World no. 4 Novak Djokovic’s road to the Wimbledon has been quite routine for a guy in his caliber, as he moved past each opponent with not much challenge getting in the way. The win over Ernests Gulbis in the previous round was his toughest test, and it was still a fairly commanding 6-4, 6-1, 7-6(2) victory.
Add all of that to his third-round win against Adrian Mannarino in last year’s Wimbledon, and the conversation about who to pick could be over. The key word there is “could.”
The 2017 Djokovic, despite all of its greatness and being currently undefeated on grass-held matches (7-0), is actually performing below the standards set for him – and probably by himself. Due to the handful of upsets he got during the clay season, he’s sitting at a 29-7 win-loss card on the year, which is not on pace to at least match any of his overall records in the past four seasons.
The hot-and-cold, 51st-ranked Adrian Mannarino is currently on “hot” mode. He has now won seven of his last eight, which includes wins over the likes of Richard Gasquet, Gael Monfils, Bernard Tomic, and Kyle Edmund. The fourth-round-berth at the Wimbys is also just the second of his 13-year career.
Mixing all of that with the aforementioned shakiness of Djokovic this season, Mannarino is looking like he has a fighting chance to give the Serbian a great run for his money. The one concern, though, is fatigue, since Mannarino had exhausting battles in the previous rounds with Monfils and Yuichi Sugita, which both went to five sets.
Mannarino is 24-13 on grass-court matches since 2014.
Writer’s Prediction
Mannarino is going to show a lot of fight, but Djokovic (-3,000) will survive the scare and advance after four sets.
