Wimbledon predictions: Roman Safiullin vs. Jannik Sinner odds, pick
All eyes are on the bottom half of the Wimbledon draw where Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic are just one win away from a tantalizing rematch in the semifinals, but there’s a Russian player who may play the role of spoiler on Tuesday.
While I think Andrey Rublev deserves more credit for the run he’s on at The Championships, he’s not the Russian player I’m referring to. No, I’m referring to World No. 92 Roman Safiullin.
Safiullin, the relative unknown, could be the most dangerous player remaining in the draw for the current favorites. Safiulin has looked downright impressive through four rounds, taking out two former semifinalists here in the form of Roberto Bautista Agut and Denis Shapovalov, former quarterfinalist Guido Pella and the ever-dangerous Corentin Moutet. He’s pumped in a massive first serve and hit through some great defense with his powerful forehand. Safiullin has always had a game for grass, but he’s never played enough on the surface to show the world what he can do.
Safiullin now stands at 9-3 this grass-court season, including his qualifying matches, and he looks poised to push Sinner, the World No. 8, in their quarterfinal match on Tuesday. The two met last year at the ATP Cup in a match that was hotly contested and there’s no reason to expect anything different the second time around.
In that match, Safiullin brought up 12 break points only to convert one of them. He did a great job winning points on serve but coughed up two breaks in a match that was ultimately decided by one, ending 7-6, 6-3 in two sets.
Safiullin should enter Tuesday’s contest with plenty of confidence given his close match with Sinner last year and his impressive form on the grass at Wimbledon. On top of that, his opponent has rarely made life easy on himself.
Sinner’s had a bad habit of making a meal out of his matches at Grand Slams. Just this year, he fell behind two sets to love to Marton Fucsovics in the third round of the Australian Open and lost just a couple of days later. At the French Open, he was taken out in the second round by Daniel Altmaier in a huge upset. Altmaier also took him five sets in the first round of the US Open, and after that Sinner struggled against inferior competition. We also know the story of how his 2022 Wimbledon went, watching as he lost a two-set lead against Novak Djokovic.
Sinner hasn’t proven himself to be a particularly tidy player at the slams and for this reason he can’t be trusted to make quick work of such a dangerous opponent. I’m going to be backing Safiullin to cover the 6.5 games here with the skepticism that he can actually take a set, but I think either the game spread or the Over 34.5 is a safe play.
The bets: Roman Safiullin +6.5 games; Over 34.5 games
The Inquirer is not an online gambling operator, or a gambling site. We provide this information about sports betting for entertainment purposes only.
