Rain is going to severely interrupt Friday’s schedule.  If they don’t play anything on Sunday, there is likely to be a backlog of matches going into the second week because Saturday’s forecast is also looking ropey.  I hope you enjoyed all my photos in my Wimbledon report from Monday here.  I was pretty chuffed because Lucie Safarova used one of my photos on her Facebook and Instagram accounts! I’ll have another report up in the middle of next week as I am back at Wimby for my final day of live grass court tennis on Magic Monday.  In the meantime, I am loving all the photos coming from Wimbledon and the one below from @tennis_shots on Twitter (Christopher Levy) is my favourite 🙂

Poll Results: 41% correctly predicted that Riske would beat Giorgi, 61% correctly predicted that Ivanovic would beat Zheng and 81% correctly predicted that Keys would beat Koukalova

1. Petra Kvitova v Venus Williams

The first blockbuster match-up on the womens side features two former champions, who love, love, LOVE the grass.  The 2011 Wimbledon champion, Petra Kvitova will go up against the five time Wimbledon champion, Venus Williams.  Kvitova has been sporting heavy strapping on her hamstring, an injury that forced her to pull of her Eastbourne quarter-final with Heather Watson last week.  This hasn’t affected her form though because she has looked in scintillating form.  In the first round, she beat Andrea Hlavackova, 6-3 6-0 and was even more clinical on Wednesday, defeating Mona Barthel, 6-2 6-0.  For P3tra, who is so used to going around the M25 several times before securing wins, those are two excellent wins.  I wonder if the injury is making her focus that little bit more to get things done as quickly as possible.  She said in her post-match interview that the hamstring was getting better.

Venus was pushed hard in both her first two matches, but has survived to set up this third round stunner.  In the first round, Venus needed three sets to get past Maria-Teresa Torro-Flor and in the second round, came back from a deficit in the first set tiebreak to secure a straight sets win, 7-6(4) 6-1 over Kurumi Nara.  I am so pumped for this match because the last two Venus-Petra matches were fabulous.  AND THIS IS ON GRASS.  Petra has beaten Venus twice in the last year in a third set tiebreak.  In Tokyo, Petra won their semi-final match, 3-6 6-3 7-6(2) before securing the title, her most recent one on the WTA tour.  In Doha, Kvitova prevailed in another nailbitingly close match, 6-2 2-6 7-6(7).

This is how I see this one going: Petra starts on fire, up a set and a break, gets a little tight, Venus capitalises, but Petra rescues it in time.  Please, please, PLEASE Gilles could you keep Novak on the court for at least four hours.  Missing this match would DESTROY ME!!!!!!!

Prediction: Kvitova d. V.Williams in 3 sets

2. Ana Konjuh v Caroline Wozniacki

Yesterday I previewed the Bencic-Duval match (which is also on the schedule again for Thursday) and in this third round tie, we get to see another member of the next, next generation of WTA players, who are having a cracking Wimbledon so far.  Ana Konjuh has spent many months on the sidelines this year having had elbow surgery in late January.  She started the year in style though, beating Roberta Vinci in the first round of the ASB Classic in Auckland, which happened to be her first ever WTA main draw match.  Konjuh has a big serve and equally big groundies, but has not had the chance to garner the spotlight like Belinda Bencic and Taylor Townsend  in 2014.  This could be her time…

Konjuh faces Caroline Wozniacki in the biggest match of her short career so far.  It is lovely to see Caroline smiling again on the court.  She has enjoyed straight sets wins over Shahar Peer and Naomi Broady in her first two rounds, already surpassing her efforts from last year.  Wozniacki’s match with Broady was a fun one as the Brit put up a solid effort on No.1 court.  Konjuh will be incredibly dangerous and will no doubt, come out swinging.  As a new face on the tour, Wozniacki won’t know a great deal about the Croatian player and I could definitely see her winning a set in this match.

Prediction: Wozniacki d. Konjuh in 3 sets

WTA Wimbledon 3rd Round Predictions

Bojana Jovanovski d. Tereza Smitkova in 3 sets

Dominika Cibulkova d. Lucie Safarova in 3 sets *I am praying Lucie pulls out the win!*

Ekaterina Makarova d. Caroline Garcia in 2 sets (1 tight, 1 easy)

Agnieszka Radwanska d. Michelle Larcher de Brito in 2 sets (1 tight, 1 easy)

Lauren Davis d. Peng Shuai in 3 sets

Li Na d. Barbora Zahlavova Strycova in 2 sets (1 tight, 1 easy)