Tennis
2026-06-29 - Marin Cilic vs Daniil Medvedev
A Sports Betting Pick by FirstDown
Tennis : Wimbledon First Round
Monday 29th June 2026 - Scheduled 3pm (British Time)
Preview
This is the second meeting between these players during this grass court season and Daniil Medvedev is expected to back up the victory over Marin Cilic at Hertogenbosch by getting the better of him at Wimbledon.
They have met at Wimbledon before back in 2021 when Marin Cilic was Ranked Number 37 and Daniil Medvedev was the World Number 2 and the latter needed to fight back from 2-0 behind in sets to battle through in five sets in what was then a Third Round match.
Suffice to say, Daniil Medvedev may have hoped for an easier First Round match than this one, although Marin Cilic is now 37 years old and the World Number 60, while a 2-2 record on the grass in the lead up to Wimbledon will not be inspiring a lot of confidence. His game has always been well tailored for the grass courts and Marin Cilic has enjoyed considerable success at Wimbledon, although reaching the Quarter Final in three straight years before finishing Runner Up came between 2014 and 2017.
Last year Marin Cilic surprisingly reached the Fourth Round here, which included upsetting home favourite Jack Draper in the Second Round, but the veteran is going to have to find a significant improvement in the serving.
When Marin Cilic faced Daniil Medvedev in Hertogenbosch, the former 53% of points behind serve and was broken five times, although Cilic will take some confidence from the fact that such a poor performance still saw him win a set.
Much like he has on the clay, Daniil Medvedev has struggled to really find his consistency on the grass courts and that can make him vulnerable, although he did reach the Semi Final here at Wimbledon in 2023 and 2024. However, last year Medvedev was beaten in the First Round and that makes this match a bit more awkward, even after putting together a 4-2 record on the grass over the last couple of weeks.
You have to feel that Daniil Medvedev has to start with some intensity and that means serving well to try and keep the pressure on Marin Cilic, who will have some early pop on his own delivery.
Attacking the Cilic second serve is important, but just keeping the scoreboard pressure on the veteran could be enough to extract a loose game or two and Daniil Medvedev's recent experience of facing Marin Cilic should help.
A Semi Final run in Hertogenbosch and a Quarter Final run in Halle will certainly have Daniil Medvedev well prepared for this match and the expectation is that he will have a little too much energy for the older player.
There is no doubting that Marin Cilic is very dangerous, but that should be something that focuses the World Number 8 and Daniil Medvedev should be able to beat the Croatian at Wimbledon for a second time in his career, albeit this time without the need for a fifth set.
Prediction
Both players have had strong runs at Wimbledon in their respective careers, but Daniil Medvedev has a grass court win over Marin Cilic in the summer of 2026 and can frank that form in this good looking First Round match.
The Pick :
Marin Cilic 1-3 Daniil Medvedev
