Wimbledon men’s round 2: British hopes Bedene & Ward on court on day 4

While the top men’s singles seeds including main home hope Andy Murray are in action at Wimbledon, there are also a couple of other British representatives playing on day four.

Slovenian-born Aljaz Bedene faces a tricky test against Viktor Troicki, while James Ward clashes with Czech Republic youngster Jiri Vesely. Notable names Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Ivo Karlovic have intriguing encounters too.

Viktor Troicki v Aljaz Bedene
Serbia’s Troicki took the only previous meeting with his former Yugoslavian-born opponent in straight sets last year. That is why the 22nd seed is a firm odds-on 1/3 match favourite, and 11/10 to win 3-0.

Bedene beat Czech veteran Radek Stepanek in a topsy-turvy five-set first round fixture, which was more impressive than Troicki dropping one in a 3-1 victory over qualifier Aleksandr Nedovyesov, who switched allegiance from Ukraine to Kazakhstan last year.

What Bedene showed were battling qualities, and that’s enough to make his 10/3 price to stun Troicki worth considering.

A first-ever encounter between these two sees Ward hold odds of 6/4 to send the youngster home. Unlucky to lose a first set tiebreak in his opening victory over Luca Vanni of Italy, the Briton is 5/1 to come through another test in four sets here.

Vesely took two sets in his straightforward first round win 7-6, so a tasty 2-1 price says there will be further tiebreaks in the early exchanges between him and Ward.