Over 30 seeded players will continue their Wimbledon campaigns on day three, but ironically the most talked about match involves the lowest ranked player in the tournament.
British underdog Marcus Willis faces seven-time champion Roger Federer on the centre court in what could be a sensational match. Willis is currently ranked 772nd in the world and had to come through six qualifying matches in order to reach the main draw. In the first round on Monday, he stunned world No.54 Ricardas Berankis in straight sets, producing an array of outstanding shots.
Some of these shots from Marcus Willis 👌 What a fairy tale! https://t.co/KnDNSUbUBv
— BBC Tennis (@bbctennis) 27 June 2016
The Brit has the task of trying to defeat grass-court king Federer, a player who hasn’t lost before the second round at Wimbledon since 2002. Willis has shown how much of a talent he can be to the world, but the task of dismissing Federer is likely to be too much of a tough mission for him. Nevertheless, there is one consolation for Willis, he has already received praised from Federer.
“I think it’s one of the best stories in a long time in our sport,” the world No.2 said about Willis.
“I’m very excited to be playing him actually. It’s not something that I get to do very often. I’m looking forward to that.”
Prior to the highly anticipated Federer-Willis encounter, two matches will take place before on centre court. Starting Wednesday’s proceedings will be third seed Agnieszka Radwanska against Kateryna Kozlova. This year marks Radwanska’s 11th consecutive appearance at SW19 and she has never exited the tournament before the third round. On the other hand, her 22-year-old opponent is hoping to cause an upset and win her first ever main draw match in a grand slam event. On paper the match should be a straight sets triumph for the Polish player, but don’t be surprised to witness strong resistance from a growingly confident Kozlova.
Following Radwanska will be defending champion Novak Djokovic against France’s Adrian Mannarino. Both men reached the second round after grabbing straight sets wins over British players. Djokovic dismissed James Ward and Mannarino dashed the hopes of Kyle Edmund. It will be the first time on the tour that the two have played against each other, but Djokovic is expected to move to round three with little difficulty.
Court one will start with the completion of Johanna Konta’s match against Monica Puig. The 16th seed was leading the match 6-1, 2-1, before the rain halted her momentum on Tuesday. Resuming the match will not be easy for Konta against a player who recently reached the semifinals of the Eastbourne Open as a qualifier. The second match will see 16th seed Gilles Simon face the sometimes inconsistent Grigor Dimitrov. Simon currently has a winning head-to-head of 5-1 against the Bulgarian, however, he lost to Dimitrov earlier this year in Brisbane. Finally, Milos Raonic will play Italy’s Andreas Seppi, a player who he has beaten twice before.
Wimbledon organisers are hoping that 62 singles matches will be completed on day three (including 14 matches suspended by the rain on Tuesday). It will be a tough task for the tournament with BBC weather predicting light and heavy rain throughout the day.
Full order of play
CENTRE COURT – 13:00 START
1 Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) [3] 33 vs Kateryna Kozlova (UKR) 34
2 Novak Djokovic (SRB) [1] 1 vs Adrian Mannarino (FRA)
3 Roger Federer (SUI) [3] 33 vs Marcus Willis (GBR) 36
No.1 COURT – 13:00 START
1 Monica Puig (PUR) 47 vs Johanna Konta (GBR) [16] 48 – T/F 1/6 1/2
2 Grigor Dimitrov (BUL) 46 vs Gilles Simon (FRA) [16] 48
3 Andreas Seppi (ITA) 29 vs Milos Raonic (CAN) [6] 32
No.2 COURT – 11:30 START
1 Fernando Verdasco (ESP) 87 vs Bernard Tomic (AUS) [19] 88 – T/F 6/4 3/6 3/6 6/3 0/0
2 Daniel Evans (GBR) 37 vs Alexandr Dolgopolov (UKR) [30] 40
3 Simona Halep (ROU) [5] 65 vs Francesca Schiavone (ITA) 68
4 Jana Cepelova (SVK) 125 vs Garbine Muguruza (ESP) [2] 128
No.3 COURT – SHOW COURT – 11:30 START
1 Dominic Thiem (AUT) [8] 65 vs Florian Mayer (GER) 66 T/F 1/2
2 Tsvetana Pironkova (BUL) 63 vs Belinda Bencic (SUI) [7] 64
3 Marin Cilic (CRO) [9] 49 vs Sergiy Stakhovsky (UKR) 51
4 Venus Williams (USA) [8] 97 vs Maria Sakkari (GRE) 100
