Carlos Alcaraz vs Mark Lajal Prediction & Betting Tips - ATP Wimbledon Championships

Prediction published on 30/06/2024, 05:00  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 30/06/2024 at 09:10 in ATP Wimbledon Championships Predictions

Carlos Alcaraz begins the defence of his Wimbledon men’s singles title. The Spaniard is seeded third this year and takes on qualifier Mark Lajal. For the winner, there’s a second round match against either Sebastian Ofner or Aleksandar Vukic, both of whom are unseeded.

Alcaraz has only played one grass court tournament since winning his first Wimbledon title last year. That was at Queen’s Club (where he also won in 2023) and was beaten by Britain’s Jack Draper in the quarter-finals.

Alcaraz is currently third in the live rankings and ATP Race. The loss to Draper ended a run of 13 straight wins on grass.

Mark Lajal from Estonia is down at 269th in the live rankings. His career-high ranking is 191st and that was achieved last November. This is his first time at Wimbledon and only the fourth Grand Slam tournament he’s ever played in. His Grand Slam debut was made at last year’s US Open.

Just like the 2024 Australian Open and at Roland Garros, he lost in the first qualifying round. It’s gone so much better for him on grass though. He won his three qualifying round matches to make it into his first main draw.

The final qualifying round saw him beat James Duckworth in four sets. It was an unlikely success as before the qualifiers, he’d only played the Challenger Tour events in Surbiton and Nottingham and lost in the second qualifying round of each of them.

This is the biggest day of his career so far but we strongly expect it to end in defeat. We go for under 30.5 games to be played in the three sets.