Wimbledon: Elise Mertens vs. Madison Keys 7/02/21 Tennis Prediction

Thirteenth seeded Belgian Elise Mertens will face Madison Keys of the United States in the Third Round of the 2021 Wimbledon Championships. The match is scheduled to be played on Friday July 2nd, 2021 at approximately 12:00pm EST.

This is shaping up to be an extremely close match between two very similar players. They are relatively close together in the rankings and have both displayed that they are dominant baseline players. Who will get the win and advance to the Round of 16 here at the 2021 Wimbledon Championships?

Elise Mertens is currently ranked #16 on the WTA Tour, and is 13th seed here at Wimbledon. She has been in fantastic form so far here, winning both her matches in convincing fashion. Usually a very solid baseliner, what has stood out for her here has been her serve, and she has won over 70% of points on it. Mertens should be considered the favorite here as she has been in great form, but Madison Keys is a former top 10 player who has been in Grand Slam Finals before, so this match will certainly not be smooth sailing for the Belgian. With her serve working the way it has been, she will be very confident here, and if her groundstrokes are as strong as always, she is in with a great shot of advancing here.

Madison is ranked #27 in the World, and has been in the top 10 up to a couple seasons before. Injuries and loss of form have seen her ranking slide, but she remains as good a player as ever. Like her opponent Elise Mertens, she has been in great form so far, notably crushing fellow American Lauren Davis in straight sets. She has been great from the baseline, displaying her trademark booming groundstrokes, and when those are clicking she is very capable of overpowering her opponent Elise Mertens. The one area of concern has been her serve. Normally very powerful, she has been missing a large number of first serves, and this will have to seriously improve here.

The two players have played twice in the past on the WTA Tour, with Madison Keys winning on both occasions. The two matches were played on hard courts, at the Australian Open in 2017 and US Open in 2019. While Keys has not been at her best, I do think that she has exactly the game to defeat the in-form Belgian. If she can keep her unforced error count down, she has enough power to blow Mertens off the court. There are not many better counter punchers than Elise Mertens so it will be a very close encounter, but I am backing the American to win in three sets, advancing to the Round of 16 here at Wimbledon.