Wimbledon Tip: Nadal V Fish

With Nadal confirming his fitness for Wednesday’s match, many are already getting ahead of themselves, anticipating the champion playing Andy Murray in the final four. In truth, that should happen but Mardy Fish shouldn’t be the soft touch that some of the odds may suggest. Now ranked ninth in the world, the American has a style similar to that of compatriot Andy Roddick; it can be difficult to break down on grass. He gets a lot of free points on his big serve, has improved his mobility around the court and is capable at the net. Nadal is obviously the better player, but at odds of 3/1 with Coral, the prospect of a first set tie-break looms large.

Let’s look at some of the stats. Nadal needed tie-break wins in both of the first two sets against Gilles Muller in round three. In the round of 16 it was a similar story against Juan Martin Del Potro; the first and third sets went the distance with the Spaniard making it four out of four tie-breaks won in these championships. Interestingly, on the other side of the net, Fish has faced first set tie-breaks in three of his four matches so far. He is a player who may struggle to break a class opponent such as the world number one, but that feeling should be mutual. Service holds ought to be commonplace - the match should be tight early on. Back the first set to go to a tie-break at 3/1 with Coral.