Wimbledon Predictions, Third Round Picks for Rublev vs Mannarino, Darderi vs Thompson

We're set to kick off the third round of Wimbledon over at the All England Club on Friday, and the matchups are becoming closer and closer with each passing day.

Here are my previews and Round 3 Wimbledon predictions for Andrey Rublev vs Adrian Mannarino and Luciano Darderi vs Jordan Thompson.

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Wimbledon Predictions — Third Round

Andrey Rublev vs Adrian Mannarino Odds

You learn a lot of lessons when you bet on tennis for several years, and one of the most important ones is never to force a play if you find yourself priced out.

That's how I feel about this match between Andrey Rublev and Adrian Mannarino.

The veteran Mannarino is a flat hitter who has had a great career on grass. With that said, he's now 37 years of age with his best tennis behind him, and he'd come away with just two wins in his last five trips to Wimbledon prior to this week.

Standing at 17-25 across all levels this year, the lefty has simply lacked the consistency which once brought him into the top 20. While I'd normally be eyeing him as a sneaky underdog, there's nothing sneaky about him at this price — and at this point, I'm quite convinced he's being overrated by the market thanks to the volatility of his opponent.

While Rublev's game has certainly declined this season — as he's mercifully fallen out of the top 10 in the world — he's looked pretty impressive through two rounds at the All England Club, dispatching a man in Laslo Djere who's given him fits at the Grand Slam level before combatting the big serve of Lloyd Harris.

Rublev is still an all-world ball-striker whose second serve stands as a massive liability, but Mannarino's unlikely to punish it with his lack of power — and there's a great chance on a quicker surface that Rublev simply hits him off the court.

The two have met four times at tour level, with Mannarino managing to win just two sets — in a victory four years ago in Moscow. Since then, Rublev has taken him down in straight sets indoors while losing just three games in each encounter.

There's a clear discrepancy between the two from a matchup standpoint, and with Rublev building form on a surface he's excelled in the past, I think he comfortably wins inside five sets.

Pick: Rublev -1.5 Sets (-145 via DraftKings)

Luciano Darderi vs Jordan Thompson Odds

Luciano Darderi has had a fun run on the grass this week with a win over the always-tough Roman Safiullin and upstart Brit Arthur Fery.

All good things eventually come to an end, however, and it would appear he'll be denied a place in the second week when he takes on a very competent and well-traveled grass master in Jordan Thompson.

The Aussie has played 119 grass-court matches in his career, going 40-21 in the last five seasons, giving him an unusual level of experience — and success — on a surface where it's hard to do so given the lack of matches on the calendar.

Thompson's backhand slice and his serve-and-volley prowess makes him a brutal matchup on these courts, and his expert defense and point construction should win out in a match against a hard-hitter whose game is purely one-dimensional.

It's not unheard of for a player like Darderi, whose experience is mainly limited to clay, to find a way to quickly make an impact on grass. With that said, his 25-24 career record on hardcourts and 6-9 grass-court record (3-4 this season) illustrate that the Italian simply isn't there yet.

I expect Thompson to out-scheme Darderi in this one and prevent him from getting comfortable, which will force him into some errors.

If this one does go deep, too, I expect Darderi — who lacks the match fitness of his counterpart — to fade away after playing eight sets of physical tennis in just a few days.

Pick: Thompson -2.5 Games (-110 via BetMGM; DraftKings)

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