Federer vs Zverev: Russian can hold his own early on

Roger Federer had to overcome a stuttering start in the second round at Wimbledon and may also be stretched a bit by Mischa Zverev in the early exchanges.

Federer surprisingly admitted to suffering from a few jitters before eventually overcoming Croatian Dusan Lajovic 7-6 6-3 6-2.

“It was definitely more acute than I normally feel,” commented the seven-time champion.

“I think it was just like all of a sudden I was walking up to the locker room after my warm-up and I was just feeling excited and nervous.

“And then when I walked to the court it was still ongoing and after the warm-up it was still there.”

With his next opponent in decent form, that makes 4/5 for over 30.5 games in the match worth including in our Federer vs Zverev betting tips.

Zverev proving a late bloomer

Zverev had a pretty lousy Wimbledon record before this season, but the 29-year-old eased past Bernard Tomic 6-4 6-3 6-4 in round one.

The Russian then held his nerve in a rollercoaster clash with Mikhail Kukushkin, serving 14 aces to prevail 6-1 6-2 2-6 3-6 6-4.

Those performances were predictable, though, with Zverev having been in good nick on grass in the build-up to this tournament.

There was no disgrace in a 7-6 6-7 5-7 loss to Feliciano Lopez in the Stuttgart semis and he also came out of a 6-7 4-6 defeat by Federer in Halle with plenty of credit.

Reaching the final of the Gerry Weber Open doubles event alongside brother Alexander is another example of how well Mischa is playing at the moment.

Federer did cruise through 6-1 7-5 6-2 when they met at the Australian Open earlier this year, but we’re backing Zverev to put up more of a fight this time.