Kiki Mladenovic can make life difficult for super Serena

BBC & Amazon Prime, starts 11.30am Friday (1pm on show courts)

Mladenovic v S Williams
Serena Williams stepped up on her opening performance at Wimbledon in round two, but the seven-time singles champion may need to find even more for her clash with Kristina Mladenovic and it could pay to side with the outsider.

Mladenovic’s temperamental nature means she is virtually impossible to support with anything approaching total confidence, but it has been a while since the Frenchwoman last wowed the women’s game and she may have saved her best for the grass-court Grand Slam this year.

Kiki, as she is known, is no stranger to making top players pull out the stops in south-west London having lost 7-6 6-3 to Maria Sharapova in her second main-draw outing at Wimbledon five years ago.

She also went down 6-4 6-4 to Victoria Azarenka in 2015 at the All England Club, so Mladenovic is clearly no respecter of reputations when she is on top of her game.

Williams, who returned to competitive action in March, performed with credit at the recent French Open. But even though she has achieved huge success on grass, the fact that she did not compete at Wimbledon last year means she may still be getting used to playing on the surface again.

Mladenovic is given a start of 5.5 on bookmakers’ total games handicaps and Williams may really have to turn on the style to dominate her opponent. Considering she has played only ten competitive singles matches since her return from becoming a mother for the first time, that is not certain to happen.

Recommendation
K Mladenovic +5.5 games
1pt 5-6 Betfair, Paddy Power

Wickmayer v Vekic
Donna Vekic, who possesses an excellent temperament, is not without a chance of going deep at Wimbledon after upending French Open finalist Sloane Stephens and Rebecca Peterson, both in straight sets.

But while the Croat, who is still only 22 years old, merits huge respect, it may be wrong to ignore the possibility that her third-round outing against Yanina Wickmayer could be slightly tougher than the oddsmakers anticipate.

Wickmayer has not achieved much of note in recent years – she is often to be found going to 125K Series events in the Far East at the same time the WTA Tour’s star names are contesting bigger prizes.
However, the Belgian remains a decent operator and that fact that she knows how to stay competitive in Grand Slams is another positive.

Vekic may have enough to justify favouritism and win the day, but at the available odds an interest in Wickmayer, 28, capturing at least one set could be prudent.

Recommendation
Y Wickmayer to win at least a set
1pt 17-20 Betway

Mannarino v Medvedev
Adrian Mannarino leads Daniil Medvedev 2-0 in their personal series, but it may not be long before the young Russian starts to eat into that head-to-head deficit.

Mannarino did well to thwart Ryan Harrison in straight sets in round two, but Medvedev looks to be a player who is going places and a chance can be taken on him posting a first victory against his French opponent.

Mannarino is a seasoned grass-courter who is unlikely to go down easily, but after ousting Halle champion Borna Coric and experienced Guillermo Garcia-Lopez without dropping a set Medvedev should take plenty of confidence into his last-32 outing.

Medvedev should expect to have to work harder than he did in his first two singles matches, but with a good deal expected of this promising talent he should now be finding a way to win clashes such as this.

Recommendation
D Medvedev
1pt 5-6 BetBright, BoyleSports

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