Serena Williams is again the favourite (as always), but it could’ve been very different in her match against Svetlana Kuznetsova if there was no break for closing the roof. Serena relished the indoor conditions and after that break not a single point was won by Kuznetsova.
Anastasia Pavluchenkova has surprised a few at this tournament by reaching the quarter-finals, and she did it ingood fashion with an easy win over Coco Vandeweghe. I’ve not seen such a classy game from Pavluchenkova ever. She was aggressive and missed virtually nothing. She seems to be going forward as a player and is progressing nicely. Unfortunately though she will face arguably the best female player ever today and this game will be by far her toughest task yet. Despite this, Williams showed against Kuznetsova yesterday that she can be pushed, at least in teh first set, so, with this in mind, we could be in for a match that goes beyond 18 games.
Overall I think that Pavluchenkova is underestimated a lot. She was an underdog vs Vanderwaghe, but she won. This is tougher of course, but she’ll fight, so we can go for at least 19 games here at 4/5.
See other Wimbledon tips from Anna here.