Wimbledon predictions & tennis betting tips: Former champion can show her class

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

Where to watch

BBC One, BBC Two & BBC iPlayer, 11am Saturday

Best bets

Petra Kvitova to beat Paula Badosa
2pts 8-11 bet365, Betfair

Stefanos Tsitsipas to beat Nick Kyrgios
1pt 11-10 general

Alize Cornet +5.5 games on handicap v Iga Swiatek
1pt 4-5 Betfred

Day six preview

It promises to be an informative day in the women’s singles with world number one Iga Swiatek, America’s teenage sensation Cori Gauff and former All England Club champions Petra Kvitova and Simona Halep putting their title credentials on the line.

Rafael Nadal, whose hopes of claiming a calendar Grand Slam are still intact, is the headline act in the men’s event and he tackles Lorenzo Sonego, while there is a blockbuster clash in store as Nick Kyrgios squares up against Greek fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas.

There is British interest too, and although Liam Broady may struggle in his third-round clash with Jack Draper’s conqueror Alex de Minaur, hopes are high that Katie Boulter can follow up her second-round victory over Karolina Pliskova by beating Harmony Tan.

Paula Badosa v Petra Kvitova

The third-round tussle between Paula Badosa and Petra Kvitova is the pick of Saturday’s women’s matches and the two-time Wimbledon champion from the Czech Republic can show the Spaniard who is boss.

Fourth seed Badosa is the higher-ranked player and she has been the more consistent of the pair in recent Grand Slam events, although these conditions favour Kvitova.

She has failed to go beyond the fourth round at Wimbledon since her second title success at the All England Club in 2014, but disrupted preparations had become a common theme in her career.

However, the former world number two fine-tuned her Wimbledon preparations this year by taking a grass-court title in Eastbourne, where an impressive list of scalps included Boulter, Beatriz Haddad Maia and Jelena Ostapenko.

Kvitova’s confidence should be high and although more is likely to be required than was needed against early-round victims Jasmine Paolini and Ana Bogdan, this is a test she can pass with flying colours.

Badosa is supremely talented but her two opening wins were against players outside the world’s top 120 and prior to that she had slipped up as a 2-9 shot against Britain’s Jodie Burrage in Eastbourne.

Nick Kyrgios v Stefanos Tsitsipas

The grass-court game of Kyrgios is extremely effective but the eccentric Australian remains difficult to trust and looks a favourite worth opposing against Greek star Tsitsipas.

Kyrgios has long threatened to regularly go deep in Grand Slam competition but his hot-headed nature is proving problematic and he could easily boil over in what looks like being a topsy-turvy third-round clash.

The Australian’s raw talent can’t be questioned but his temperament and winning mentality can, something Tsitsipas should aim to exploit.

It's said that the man from Athens is at his most vulnerable on grass but he claimed a turf title in Mallorca last week and has made at least the semi-final in four of his last eight Grand Slam appearances, so Tsitsipas evidently thrives on the big occasion.

Iga Swiatek v Alize Cornet

Poland’s dominant force Swiatek showed her first signs of vulnerability when requiring a deciding set to see off round-two opponent Lesley Pattinama Kerkhove and another stiff assignment is in store against Alize Cornet.

It didn’t stop Swiatek stretching her winning run to 37 games but, despite her remarkable run of form, she still has something to prove on the turf of Wimbledon.

And Cornet is unlikely to be overawed by the occasion of taking on the world number one.

The experienced Frenchwoman has a strong grass-court game, was a quarter-finalist at the Australian Open earlier this year and looks set to make Swiatek work hard for her rewards.

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