Wednesday's ones to watch: Murray-Mahut at Queens and Robson-Hantuchova at Birmingham

Rain wiped out half of the schedule at Queens today, but that didn't stop us seeing the match of the tournament so far as Juan Martin del Potro edged out an inspired Xavier Malisse, 7-6(5) 1-6 7-5.  After losing the first set on the tiebreak, Malisse won 8 out of 9 games to lead by a break in the second set, but he could not quite sustain his form as he tailed off at the end as del Potro started to find his rhythm.  It was a brilliant win for DelPo, who is playing his first tournament since Rome following several weeks out due to illness. Wednesday is likely to blessed with more rain, but hopefully order of plays will get completed with the British contingent taking centre stage...

Andy Murray v Nicolas Mahut (Queens, R2)

Andy Murray

There will be a case of déjà vu for Andy Murray and Nicolas Mahut who also played second round at Queens in 2012.  On that occasion it was Mahut who prevailed with a shock win, prevailing in a third set tiebreak so Murray will certainly be wary of Mahut's threat on this surface.  Murray has been out for the past three weeks with a back injury and has not played since going down to Marcel Granollers in Rome.  Mahut has not played a great deal of tennis this year, but did make the final of the mens doubles at RG with Michael Llodra and had a very convincing win over Rhyne Williams in the first round, 6-3 6-2.  Murray is often a slow starter these days and particularly tomorrow I expect he will be rather rusty.  I predict that Mahut will get the first set, but Murray will get through his first of many challenges to come this week.

Prediction - Murray to beat Mahut in 3 sets

Laura Robson v Daniela Hantuchova (Birmingham, R2)

Laura Robson

Heather Watson and Johanna Konta both made it into round two on Tuesday with straight set wins and join Laura Robson tomorrow in battling it out for a place in the last 16.  Robson faces a tough opener against Daniela Hantuchova where Laura is actually the seed.  Hantuchova missed a big chunk of 2012 through injury and has not had the consistency yet to build up her ranking.  She enjoyed a solid first round win of Casey Dellacqua, 6-1 7-6 and was not broken throughout the 1 hour 24 minute contest.  Robson and Hantuchova have played once before when Laura made her debut in the Wimbledon main draw and she actually managed to win a set.  There will be much more pressure this time round, but she will have the backing of the crowd.  I am rather on the fence with this one, but I'm a Brit and i'm backing Laura to come good on the grass...

Prediction - Robson to beat Hantuchova in 3 sets

Best of the rest: Queens 2nd round predictions

Dimitrov to beat Hewitt in 3 sets *see yesterday's post*

Berdych to beat De Bakker in 2 tight sets

Tsonga to beat Roger-Vasselin in 2 very tight sets

Nieminen to beat Evans in 3 sets

Dodig to beat Cilic in 3 sets

Benneteau to beat Lopez in 2 tight sets

Zemlja to beat Stakhovsky in 2 sets

Rosol to beat Becker in 3 sets

Istomin to beat Sijsling in 3 sets

Dolgopolov to beat Giraldo in 2 sets

Anderson to beat De Schepper in 2 sets

Llodra to beat Matosevic in 2 sets

Best of the rest: Birmingham 2nd round predictions

Watson to beat Kudryavtseva in 2 tight sets

Lisicki to beat Pliskova in 2 sets

Flipkens to beat Tomljanovic in 3 sets

Pironkova to beat Cirstea in 2 sets

Mladenovic to beat Konta in 3 sets

Makarova to beat Erakovic in 3 sets *could go either way*

Hlavackova to beat Jovanovski in 3sets

Wickmayer to beat Lucic-Baroni in 2 tight sets

Schiavone to beat Kichenok in 2 sets

Van Utyvanck to beat Sanchez in 2 sets

Rybarikova to beat Johansson in 2 sets

Best of the rest: Halle 2nd round predictions

Nishikori to beat Youzhny in 3 sets

Monfils to beat Hernych in 2 sets

Zverev to beat Basic in 3 sets

Federer to beat Stebe in 2 sets