Bernard Tomic and Fernando Verdasco kick off their Wimbledon campaigns tonight. Join The Roar from 10:30pm (AEST) for live coverage.
Verdasco has years of experience at the All England Club and will prove dangerous.
The 32-year-old is coming off a strong start to the grass court season, knocking off world No.5 Stan Wawrinka at London’s Aegon Championships.
However, in the next round of the tournament Verdasco lost to Tomic in three sets.
Tomic went on to storm through to the semi-finals of the Aegon Championships, but eventually went down to world No.9 Milos Raonic.
The Australian 19th seed has had some success at Wimbledon before, including a breakout tournament way back in 2011, where he powered through to the quarter-finals at just 18 years of age.
Tomic’s next best effort was a fourth-round finish in 2013, the same year journeyman Verdasco found himself in the quarter-finals at the All England Club.
The pair met at Grand Slam level at the 2012 Australian Open, when Tomic was victorious in five sets, coming behind from two sets down.
Tomic leads Verdasco 4-1 head-to-head, including a victory on their only grass meeting, two weeks ago.
The winner will go on to face either Gestate Elias and qualifier Radu Albot in the second round.
Prediction
Verdasco has the experience and the tools to match Tomic around the court and will look to use his serve as best as possible.
However, the Australian has more to play for, is in strong grass court form, and should fight through successfully.
Tomic in four sets.
Join The Roar from 10:30pm (AEST) for live coverage at the All England Club.
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