Wimbledon fourth-round predictions & tennis betting tips: No sin to back Jannik

Free tennis tips, best bets and analysis for day seven at the All England Club, Wimbledon on Sunday.

Where to watch

BBC One, BBC Two & BBC iPlayer, from 11am Sunday

Best bets

Jannik Sinner to beat Carlos Alcaraz
1pt 9-4 Betfair

Marie Bouzkova to beat Caroline Garcia
1pt 10-11 bet365, BoyleSports

Heather Watson to beat Jule Niemeier
1pt 13-8 Betfair, Betfred, Paddy Power

Day seven preview

On a historic day for Wimbledon – the first time it has staged pre-planned play on the middle Sunday of the tournament – defending singles champion and top seed Novak Djokovic tops the bill with an exciting fourth-round clash against the find of this year's grass-court season Tim van Rijthoven.

There's British interest too with Heather Watson and Cameron Norrie both in action. The bookmakers give Norrie more chance of progressing at the All England Club, but this is arguably the most focused Watson has looked for a long time in the London major.

And while, as usual, most of the matches are likely to go the way of the favourites, there could be value to be had opposing a couple of short-priced players with underrated outsiders who have decent upset credentials.

Jannik Sinner v Carlos Alcaraz

It's not a huge surprise to see Carlos Alcaraz having settled into the tournament after an iffy start in his five-set pipping of Jan-Lennard Struff.

Alcaraz is such a high-quality performer and quick learner on any terrain that he stepped up on that tardy opener to brush aside Tallon Griekspoor and Oscar Otte, both no mean performers on the nippy green courts, in straight sets.

There may be better to come from the Juan Carlos Ferrero-coached charge – after all, he was just a single-figure price to win the title before the tournament started. But it's possible that Alcaraz could find Jannik Sinner a tougher last-16 opponent than some think.

Sinner, who hails from the extreme north of Italy near the border with Austria, is a long way from being an archetypal Italian on court. But if punters are in doubt about his potential quality on grass, it could pay to recall his fellow countryman Andreas Seppi, like Sinner another Dolomites native, who was seriously handy on the terrain on occasions.

Alcaraz leads their personal series 2-0 after a 6-2 3-6 6-3 win on Spanish clay in 2019 and a 7-6 7-5 triumph in the indoor Paris Masters last year. Those outings were both competitive and considering the favourite is still such a novice on grass, the chance to back Sinner to upset the odds can definitely be taken.

Marie Bouzkova v Caroline Garcia

Much of the early support to win this fourth-round clash has been for Caroline Garcia, who has carried over the form she showed when winning the Bad Homburg title in pre-Wimbledon week in fine style at the All England Club.

Garcia doesn't peak often but when she does she's a huge force. In late 2017 she won back-to-back 1,000 Series titles in Wuhan and Beijing before reaching the semi-finals of the season-ending WTA Tour Finals in Singapore.

Whether or not she's rediscovered a similar vein is difficult to tell – if she has then she's a big title runner in the coming days. However, it may be worth opposing the market and taking a chance on her opponent Marie Bouzkova.

Unheralded Czech Bouzkova, who beat Garcia 6-3 6-0 in Edgbaston last year, has for a couple of years given the impression that she could prosper at Grand Slam level. The problem was, it was difficult to tell in which major she would blossom first.

However, while there's still a long way to go in London, it looks as if Bouzkova is perfectly comfortable on grass, especially after wins over a trio of Americans - Danielle Collins, Ann Li and Alison Riske-Amritraj.

It looks as if her clash with Garcia could be closely fought but Bouzkova, a 23-year-old from Prague who moved to Florida at the age of ten, has such impressive groundstrokes that she may be able to terminate her opponent's long winning run.

Heather Watson v Jule Niemeier

Germany's Jule Niemeier, another player who was pretty much unheralded going into Wimbledon, is a fairly warm order to dismiss the challenge of Britain's Watson, but it could just pay to back the Guernsey native to keep the London ball rolling.

At her best, Watson has looked a viable outsider for Grand Slam success. And while that can still be questioned, she has definitely looked as focused on the All England Club courts this year as she has been for years.

It's difficult to pinpoint what might have changed with Watson because she has been going about her business pretty much as she would have done in any other season. Of course, a loss to Niemeier would end all the interest and fuss, but the way the Brit is performing it could pay punters not to rule out an upset in this one.

The chief reason for Niemeier's short price is her 6-4 6-0 second-round victory over second seed Anett Kontaveit. However, the Estonian hadn't actually been anywhere near her best in the months leading up to Wimbledon.

Watson's best win in week one arguably came in a straight-sets triumph over China's Qiang Wang, who's a seriously good performer at her best.

But the key thing with Watson is the fact that she's winning matches. That begets confidence and when the 30-year-old is on the up, she's a dangerous opponent for anyone. She caused Serena Williams all manner of problems in a three-set third-round clash at Wimbledon in 2015 and, with even more experience on her side now, Watson may prove a thorn in the side of an opponent she edged out 6-3 2-6 7-6 on a Monterrey hard court earlier this year.

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