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Local hero James Ward will look to add on his fairytale run and become the first Englishman in 11 years to reach the 4th round at Wimbledon. He`ll have to get past Vasek Pospisil, who will also be keen to advance, feeling that the draw opened up nicely for him.
Ward didn`t have much success this season aside for a heroic Davis Cup tie against USA (def. Young and Isner). Even on grass, he didn`t do much, though he did generally meet top opponents. However, it`s well known that Ward is a player that relishes the big stage and playing on home soil, so it wasn`t that much of a surprise for the Brit to get past the grass – shy Vanni in the first round. He backed up that win with a much more impressive one in the 2nd round, a 4 set victory over Vesely. Sure, there were some errors on both sides, but generally a great performance for Ward, who has been absolutely tremendous on serve so far – losing it just once in two matches.
Pospisil was expected to emerge as a solid Top 30 player this year, but the young Canadian had a dreadful season for his standards (9-12 win-loss) and it`s questionable if he will ever be the player people expect him to be. Vasek was pretty poor on grass as well, winning just one match on the main draw and losing to Muller, Berankis and Granollers. It`s a bit surprising that he managed to reach the third round at Wimbledon while not playing his best tennis, but he had an easy draw. Even so, he struggled big time with Millot (3-2) and had some problems with Fognini, who is basically a non-factor on grass (3-1).
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The Head 2 Head reads a 1-0 advantage for James Ward, a challenger in in Vancouver back in 2011, so it`s not really relevant. Both guys like to play a moderately offensive tennis and have good first serves – though Ward has been much more consistent this week.
Ward will be really pumped up for this one – he knows that it could be his only chance to reach the second week at Wimbledon, and certainly the biggest – with the draw opening up, he could even challenge for a QF spot, as Troicki or Brown would be next in the 4th round. Of course, the same can be said about Pospisil – but you have to feel that James Ward will be a bit more fired up, as he`s at home and he doesn`t have the time or potential that Pospisil has to produce similar results in the future.
The Englishman is not a guy who cracks under pressure when he`s on the big stage, so I fully expect him to continue his good form – it might just be enough to get past a player that is better than him, but not playing his best tennis for some time now, including this week. I am really torn between backing Ward to win and an over – which is surely the safer bet, but the odds are much lower. In the end I will go with the best value and bet on the Englishman to reach the 4th round. His consistency on serve should be the key against a guy that had too many “off” moments on his own serve.
My tip is Ward to win. Prediction: James Ward – Vasek Pospisil 6-4 7-6 2-6 4-6 9-7.
Wimbledon 2015 live streaming for all matches available for players at Bet365.com.
Pick: Ward
Odds: 3.06 @ Pinnacle
Stake: 7
Possible profit: 14.42
Event date: 4 July
