Wimbledon Tip: Azarenka V Paszek

World number four Victoria Azarenka began the tournament with plenty to prove on grass and looked unconvincing at times against Hantuchova in round three. Having survived that scare, she has gone from strength to strength and now looks well set to go very deep in the women’s singles. Quarter-final opponent Tamira Paszek has has the kindest draw imaginable for a non-seeded player and to be fair she taken full advantage. A gruelling 6-3 4-6 11-9 win over Francesca Schiavone was the highlight but in truth the highly regarded Italian is a clay-court specialist who never does well at SW19.

That was one of the longest ladies’ matches of the tournament and Paszek has played three sets in all but one of her singles matches. Throw in some doubles action as well and you wonder if fatigue will start to play a part on Tuesday. Azarenka is clearly the superior player and may feel relatively fresh having not entered the doubles; most importantly she has won her last three sets of tennis by a convincing 6-2 scoreline. Paszek is still the rank outsider at 150/1 with sportingbet with only eight contenders still standing and many of the leading seeds toppled. This should tell us something.

PaddyPower look generous to offer 11/10 on Paszek winning less than 6.5 games in the match. It looks like Azarenka should win convincingly and a scoreline such as 6-3 6-3 or 6-4 6-2 would win us our bet. The 21-year-old from Belarus only dropped four games last round and less than 6.5 in three out of her four matches. This trend should continue here.