A fourth consecutive unseeded foe awaits Novak Djokovic on Monday at Wimbledon, where Adrian Mannarino has made the second week. The fourth-round schedule also features Dominic Thiem and Tomas Berdych.
Adrian Mannarino vs. (2) Novak Djokovic
Djokovic and Mannarino will be facing each other for the second time in their careers and for the second time at Wimbledon when they meet again on Monday. They collided during second-round action last year, when Djokovic survived an especially entertaining third set to pick up a 6-4, 6-3, 7-6(5) victory. Mannarino has already progressed two rounds farther this time around, and his success has not exactly come out of nowhere. The 51st-ranked Frenchman finished runner-up in Antalya right before arriving at the All-England Club and he already reached the second week of this event in 2013 (came within one set of the quarterfinals before losing to Lukasz Kubot in five). So far this fortnight Mannarino has defeated Feliciano Lopez, Yuichi Sugita, and Gael Monfils–the latter two both in five sets.
By Djokovic’s standards, his 31-7 record this year is modest at best. But he may be turning things around just in time to make some serious noise at the place where it all started to fall apart for him in 2016. The fourth-ranked Serb, who lost to Sam Querrey in the third round last summer, is coming off a grass-court title in Eastbourne and he has not dropped a set at this tournament while taking out Martin Klizan, Adam Pavlasek, and Ernests Gulbis. Mannarino’s solid grass-court game will once again make things somewhat interesting, but Djokovic looks rejuvenated to the extent that he should not have too much trouble with anyone outside the top 15.
Pick: Djokovic in 3
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(8) Dominic Thiem vs. (11) Tomas Berdych
Thiem may be the the No. 8 player in the world and sit in third in the race to the World Tour Finals, but simply reaching the fourth round of Wimbledon can already be considered a smashing success. After all, Thiem had been a mere 2-3 lifetime at the All-England Club prior this fortnight and his grass-court preparation included a 1-2 record with setbacks against Robin Haase (Halle second round) and Ramkumar Ramanathan (Antalya second round). Apparently trying to avoid the distinction of “clay-court specialist,” the two-time French Open semifinalist has picked up the pace on the green stuff to beat Vasek Pospisil, Gilles Simon, and Jared Donaldson–surrendering only one set to Simon in the process.
Awaiting the 23-year-old on the middle Monday is a second career contest against Berdych, who dominated their only previous meeting 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 at the 2014 U.S. Open. These two competitors have gone in mostly different directions since then, but Berdych remains a force on grass. The 15th-ranked Czech is a former Wimbledon finalist (2010) and he advanced to the semifinals last season. Up to his usual tricks at the All-England Club, Berdych powered his way into the second week by disposing of Jeremy Chardy, Ryan Harrison, and David Ferrer. Current form may favor Thiem, but Berdych will be able to take his opponent’s time away on grass with big serves and flat, penetrating groundstrokes.
Pick: Berdych in 4
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