Tennis

As we predicted, Mannarino was a comfortable winner on Day 1, completing a straight-sets victory over Christopher O’Connell.

The reward for that is a matchup against fellow countryman Valentin Royer, who benefited from a retirement whilst he was two sets up over Stefanos Tsitsipas. An impressive win, but Tsitsipas isn't quite the force he was, and he felt bad enough to retire here.

The two men have yet to play each other, but Mannarino brings with him a lot of experience and a lot of grass-court success, whereas Royer had no grass success at all until qualifying last week.

Perhaps this underestimates Royer somewhat, but Mannarino should have the experience and know-how to get through this test.

Tiafoe is quoted in the media as saying that Wimbledon and the US Open are the events that he is in tennis for, and that judgment upon him should be on these events.

Whilst this seems like it is a pretty convenient statement for 48 weeks of the year, if we take Tiafoe at his word, then we can assume that his motivation is very high and his preparation will have been for this tournament in mind. He was fairly convincing in round one, albeit against a lowly ranked opponent.

Norrie was pushed hard by Roberto Bautista Agut, and so he is match tough, but the concern for Norrie is that if both men bring a high level, Tiafoe has the bigger weapons and probably the better grass court game.

Bautista Agut had an uncharacteristically bad day at the office in taking his chances against Norrie, and although we know that he will always continue to plug away and ask the questions of an opponent, it is Tiafoe who will have the match on his racket.

Putting some faith into a player's ability on a particular surface here by backing Haddad Maia on grass.

Her biggest weapons are the powerful serve and groundstrokes, as well as a more than competent forecourt game honed on the doubles circuit. She reached the quarter-finals in Bad Homburg last week, an ideal preparation for this, and should've reached the Queen's Club quarter-finals as well, but for an untimely interruption in a second-set tiebreak vs Emma Navarro, she may well have done so.

Meanwhile, Dalma Galfi did well to come back from a set down to Harriet Dart in the opening round, but that performance needs to be seriously stepped up here. Defeats to Mariam Bolkvadze (#198) and Katarzyna Kawa (#132) in preparation for this suggest that Haddad Maia is fully deserving of strong favouritism here.

Raducanu has put together her best overall WTA season so far and has every right to feel confident going into this match. Her Wimbledon record is good, she seems fairly fit, but, unfortunately for her, the same can be said for Marketa Vondrousova.

A fully fit Vondrousova is one of the elite players in the world. Wimbledon champion in 2023, but also a French Open finalist, it is only injury that has held the Czech back from higher rankings and more big titles.

Her grass court game is elite, and a convincing victory over the seeded McCartney Kessler in the opening round is probably much better form than a victory over an 18-year-old British wildcard, which Raducanu managed.

Vondrousova is on a six-match winning streak, and leads the H2H with Raducanu 2-1, albeit Raducanu's win was indeed at Wimbledon back in 2021. Since then, though, Vondrousova has had a big edge.