Tennis
2026-07-05 - Roman Safiullon vs Novak Djokovic
A Sports Betting Pick by FirstDown
Tennis : Wimbledon Fourth Round
Sunday 5th July 2026 - Scheduled 1:30pm (British Time)
Preview
In January 2024, then 26 year old Roman Safiullon entered the top 40 of the World Rankings and looked like he had finally worked out how best to deal with the strain of the ATP Tour.
Later that year Roman Safiullon was beaten twice by Novak Djokovic and that served as a reminder of how far the former still had to go if he was going to take the next step in his career.
Several months before reaching his career best World Ranking mark, Roman Safiullon had reached the Quarter Final at Wimbledon, but that is by far and away his best Grand Slam run and it has been a struggle since then at this level. In fact this is only the second time he has reached the second week of any Grand Slam, while Roman Safiullon entered this tournament outside of the top 100 of the World Rankings as injuries took their toll on his career.
The World Number 132 admitted that he thought about packing in the career as those injuries failed to dissipate, but Roman Safiullon worked his way through three Qualifying Rounds before winning three matches in the main draw that includes upsetting Seeds Andrey Rublev and Joao Fonseca.
Those will have given him confidence, but it was notable that Roman Safiullon admitted that Novak Djokovic had given him many problems in previous matches when talking about a potential opponent.
Thanks to a four set win, Novak Djokovic is the official Fourth Round opponent and this is a player that is now leaning on his experience much more than he ever did. Novak Djokovic is not operating at the level he once did, but aura is one of the last things to fade and this is a player who is very comfortable on the grass courts and much more than the majority of players on the Tour.
Of course he will respect the results Roman Safiullon has had here in the past, and the fact that the grass is not a surface that intimidates the lower Ranked player.
However, Novak Djokovic has enjoyed this match up previously and he may feel he can make more of an impact on the return than he did in the Third Round, which is going to be important to make the former seven time Champion just feel he can get his rhythm into the match.
In the previous Quarter Final appearance here in 2023, Roman Safiullon did take a set from Jannik Sinner before going down to a four set loss, and something similar in this Fourth Round match could allow Novak Djokovic to eventually pull clear of this handicap mark set.
Prediction
Lay the games with the former seven time Wimbledon Champion and the player who just matched Roger Federer's record for most wins in this tournament.
The Pick :
Roman Safiullon 1-3 Novak Djokovic
