For only the fourth time in history the Wimbledon Championships has been forced to play matches on the middle Sunday due to poor weather earlier in the week.
The rare occurrence in the tournaments 130-year history will feature a smaller schedule with a total of 12 singles matches taking place. Headlining the action will be world No.1 Serena Williams, who will be trying to avoid the same fate as Novak Djokovic. Playing in the second match on Centre court, the 34-year-old faces Germany’s Annika Beck. Beck progressed to her first third round at SW19 with wins over Heather Watson and Anastasia Sasnovich. The German has a win-loss record of 2-4 against top-20 players this season. On the other hand, Williams has defeated six top-20 players this year and will be hoping to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon for the 15th time in her career.
Starting first on the Centre Court will be sixth seed Roberta Vinci against Coco Vandeweghe. In recent years, the grass-court major has been a place of disappointment for Vinci with back-to-back first round exits in 2014 and 2015. This year, the Italian has overcome her losing streak by defeating Alison Riske and Duan Yingying. In contrast, 2015 quarter-finalist Vandeweghe progressed to the third round with wins over Kateryna Bondarenko and Timea Babos. Vinci might be the higher seed, however, don’t be surprised to see the American 27th seed causing an upset. Last year Vandeweghe defeated three seeded players at the tournament (Karolina Pliskova, Samantha Stosur and Lucie Safarova).
Tomas Berdych will play Alexander Zverev in what will be a battle of the tour veteran against the newcomer. Berdych has won all three of his previous meetings against the German, but this doesn’t guarantee victory. Zverev has reached two ATP finals on the tour and recent stunned Roger Federer at the Gerry Weber Open. Meanwhile, world No.9 Berdych is yet to reach a final this year. This match will be a lot closer than some expect.
Outside of the premier court, four men’s matches from Saturday will be hoping to finish. Court 1 will see the resumption of Nick Kyrgios against Feliciano Lopez with the score level at one set each. In typical Kyrgios fashion, a new controversy erupted after he called his camp ‘retarded’. Recently Bernard Tomic received sharp criticism for using the same word. Juan Martin Del Potro currently trails Lucas Pouille 7-6(4), 6-7(6), 4-7, in what has so far been a epic clash between the two players. Finally, Richard Gasquet and John Isner are just one set from booking their places in the next round.
On the women’s side, Sloane Stephens and Svetlana Kuznetsova clash on court one. Kuznetsova currently leads the head-to-head 2-1 and won their most recent encounter at the 2015 Beijing Open. Ekaterina Makarova will be hoping to follow-up on her Saturday triumph over Petra Kvitova with another good showing against Barbora Strycova. Finally, Timea Bacsinszky faces Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Full order of play
SHOW COURTS (11.30am start)
Centre Court
(27) C Vandeweghe (USA) v (6) R Vinci (Ita),
(1) S Williams (USA) v A Beck (Ger),
(24) A Zverev (Ger) v (10) T Berdych (Cze).
Court 1
(18) S Stephens (USA) v (13) S Kuznetsova (Rus),
(15) N Kyrgios (Aus) v (22) F Lopez (Spa),
J Vesely (Cze) v (31) J Sousa (Por).
Court 2
(11) T Bacsinszky (Swi) v (21) A Pavlyuchenkova (Rus),
(18) J Isner (USA) v (12) J Tsonga (Fra),
M Jaziri (Tun) & L Rosol (Cze) v (2) B Bryan (USA) & M Bryan (USA),
M Keys (USA) & S Stephens (USA) v (5) T Babos (Hun) & Y Shvedova (Kaz).
Court 3
O Marach (Aut) & F Martin (Fra) v K Skupski (GB) & N Skupski (GB),
E Makarova (Rus) v (24) B Strycova (Cze),
(1) M Hingis (Swi) & S Mirza (Ind) v E Hozumi (Jpn) & M Kato (Jpn),
J Rae (GB) & A Smith (GB) v (4) E Makarova (Rus) & E Vesnina (Rus).
Court 4
M Stewart (GB) v D Altmaier (Ger),
G Dabrowski (Can) & M Martinez Sanchez (Spa) v E Bouchard (Can) & S Lisicki (Ger),
T Huey (Phi) & A Rosolska (Pol) v M Demoliner (Bra) & N Melichar (USA),
D Marrero (Spa) & M Martinez Sanchez (Spa) v M Middelkoop (Ned) & O Kalashnikova (Geo).
Court 12
E Vesnina (Rus) v J Boserup (USA), (32) L Pouille (Fra) v J Del Potro (Arg),
N Broady (GB) & H Watson (GB) v A Panova (Rus) & S Rogers (USA),
F Del Bonis (Arg) & D Schwartzman (Arg) v (3) J Murray (GB) & B Soares (Bra).
Court 18
(3) H Chan (Tpe) & Y Chan (Tpe) v J Jankovic (Ser) & A Krunic (Ser),
(7) R Gasquet (Fra) v A Ramos-Vinolas (Spa),
(8) V Pospisil (Can) & J Sock (USA) v Q Halys (Fra) & T Lamasine (Fra),
F Mergea (Rom) & T Paszek (Aut) v A Sitak (Nzl) & L Siegemund (Ger).
