Another jam-packed schedule at Wimbledon includes Carlos Alcaraz, Frances Tiafoe, and many more on Saturday. It’s third-round action at the All-England Club.
Here are my previews and picks for two of the best matchups.
(1) Carlos Alcaraz vs. (25) Nicolas Jarry
Alcaraz’s grass-court summer so far could not be going any better The world No. 1 won his lone Wimbledon tuneup event at Queen’s Club and he has opened in SW19 with straight-set defeats of Jeremy Chardy and Alexandre Muller. Alcaraz is now 11-2 all time on the green stuff with losses only to Daniil Medvedev and Jannik Sinner (both at Wimbledon).
Up next for the 20-year-old Spaniard is a second encounter with Jarry, who lost 6-7(2), 7-5, 6-0 in the Rio de Janeiro semifinals near the beginning of this season. The best season of Jarry’s career has continued with titles in Santiago and Geneva plus a R4 result at the French Open. Transitioning surfaces nicely, the 29-year-old Chilean has advanced at Wimbledon with four-set defeats of Marco Cecchinato and Jason Kubler. Jarry is a tough opponent, but Alcaraz obviously has the edge.
Pick: Alcaraz in 3
(10) Frances Tiafoe vs. (21) Grigor Dimitrov
This should be one of the best matches of the third round. The most recent meeting between Tiafoe and Dimitrov also came at a slam and it did not disappoint; Tiafoe got the job done 7-5, 7-6(6), 6-7(1), 7-5 in the 2019 Australian Open fourth round. Dimitrov still leads the head-to-head series 2-1, which includes a 7-6(1), 3-6, 7-6(4) triumph at the 2018 Rogers Cup.
Another fun one can be expected, as both players are great on grass and also playing well at the moment. Tiafoe has already won 30 matches this season, highlighted by a grass-court title in Stuttgart that propelled him to a maiden top-10 spot. So far at the AELTC he has ousted Yibing Wu and Dominic Stricker in straight sets. Dimitrov has also rolled without dropping a set, dismantling both Sho Shimabukuro and Ilya Ivashka. The Bulgarian Bulgarian is 11-3 in his last 14 matches, a stretch that features a fourth-round effort at Roland Garros and a quarterfinal performance at Queen’s Club. Since the spring of 2021, however, Dimitrov has been thoroughly underwhelming at slams for the most part. Tiafoe has been the opposite, and he even went all the way to the 2022 USO semis. That’s part of the reason why I favor ‘Foe.
Pick: Tiafoe in 4
Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand. You can follow him on Twitter at @Dimonator.