COURT 12 – SHOW COURT – 11:30 START
1 Heather Watson (GBR) 5 vs Annika Beck (GER) 6
2Eugenie Bouchard (CAN) 45 vs Magdalena Rybarikova (SVK) 46 -T/F 6/3 2/1
3 Julien Benneteau (FRA) 61 vs Kei Nishikori (JPN) [5] 64
4 Varvara Lepchenko (USA) 94 vs Angelique Kerber (GER) [4] 96
COURT 18 – SHOW COURT – 11:30 START
1 Ivan Dodig (CRO) 79 vs Tomas Berdych (CZE) [10] 80- T/F 6/7(5) 7/5 1/6 1/4
2 Petra Kvitova (CZE) [10] 49 vs Sorana Cirstea (ROU) 50
3 David Goffin (BEL) [11] 17 vs Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA) 19
4 Samantha Stosur (AUS) [14] 113 vs Sabine Lisicki (GER) 115
COURT 4 – 11:30 START
1 Horacio Zeballos (ARG) 75 vs Mikhail Youzhny (RUS) 76
2 Ekaterina Makarova (RUS) 51 vs Johanna Larsson (SWE) 52
3 Anna-Lena Groenefeld (GER) / Kveta Peschke (CZE) 21 vs Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) / Roberta Vinci (ITA) 22
4 Darija Jurak (CRO) / Anastasia Rodionova (AUS) 10
COURT 6 – 11:30 START
1 Donald Young (USA) 91 vs Leonardo Mayer (ARG) 92 T/F 6/4 0/2
2 Pierre-Hugues Herbert (FRA) 10 vs Damir Dzumhur (BIH) 11
3 Mona Barthel (GER) 70 vs Kiki Bertens (NED) [26] 72
4 Nao Hibino (JPN) / Alicja Rosolska (POL) 7 vs Vania King (USA) / Alla Kudryavtseva (RUS) [13] 8
COURT 7 – 11:30 START
1 Evgeniya Rodina (RUS) 53 vs Lesia Tsurenko (UKR) 54 T/F 6/3 4/3
2 Thomaz Bellucci (BRA) 5 vs Sam Querrey (USA) [28] 8
3 Jeremy Chardy (FRA) 42 vs Steve Johnson (USA) 44
COURT 8 – 11:30 START
1 John Isner (USA) [18] 105 vs Marcos Baghdatis (CYP) 106
2 Timea Bacsinszky (SUI) [11] 17 vs Luksika Kumkhum (THA) 169
3 Sara Errani (ITA) [20] 73 vs Alize Cornet (FRA) 75
4 Lucie Safarova (CZE) [28] 121 vs Samantha Crawford (USA) 123
COURT 9 – 11:30 START
1 Julia Boserup (USA) 61 vs Tatjana Maria (GER) 62 T/F 4/3
2 Mandy Minella (LUX) 11 vs Anna Tatishvili (USA) 12
3 Yaroslava Shvedova (KAZ) 117 vs Elina Svitolina (UKR) [17] 120
COURT 10 – 11:30 START
1 Albano Olivetti (FRA) 107 vs Matthew Barton (AUS) 108 – T/F 7/6(7) 6/6
2 Aliaksandra Sasnovich (BLR) 7 vs Kristina Mladenovic (FRA) [31] 8
3 Jack Sock (USA) [27] 25 vs Robin Haase (NED) 28
4 Carina Witthoeft (GER) 90 vs Kurumi Nara (JPN) 91
COURT 11 – 11:30 START
1 Federico Delbonis (ARG) 117 vs Fabio Fognini (ITA) 118
2 Karolina Pliskova (CZE) [15] 81 vs Misaki Doi (JPN) 83
3 Anna-Lena Friedsam (GER) 86 vs Ekaterina Alexandrova (RUS) 87
COURT 14 – 11:30 START
1 Jiri Vesely (CZE) 67 vs Igor Sijsling (NED) 68 T/F 6/2 6/4 1/1
2 Anett Kontaveit (EST) 55 vs Barbora Strycova (CZE) [24] 56
3 Jelena Jankovic (SRB) [22] 105 vs Marina Erakovic (NZL) 108
4 Lara Arruabarrena (ESP) 101 vs Daria Kasatkina (RUS) [29] 104
COURT 15 – 11:30 START
1 Karin Knapp (ITA) 35 vs Ana Konjuh (CRO) 36
2 Monica Niculescu (ROU) 19 vs Aleksandra Krunic (SRB) 20
Denisa Allertova (CZE) 110 vs
Carla Suarez Navarro (ESP) [12] 112
COURT 16 – 11:30 START
1 Alexander Zverev (GER) [24] 73 vs Paul-Henri Mathieu (FRA) 74- T/F 6/3 6/4 3/0
2 Nicolas Mahut (FRA) 14 vs David Ferrer (ESP) [13] 16
3 Kirsten Flipkens (BEL) 78 vs Madison Keys (USA) [9] 80
4 Tara Moore (GBR) / Conny Perrin (SUI) 43 vs Mariana Duque-Marino (COL) / Monica Puig (PUR) 44
COURT 17 – 11:30 START
1 Andrea Petkovic (GER) [32] 57 vs Nao Hibino (JPN) 58- T/F 3/6 7/5 5/1
2 Lucas Pouille (FRA) [32] 89 vs Marius Copil (ROU) 90
3 Lukas Lacko (SVK) 54 vs Ivo Karlovic (CRO) [23] 56
COURT 19 – 11:30 START
1 Gastao Elias (POR) 85 vs Radu Albot (MDA) 86 T/F 6/3 2/6 5/7 1/2
2 Nicolas Almagro (ESP) 21 vs Denis Istomin (UZB) 23
3 Anabel Medina Garrigues (ESP) / Arantxa Parra Santonja (ESP) [14] 57 vs Barbora Krejcikova (CZE) / Katerina Siniakova (CZE) 58
MATCHES TO BE ARRANGED
NOT BEFORE 17.00
Hao-Ching Chan (TPE) / Yung-Jan Chan (TPE) [3] 17 vs 1 Ashleigh Barty (AUS) / Laura Robson (GBR) 18
Andrea Hlavackova (CZE) / Lucie Hradecka (CZE) [6] 33 vs Chen Liang (CHN) / Yafan Wang (CHN) 34
NOT BEFORE 17.30
Yen-Hsun Lu (TPE) / Janko Tipsarevic (SRB) 11 vs Marcin Matkowski (POL) / Leander Paes (IND) 12
Brydan Klein (GBR) / Alexander Ward (GBR) 23 vs Pablo Cuevas (URU) / Marcel Granollers (ESP) [15] 24
Wesley Koolhof (NED) / Matwe Middelkoop (NED) 21 vs Alexander Bury (BLR) / Igor Zelenay (SVK) 22
Treat Huey (PHI) / Max Mirnyi (BLR) [12] 25 vs Pablo Carreno Busta (ESP) / Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (ESP) 26
