The second round of Wimbledon is here and there are plenty of exciting matches on Wednesday!
I’ve found value on two of Wednesday's matchups — Noskova – Andreescu and Kasatkina – Miyazaki.
Read on for my 2024 Wimbledon predictions.
Note: Match times are subject to change. Read here for tips on viewing tennis matches and seeing tennis odds.
2024 Wimbledon Predictions and Wimbledon Odds
Linda Noskova (-126) vs Bianca Andreescu (+105)
8 a.m. ET
Linda Noskova battled past Sara Errani 7-6(3), 6-1 in London. Noskova improved her grass-court record to 3-2 this year and 4-5 for her career, showing her overall inexperience on the surface.
On paper, Noskova seemingly has an excellent game for grass. The 19-year old has a big serve and powerful groundstrokes, particularly on her forehand wing. Noskova tries to play offensive, first-strike tennis, taking time away from her opponents and positioning herself aggressively on the court.
The problem for Noskova is that she still hasn't figured out exactly how to construct points, move and maintain her rally tolerance on grass, which was evident in her warm-up event loss to Viktoriya Tomova in Bad Homburg, showcasing where she can falter at Wimbledon.
And it's this combination of fairly shaky consistency, movement and her desire to bail out of rallies early that makes Bianca Andreescu such a dangerous matchup.
Andreescu comfortably defeated Jacqueline Cristian 6-3, 6-2 in the first round of Wimbledon. The Canadian, who reached the final of Rosmalen (grass) a couple weeks ago, has a 5-2 record on grass in 2024 and an impressive 27-17 professional-mark on the surface.
Andreescu plays an all-court game and the 24-year old has every shot in the book. Andreescu moves on grass well, defending at a high level and maintaining her rally tolerance on the surface. In addition, the Canadian has excellent variety, whether it be her drop shots, slices from both wings or her ability to generate incredible angles. And this variety is especially important on the slick grass, where Andreescu's variety can especially take her opposition out of their comfort zones.
While Andreescu doesn't have overwhelming power, which can get her in trouble on grass, her variety is a weapon and she neutralizes her opponents' offense well, even sending up moon balls to help reset points!
Andreescu should work the ball around the court and keep the ball out of Noskova's strike zone, not giving the Czech balls to tee off on, like Errani did in the prior round. She should also expose Noskova's timid movement on grass with her excellent drop shots.
And Andreescu's ability to absorb pace and counterpunch should be huge in her quest to keep points alive when Noskova is on offense.
Pick: Andreescu ML (+105 via FanDuel)
Daria Kasatkina (-1600) vs Yuriko Lily Miyazaki (+750)
12 p.m. ET
Daria Kasatkina smoked Shuai Zhang 6-3, 6-0 in the first round of Wimbledon. Kasatkina continued her excellent form, as the Russian won WTA Eastbourne last week and improved her career-record on grass to an impressive 34-17.
Kasatkina has adapted her game to the grass well. She moves well on the surface, anticipating where her opponents are going. The 27 year-old has superb rally tolerance, gets excellent depth and consistently places the ball in areas of discomfort for her opponents. She understands how to build points on grass and, when an opening presents itself, can put the ball away, especially from her forehand wing. Kasatkina dictates with placement rather than power.
And, while Kasatkina can get burned on grass against elite power players, Yuriko Lily Miyazaki doesn't present this threat.
Miyazaki destroyed Tamara Korpatsch, a player much more adept on clay, in a 6-2, 6-1 victory. The Brit improved her grass-court record to 2-4 this season and 17-18 for her career. Miyazaki does have experience on grass, even if she's not piling up wins on the surface.
The 28-year old understands how to move on grass and can maintain a decent rally tolerance. Her point construction on the surface is strong, with Miyazaki spreading the court well and implementing fairly-strong variety, along with understanding when to move forward. And, if an opening presents itself, the Brit can often finish off the point.
Miyazaki does nothing that stands out, though. Her rally tolerance is fine, she can get semi-decent power and her variety is satisfactory, but there's nothing that puts her over the top.
And facing a locked-in, elite, all-court player in Kasatkina, therein lies the problem. Miyazaki doesn't have the power to hit through Kasatkina, doesn't have quite the level of court craft to disrupt the Russian's rhythm and doesn't have the rally tolerance if she tries to hang with her in long rallies.
And even on grass, which is Kastkina's worst surface (despite her current form), she still has a 275.1 advantage over Miyazaki in Elo rating.
