What about the men’s quarters ?

Preview of Men’s Quarter Final Day, Wimbledon 2018

Roger Federer (1) v Kevin Anderson (8)

Federer has won all 4 matches between the pair, but they haven’t played each other since 2015 and this will be the first time on grass.

Of the 15 quarter finals contested by Federer here, he has won 12, losing in 2001 to Tim Henman, 2010 to Tomas Berdych, and 2011 to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Anderson is in the final eight for the first time at Wimbledon and has a career win/loss match record on grass of 44/29

Federer’s is 181/27

Based on all that, and the form he has displayed, Roger is looking at another semi final.

Milos Raonic (13) v John Isner (9)

Isner leads 3-1 in the head to head battle, but Raonic won the most recent match in Cincinnati 2016.

They have only played each other on a hard court.

This is Wimbledon quarter final number four for Raonic, all in the past five years.  He won two of the three already played, losing last year to Federer.

Isner is in his first Wimbledon quarter final.

Raonic has a win/loss match record on grass of 43/19

Isner’s is 43/23

Raonic should win the big serving match, as he has a slight edge in variety of shots, and he can draw on the experience of playing late in the second week here.

Novak Djokovic (12) v Kei Nishikori (24)

Djokovic leads the head to head race 13-2, Nishikori’s wins coming in 2011 and 2014, Djokovic winning the last twelve.  They have never played each other on grass.

Djokovic has made the quarter finals at Wimbledon on nine occasions previously and won seven of those, losing in 2009 to Tommy Haas and last year retiring when playing Tomas Berdych.

This is the first Wimbledon quarter final for Nishikori.

Djokovic has a win/loss match record on grass of 90/19

Nishikori’s is 38/23

Djokovic is firing this Wimbledon, playing the best tennis since his comeback from injury, and should win a quality quarter final.

Juan Martin del Potro (5) v Rafa Nadal (2)

Nadal leads the head to head count 10-5, the latest match a semi final win for Nadal en route to his Roland Garros crown last month.

The two have met twice on grass, Nadal winning both, at Queens Club in 2007 and at Wimbledon 2011 in the round of sixteen.

Nadal made the Wimbledon quarter finals five times in the period 2006-2011, winning all of those.  He proceeded to win the title twice and was a finalist three times, after those quarter finals.

After 2011 Nadal has had an unhappy Wimbledon record, losing before the quarters in each of his five attempts. Until now.

del Potro has made it to the Wimbledon quarter finals once before, in 2013, where he defeated David Ferrer. He subsequently lost the semi final to Djokovic.

Nadal has a win/loss match record on grass of 65/18

del Potro’s is 39/16

Despite Nadal not dropping a set so far, I am tipping the Argentine to knock the Spaniard out of contention and disappoint all those anticipating a 10 year anniversary celebration on Sunday of the Nadal Federer classic final of 2008.  Nadal won that title 6-4 6-4 6-7(5) 6-7(8) 9-7.

Expect a match full of heavy forehands from both ends, and the del Potro serve to be the crucial factor.