Marcos Baghdatis threw down a major marker when crushing David Nalbandian in the fourth round, but the most satisfied man at Wimbledon would have been Roger Federer. The Swiss ace remains the only man definitely in the last eight of the tournament after more rain denied the likes of Andy Roddick and Richard Gasquet the chance to join him in the quarter-finals.
And two other title contenders from the bottom half, Lleyton Hewitt and Novak Djokovic, are more than one round behind the world No. 1, who was last night trading strongly as ever. Roger Federer is listed at -6500 odds to bear Juan Carlos Ferrero in his next Wimbledon Signles match at BetUS.com.
Baghdatis was in tremendous form against Nalbandian, easing through in just one hour and 41 minutes even though bookmakers had found it difficult to split the pair.
“I wasn't expecting that,” said Baghdatis. “He didn't play very well, but I'm happy the way I'm playing.”
Tomas Berdych, Jonas Bjorkman and Mikhail Youzhny were the only other men to secure their spots in the fourth round before the rain returned.
Berdych, who was the most well-backed outsider in the first week, beat Hyung-Taik Lee in straight sets, although the Korean managed to push him to a couple of tie-breaks.
BetUS.com have posted the following Wimbledon odds for the Mens Singles tennis matches scheduled on Wednesday July 4th, 2007:
05:30 AM EST
Richard Gasquet: -190 vs. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga: +145
06:00 AM EST
Nicolas Kiefer: +220 vs, Novak Djokovic: -330
Robin Soderling: +150 vs. Rafael Nadal: -200
Andy Roddick: -5000 vs. Paul-Henri Mathieu: +1200
Tomas Berdych: -350 vs. Jonas Bjorkman: +225
Marcos Baghdatis: -200 vs. Nikolay Davydenko: +150
Roger Federer: -6500 vs. Juan Carlos Ferrero: +1400
