With the 2016 Australian Open underway in the Tennis World and Down Under we are moving on into the 3rd round of competition and on this Friday the 22nd of January 2015 we have an interesting match-up in the Men’s Singles 3rd Round with the current ranked No. 3 R. Federer of Switzerland playing G. Dimitrov of Bulgaria with the march being played at Melbourne Park in Melbourne Australia.
Federer in the 1st round beat N. Basilashvili a Georgian 6-2, 9-1 and 6-2, then in the 2nd round beat A. Dolgopolov an Ukrainian 6-3,7-5 and 6-1 to move on to this 3rd round. Dimitrov in the 1st round beat P. Lorenzi an Italian 6-3, 7-6 and 6-3, then in the 2nd round beat M. Trungeiliti an Argentinean 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 and 7-5 to move into this 3rd round Australian Open.
R. Federer seeks to overcome his memories of a surprising defeat last season in the 3rd round of this open last season to A. Seppi and now in this match-up he comes up against the once titled ‘Baby Fed’ in G. Dimitrov because his game is so similar to Federer’s. Fans are wondering if Federer can keep surging and win his Grand Slam Title for the 18th time.
For the fans that Bet on Tennis at the likes of SBG Global.com the early odds has R. Federer the favorite at -950 while Dimitrov is the underdog in this match at +575.
If you are a fan of R. Federer you know that in that 2nd round against A. Dolgopolov led in that match in all 7 sets as the game spanned some 1 hour and 35 minutes. Federer’s serve was basically unbeatable as he did not once have a break point and he aced Dolgopolov some 25 times, as 67% of his 1st serves were in of which he won 87% of the points on those serves. In that match Federer displayed a stepped up defense as he managed winning some 44 receiving points, and in his 1st round match against Basilashvili he won 56% of the points, and attributes that performance to his new Coach I. Ljubicic.
As the 3rd seed in this Aussie Open R. Federer will face an opponent G. Dimitrov in this game that should not be difficult. In their previous 4 matches he managed to beat Dimitrov in all 4, and in all those matches he won some 85% of his 1st serves. Defensively he should perform well in this match since in all previous matches Federer won 41% of the return points playing Dimitrov in the past Australian Open.
In his ultimate 11 matches on the hard courts, Federer has won 9 of those 11 and that included a win over Dimitrov at Brisbane earlier this January 2016 at 6-4, 6-7 and 6-4.
For the tennis fans of G. Dimitrov surely you’re aware that he powered in to the 3rd round of this Aussie open beating M. Trungeiliti in 4 sets with his serve that has been dominating, as in this match he made 11 aces and won 74% of his points on the 1st serve. Dimitrov has a very like style of playing to R. Federer and because of that earned the name ‘Baby Fed’. In this match Dimitrov will have the opportunity to end a 4 match loss period to Federer and all on hard court surfaces. What he has to his advantage is that he was able to win a set playing Federer earlier this season at the Brisbane Open.
At the Brisbane Open and the quarter final the match with Federer was close as he lost 4-6., 7-6 and 4-6, and in that loss in the 3 sets he had 8 aces and on 1st serve points made 73 % of them. In matches against Federer that was his first time to surpass 7 aces and win over 70 percent of the 1st serve points in their matches, and was able to on 1 occasion break Federer’s serve. In the ultimate 7 matches on hard court surfaces Dimitrov has won 5 of those matches.
The sportsbook prediction for this 3rd round Men’s Single match, Dimitrov has an outstanding performance but fails to overcome Federer and losses in 5 sets.