TennisSection previews the 2021 Wimbledon Championships as Elise Mertens (13) faces Madison Keys (23) in the Round of 32 on Friday, July 2nd 2021.
Will Madison Keys cause the slight upset? Will Elise Mertens continue her dominant form and go on? Friday’s contest will prove to be a very interesting match, as I do see it being a close encounter. Who will move on to the Round of 16 at the 2021 Wimbledon Championships?
Elise Mertens has been in amazing form this tournament, dropping only 6 games throughout both matches. Her service numbers have been really good, winning 70% of her points on second serves. While her opponents were not as high quality as Madison Keys, those wins should still give her plenty of confidence and definitely secure her as the favorite here in this Round of 32 match-ups. Keys has also been in good form, so Mertens will definitely have to play at a high level, she will need to try and do exactly what she’s been doing, but it will be harder to demolish opponents as she has been doing against better servers. She will need to just focus on holding serve, and simply staying in it, just jumping on any opportunity she sees, I think this will be enough for her to go through.
Madison Keys has also been in great form, winning both of her matches in straight sets. Although, for someone with a good service like her, it’s a little concerning that she was only making a little over half of them in her last match. While she isn’t the favorite against Keys, she still has a chance, and if she wants to utilize that chance then she will need to get that first serve percentage higher. While she still did come through pretty dominantly, she wasn’t able to stay super solid on serve considering how much of a favorite she was in that match. She’ll need to play some aggressive tennis and attempt to blow Mertens off the court, which I do think she is fully capable of doing.
Elise Mertens and Madison Keys have played two times before, with Madison Keys leading the head to head 2-0. They played two times before, both at the grand slam level, with Keys winning in 2017 and 2019 at the US Open and Australian Open. However, this is a grass court, there is no other court like Wimbledon in the world and while I do expect Mertens to have to fight, and I won’t be super surprised if Keys goes through, I still think Mertens will step up and play her ranking, pushing aside Keys to move on to the Round of 16 at the 2021 Wimbledon Championships.
Free Tennis Pick and Prediction: Elise Mertens in 3 Sets.
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