Top 5 Net Points Won so far:



1: Nadal: 84% or 66/79

2. Federer: 79% or 72/91

3. Raonic: 70% or 131/186

4. Djokovic: 69% or 66/95

5: Nishikori: 69% or 72/104

After beating Simon in 4 sets, Del Potro is into only his 2nd ever Wimbledon quarterfinal.

Nadal's 2018 record when he wins the first set is 30 wins to just 1 loss. When he loses the first set his record is 2 wins to 1 loss.

If Federer, Nadal and Djokovic make it through to the semi-finals by winning tomorrow, it will be the first time since 2012 that all 3 have been in the semi-finals of the same slam.

Federer will be playing on Court 1 tomorrow for the first time since his quarterfinal match in 2015. LOL 😂 The BBC released some footage of Murray. Andy with a solid impression of a spider on LSD. Share Tweet Forward GAME, SET & MATCH 👋 The Racquet is created, and written, by Matt. You can find me on twitter by tapping/clicking this. You early subscribers (Beta testers) get access to 'The Racquet' Discord. Tap/click the Discord button below to join (we even have Jerzy Janowicz emojis). If you know anyone who would like 'The Racquet' here is the link to send them so they can sign up: https://theracquet.co See you tomorrow for QUARTERFINALS DAY at Wimbledon!