11th seed Sam Querrey will be out to start his Wimbledon campaign on the front foot when he takes on out of form Australian Jordan Thompson who is battling to save his place in the top 100. Join The Roar for live scores from 8:30pm (AEST).
The American’s career highlight came at Wimbledon last year when he went all the way to the semi-finals before falling to Marin Cilic in four sets.
Querrey is known for his big serve. He knocked Novak Djokovic out here in 2016 and grass is by far his best service technically, with a serve and volley game suited down to the ground.
Form has been well off the radar this year though, with just four wins in his last ten matches.
It’s hard to get a read though, given he has only played one grass court tournament since a meek effort at the French Open, which saw him suffer a four-set loss in the second round to Gilles Simon.
Not defending many points on the red stuff, Querrey still enters Wimbledon at the pointy end of the world rankings, but has a lot of points to defend here and his performance at the AEGON Championships – where he again lost to Cilic – won’t leave him all that confident, despite a strong win over Stan Wawrinka.
Like Querrey, Thompson hasn’t been in amazing form, but the concern for the Australian is that he has been playing at a much lower level.
His game is built on speed and acceleration around the court, with the power difference between he and Querrey noticeable in their last and only meeting to date, coming at the AEGON Championships last year when Querrey won in straight sets.
Thompson had a decent run to the quarter-finals of the Ilkey Challenger event, but worryingly lost first round to Jiri Vesely at Antalya in Turkey a fortnight ago.
Based on his form, the plucky Australian doesn’t stand a chance, but then, he has put in inspiring efforts to win matches from two sets down at grand slams before, so you just never know.
Prediction
Neither player have been in great touch, but Querrey has all the tools to get the job done in what is going to be a pretty touch match for Thompson, no matter how well he fights.
Querrey in four sets.
Be sure to join The Roar for live scores of this first round match from 8:30pm (AEST) and don’t forget to add a comment in the section below.
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