{"id":107758,"date":"2026-06-30T16:36:49","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T20:36:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=107758"},"modified":"2026-06-30T16:36:49","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T20:36:49","slug":"wimbledon-day-3-predictions-sabalenka-kessler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/06\/30\/wimbledon-day-3-predictions-sabalenka-kessler\/","title":{"rendered":"Wimbledon Day 3 Predictions Including Aryna Sabalenka vs McCartney Kessler"},"content":{"rendered":"

The second round of Wimbledon<\/a> is upon us, and it is already looking like we could be in store for another frenzied Grand Slam. No. 1 seed Aryna Sabalenka<\/a> squares off against young American McCartney Kessler in what should be a terrific encounter. As always, we at LWOT offer our roundtable predictions for every match on the slate. But who will advance?<\/p>\n

Wimbledon Day 3 Predictions<\/h2>\n

Jelena Ostapenko vs Antonia Ru\u017ei\u0107<\/h4>\n

Amanda<\/strong>
\nAfter a chaotic first-round win, Jelena Ostapenko may not be playing her best tennis, but she is certainly fighting in every moment. Antonia Ru\u017ei\u0107 had good fortune with the withdrawal of Emma Raducanu and took advantage of a first-round lucky loser opponent. Still, Ostapenko is a tougher challenge, and it\u2019s hard to see Ru\u017ei\u0107 getting through this matchup on grass.
\nPrediction: Ostapenko in 3<\/em><\/p>\n

Jordan<\/strong>
\nThis match will be on Ostapenko\u2019s racket, as is usually the case. The Latvian was chaotic and imperfect against Harriet Dart but narrowly scraped through. Ru\u017ei\u0107 is less comfortable defending than Dart, which might make this more comfortable for Ostapenko.
\nPrediction: Ostapenko in 2<\/em><\/p>\n

Janice Tjen vs Daria Kasatkina<\/h4>\n

Amanda<\/strong>
\nJanice Tjen notched a straight-set upset in the first round, while Daria Kasatkina played a three-setter against an opponent ranked nearly 300 spots below her. Kasatkina\u2019s level isn\u2019t where it needs to be against the top players, and Tjen is in good enough form to take advantage.
\nPrediction: Tjen in 2<\/em><\/p>\n

Jordan<\/strong>
\nTjen was superb against Leylah Fernandez. Kasatkina will bring better defense but less capable hitting than the Canadian did. I narrowly favor Tjen to win a tight match.
\nPrediction: Tjen in 3<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

Karol\u00edna Muchov\u00e1 vs Shuai Zhang<\/h4>\n

Amanda<\/strong>
\nKarol\u00edna Muchov\u00e1 and Shuai Zhang just played each other two weeks ago in Berlin, and Muchov\u00e1 won handily in straight sets. Muchov\u00e1 has only been playing better since then, and it\u2019ll be a tough ask for Zhang to flip the script.
\nPrediction: Muchova in 2<\/em><\/p>\n

Jordan<\/strong>
\nZhang\u2019s triumph over Bianca Andreescu at this stage of her career was outstanding. However, I do not think she has much chance against Muchov\u00e1. The Czech is playing much better than Andreescu, and her variety suits a matchup against Zhang.
\nPrediction: Muchov\u00e1 in 2<\/em><\/p>\n

Aryna Sabalenka vs McCartney Kessler<\/h4>\n

Amanda<\/strong>
\nMcCartney Kessler\u2019s first-round win was an impressive 6-0, 6-0 showing, but her opponent\u2019s level on grass is far from the level of Aryna Sabalenka. Sabalenka looked solid in her opening match and won in straight sets the last time she played Kessler, and she\u2019s looking set for the second week of this tournament.
\nPrediction: Sabalenka in 2<\/em><\/p>\n

Jordan<\/strong>
\nKessler generated some attention by beating Oleksandra Oliynykova 6-0, 6-0 in the previous round. However, she benefited from a terrible performance from the Ukrainian. Sabalenka will more than likely be too good for her.
\nPrediction: Sabalenka in 2<\/em><\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Susan Mullane – Imagn Images<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The second round of Wimbledon is upon us, and it is already looking like we could be in store for another frenzied Grand Slam. No. 1 seed Aryna Sabalenka squares off against young American McCartney Kessler in what should be a terrific encounter. As always, we at LWOT offer our roundtable predictions for every match […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4067,"featured_media":86390,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[42444,42443,1766,15523,416,15436,43259,43260,473,15564,3716,15527,41787,41786,405,15524,2373,2369,3267],"class_list":["post-107758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wimbledon","tag-antonia-ruzic","tag-antonia-ruzic-predictions","tag-aryna-sabalenka","tag-aryna-sabalenka-predictions","tag-daria-kasatkina","tag-daria-kasatkina-predictions","tag-janice-tjen","tag-janice-tjen-predictions","tag-jelena-ostapenko","tag-jelena-ostapenko-predictions","tag-karolina-muchova","tag-karolina-muchova-predictions","tag-mccartney-kessler","tag-mccartney-kessler-predictions","tag-shuai-zhang","tag-shuai-zhang-predictions","tag-tennis-picks","tag-tennis-predictions","tag-wimbledon-predictions"],"modified_by":"Shane Black","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4067"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107758"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107759,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107758\/revisions\/107759"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}