Wimbledon 2015: Predictions for Top Stars in Wednesday's Singles Draw

It didn't take long for the 2015 edition of Wimbledon to produce a major upset. No. 3 seed Simona Halep was ousted on the women's side by unseeded 22-year-old Jana Cepelova. 

Such is life in a major tournament like Wimbledon. The little number beside a player's name means they're a favorite, but it also operates as a bull's-eye. With the biggest stars in the game getting the best shots from players looking to make a name for themselves, upsets are inevitable. 

Here's a look at Day 3's biggest matches and what to expect from the stars in action. 

Matchup	Prediction
Centre Court—8:00 a.m. ET
Novak Djokovic (SRB) [1] v. Jarkko Nieminen (FIN)	Djokovic
Santiago Giraldo (COL) v. Kei Nishikori (JPN) [5]	Giraldo
Serena Williams (USA) [1] v. Timea Babos (HUN)	Williams
No. 1 Court—8:00 a.m. ET
Tommy Haas (GER) v. Milos Raonic (CAN) [7]	Raonic
Daniela Hantuchova (SVK) v. Heather Watson (GBR)	Hantuchova
Stan Wawrinka (SUI) [4] v. Victor Estrella Burgos (DOM)	Wawrinka

Centre Court Breakdown

Novak Djokovic vs. Jarkko Nieminen

Kirsty Wigglesworth/Associated Press

Centre court action kicks off with the No. 1 seed on the men's side looking to keep things rolling against Jarkko Nieminen. 

While Djokovic took care of first-round foe Philipp Kohlschreiber in just a few minutes over two hours, Nieminen outlasted Lleyton Hewitt. The two veterans engaged in a four-hour marathon that ended with Nieminen surviving one more round by the thinnest of margins. However, as Ben Rothenberg of the New York Times noted, the two were battling for a dubious distinction:

The 33-year-old will now have to take on the top player in the world and odds-on favorite to win the whole thing, according to Odds Shark. 

To make matters worse, Djokovic shows no signs of letting his finals loss at Roland Garros get him down. He only hit 21 unforced errors in his first-round matchup. Kohlschreiber was only able to break serve twice all match. 

Nieminen—who, much like Hewitt, has declared his intentions to make this his last Wimbledon, per Hugh Muir of the Guardian—should be easy work for the returning champion. The grass court Slam has always been his worst of the major tournaments. He hasn't made it out of the second round since 2007. 

Coming off of a longer match and with little spring left in his legs, Nieminen isn't likely to put up much resistance against Djokovic. 

Djokovic 6-4, 6-2, 6-2

Santiago Giraldo vs. Kei Nishikori

Pavel Golovkin/Associated Press

If there's a high-seeded player who needs to be on upset alert Wednesday, it's Nishikori. All of the makings are there for Giraldo to pull off the unlikely outcome. 

Nishikori got off to a rough start in London. Italian Simone Bolelli pushed the 25-year-old to five sets for the second time in two years at Wimbledon. Though the favorite was happy to survive and advance, he admitted to some mental lapses on the court. 

"I knew it was going to be a tough one because we played long five sets last year here," he said, per the official ATP website. "I knew he's good on grass. Mentally I was ready, but maybe there were many ups and downs. My serve, and maybe my concentration wasn't there some moments."

The numbers show that Nishikori was far from his top form in the match, which lasted three hours and 22 minutes. 

Nishikori		Bolelli
14	Aces	12
82/138 (59%)	First Serves In	103/153 (67%)
61/82 (74%)	First Serve Points Won	71/103 (69%)
46	Winners	42
33	Unforced Errors	45
5/12 (42%)	Break Points Won	1/4 (25%)
14/21 (67%)	Net Points Won	19/26 (73%)

Nishikori is no doubt a rising star, but Wimbledon has been the Slam he's struggled with most. It's the only one he has not at least reached the quarterfinals in and is just 7-6 in the tournament. 

In 2014, Nishikori earned a five-set victory over Bolelli in the third round and was defeated by Milos Raonic in the fourth. Giraldo isn't Raonic, but he's off to a hot start. 

The Colombian started his Wimbledon campaign with a convincing 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 win over Joao Souza in which he only hit 23 unforced errors. 

Combine Giraldo's relatively clean play with Nishikori's mediocrity at Wimbledon and it's enough to start doubting Nishikori's ability to get the benefit of the doubt. Throw in a potential calf injury, per Pritha Sarkar of Reuters, and it would appear the upset is brewing. 

Giraldo 5-7, 7-5, 6-4, 6-4

Serena Williams vs. Timea Babos

Pavel Golovkin/Associated Press

The question in the Centre Court's final match of the day won't be if Serena Williams will win. It will be how many games Timea Babos will be able to win. 

Williams has been given 7-4 odds to win the tournament, according to Odds Shark. Even that seems low given her recent dominance. In terms of the individual match, Odds Shark has Williams listed as a 1-66 favorite. 

Vegas' confidence comes from the fact that Williams has established she doesn't lose to far inferior talent at Slams, as ESPN Stats & Info notes:

Babos doesn't quite qualify for that statistic. She's currently ranked No. 93 in the world. But her opening-round win over Petra Cetkovska didn't exactly do anything to inspire confidence that she could challenge Williams in any way. 

The spirit of the stat remains—barring major injury, this will be another case of Williams' dominance. 

Williams 6-2, 6-1

All schedule info, stats and match times courtesy of Wimbledon.com unless otherwise noted.