Perennial top 10 fixture Tomas Berdych takes on emerging superstar Alexander Zverev for a spot in the last 16 at a wet and rainy All-England Club on a rare middle Sunday occasion.
The pair will meet for the third time this season and fourth time in 18 months when they clash at Wimbledon, with Berdych having previously accounted for the young German each time. The Czech has been untroubled in his passage to the third round with comfortable wins over Ivan Dodig and Benjakin Becker. Zverev dropped just 11 games in a first-round beatdown of Paul-Henri Mathieu before eventually outlasting Mikhail Youzhny in five sets in the second round; but not before both players combined for more than 100 unforced errors.
Prior to Wimbledon, Zverev already turned in a breakout 2016, going 27-15 for the year with two tour finals in the last two months, including on the grass in Halle where he claimed his first top 10 scalp, beating Roger Federer. Berdych is having a solid, workmanlike year though he is yet to progress past the semifinal stage of any event this season, which must be a little concerning for a player of his quality.
No one should doubt that the 19-year-old Zverev is a likely future winner of the title here at Wimbledon. He has all the tools to be a dominant force in the game in the years to come as both an exceptional athlete and a pure tennis player, with wonderful natural instincts and feel for the game.
But his 0-3 record against Berdych can’t be ignored; all the matches have taken place on hard indoor courts and the Czech’s consistent all-court power hitting has proven just a little too tough for Zverev to deal with. The German’s win over Federer may be a portent of things to come; but as of now he just hasn’t quite put all the parts of his immense game together to get him past a player like Berdych over five sets on the grass. Zverev will probably lift the trophy at SW19 someday; just not this year.
Pick: Berdych in 5
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Zverev wins the third set. He’s still alive, even though down two sets to berdy. Can he win the fourth set and take it to five?
Berdy is playing well and now has the break in the fourth set. I don’t think Zverev is going to come back in this one.
Berdy is gonna win. Had a feeling he would.