The third round of Wimbledon continues Saturday with some incredible matchups.
I’ve found value on two of Saturday's matches — Swiatek – Putintseva and Rybakina – Wozniacki.
Read on for my Wimbledon best bets.
Note: Match times are subject to change. Read here for tips on viewing tennis matches and seeing tennis odds.
Wimbledon Odds & Wimbledon Best Bets
Iga Swiatek (-1050) vs Yulia Putintseva (+660)
9 a.m. ET
Iga Swiatek continues to find her footing on grass and defeated Petra Martic 6-4, 6-3 to advance in London. The Pole, playing her first grass-court event of 2024, is now 18-7 on grass as a professional. While impressive, when compared to Swiatek's 132-17 record on clay and 174-45 mark on hard, it's not quite as dominant.
Swiatek hits her spots on serve and has won over 80% of her first serves in both of this season's matches at Wimbledon. Yet, Swiatek's heavy, powerful forehand, while still a weapon, sits up more on clay. And her flatter backhand can leak errors at times. The 23-year-old isn't quite as comfortable moving on grass, nor does she handle the weird bounces nearly as well as on clay.
In addition, Swiatek isn't fully comfortable moving forward and finishing points at the net.
Yulia Putintseva beat Katerina Siniakova 6-0, 4-6, 6-2 in the second round. Putintseva, who already won WTA Birmingham this grass-court season, improved her grass-court record to 7-0 in 2024. The Kazakh has reached new heights on grass, vastly improving her career mark on grass from 12-22 before this season to 19-22 now.
Putintseva has been significantly better this season with her movement on the surface and has become more comfortable rallying and dealing with the bad grass-court bounces. The 29-year-old has also become more willing to play offense from the ground, particularly her forehand, which is necessary for success in the quick conditions.
Putintseva's serve is not a strength, but she's been serving well, only getting broken twice in London.
Swiatek is on her least-preferred surface and hasn't blown anyone out on grass in her limited experience on grass in 2024.
On the other hand, Putintseva is fully confident, has already won a warmup event and finally understands how to effectively adapt to grass-court tennis.
The lack of comfort on grass won't allow Swiatek to dominate the baseline and drag Putintseva around the court, as is her staple on other surfaces. This will be more of a dog fight.
Pick: Putintseva +5.5 Games (-102 via FanDuel)
Elena Rybakina (-350) vs Caroline Wozniacki (+260)
10:30 a.m. ET
Elena Rybakina survived a tough test, defeating Laura Siegemund 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 to reach the third round. Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon champion, is 3-1 on grass this year with an astonishing 30-10 record as a professional.
Rybakina's game is effective on grass, in large part, because of her elite serve. The Kazakh, in 2024, has hit the most aces and is top-10 in percentage of first-serve points won, service points won and service games won. Rybakina also has powerful groundstrokes, especially, when she can dictate play.
However, Rybakina, has looked shaky, at times, in this tournament. She's hit more unforced errors than winners in both matches she's played (46 unforced errors in her previous match). In addition to her shaky rally tolerance, Rybakina has won under 50% of her second serves in both matches in London. The Kazakh's movement has also been sluggish.
Caroline Wozniacki squeaked out a 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 victory over Leylah Fernandez in the second round. The Dane improved her grass-court record to 4-2 in 2024 and an impressive 62-38 for her career.
While grass isn't Wozniacki's preferred surface, she still competes well. The 33-year-old veteran successfully anticipates where her opponents are going and maintains her consistency on the surface. Wozniacki gets excellent depth and puts the ball in uncomfortable positions for her opponents. She gets a lot of balls back into play, including her returns of serve, and moves well on grass. The Dane can also step up in the court and play offense, particularly with her backhand.
In this matchup, Wozniacki should be able to get lots of returns into play, neutralizing a crucial strength of Rybakina's game.
In addition, Wozniacki is the much better mover and has the better rally tolerance, so — if she can extend rallies — she could potentially coax errors out of the Kazakh. And, in backhand-to-backhand exchanges, the Dane has a big edge.
Wozniacki has the skill set to turn this into a baseline battle, which should worry Rybakina.
