The second round is here from the All England Club. Let's jump right in!
Here are my bets for Gael Monfils vs Stan Wawrinka and Frances Tiafoe vs Borna Coric in my Wednesday Wimbledon picks.
Match times are subject to change. Read here for advice on viewing Wimbledon matches.
Wednesday's Wimbledon Picks & Odds
Gael Monfils (-310) vs Stan Wawrinka (+240)
9:45 a.m. ET
I'm not sure how much I trust either of these guys in a best-of-five set match at their age, but I know that I don't make this a lopsided affair in the Frenchman's favor.
We've seen them both break down physically plenty in recent months, but Monfils coming off a longer week in Mallorca concerns me, especially after how he looked for much of his first round tilt against countryman Adrian Mannarino (who is mired in a special kind of losing spell at the moment). He was very passive and pushed a lot of balls back. Other than the first serve, it was a pretty underwhelming performance.
Perhaps that's enough against someone like Wawrinka, who very well could tire, but I'm not sold on Monfils holding up physically either.
For me, these two both have strong first serves, can both play across surfaces and each have a way to control the match (Monfils with his rigid solidity from the baseline and Wawrinka with his aggressive, powerful groundstrokes).
I'll split my stake up here with Wawrinka to win the first set and the moneyline to diversify my risk with there being enough value for me in both numbers.
Picks: Wawrinka 1st set ML (+163 via bet365) | Wawrinka ML (+240 via DraftKings)
Frances Tiafoe (-185) vs Borna Coric (+150)
6 a.m. ET
Fresh off needing to come back from two sets down in the first round of a quick court grand slam tournament, Tiafoe felt the need to call out many of the recent people he'd lost to as "clowns." Interesting choice for someone who barely got through a first round contest and has been consistently slipping down the rankings for months.
Nevertheless, he's fortunate in his second round draw, seeing as Coric may be one of the few who has looked even worse than the American.
Tiafoe should also benefit from having the much more potent serve, being the much better mover, having a more potent forehand and even being the less error prone player in this one.
If there was ever a time to back up his big words, this would be it. I'm not all that confident in his ability to do so, but the number here is simply too low and that's enough to get me involved. I'm going to get carried away staking wise, but I do think that he should be closer to a -4 or -4.5 game favorite, with -3 being a kind of "must play" number.
Pick: Tiafoe -2.5 games, (-122 via BetRivers) | Tiafoe -1.5 sets (+106 via BetRivers)
Note: Bet the -3 where possible, as the price presents even more value
