Not leading contenders but certainly at the fringes of the hunt, two players who reached the semifinals at Wimbledon last year hope to march into the second week again. While Lucie Safarova looks to build on what has been a breakthrough season, Grigor Dimitrov hopes to emerge from a 2015 slump.

Lucie Safarova vs. Sloane Stephens

The third round of Wimbledon has arrived, which means that things are about to start getting a little more exciting.  A number of intriguing match-ups have come to fruition, and one of the more interesting ones is the encounter between Lucie Safarova and Sloane Stephens.  It is a difficult but winnable match for both women, and one that could have ramifications for each player post-Wimbledon.

A couple of years ago, there was a lot of buzz around Stephens, who appeared to be the most promising rising star of the next generation.  She announced her arrival in dramatic fashion with a quarterfinal victory over Serena Williams at the Australian Open and would go on to back up that result by reaching the second week of the remaining three majors and nearly cracking the top 10.  Unfortunately for Stephens, she spent the majority of her 2014 season in a prolonged slump, but with new coach Nick Saviano in her corner, things have thankfully begun to turn around in 2015.  Her most encouraging match came a few weeks ago at Roland Garros, where she came within a few points of derailing Serena’s bid for a 20th major before falling to defeat.  With her career seemingly back on track, she will be keen to continue her upward trend with her play at Wimbledon.

For her part, Safarova is trying to make up ground of her own.  The Czech has spent the bulk of her career as one of those middle-tier competitors.  She has always had the talent to produce flashes of brilliance but never enough to claw her way into the upper echelons of the sport.  That has changed in the last couple of seasons, however.  Safarova broke new ground by reaching her first major semifinal at this venue last year and went one better with her finalist appearance at Roland Garros last month.  As a player closer to the end of her career than the beginning, she will be anxious to make the most of the time she has left.

With the confidence of both women soaring high, it is hard to determine which of the two is most apt to emerge the victor.  Safarova did win their lone encounter a year ago, but it was a relatively tight straight-sets affair.  Furthermore, there is a lot to respect in Stephens's game.  She has the superior firepower off the ground and on serve, and she holds a decisive edge in the movement department.  She could severely test the consistency of the Czech.  All of that said, Safarova has a fair amount of juice on her own shots.  She also effectively utilizes her lefty forehand up the line and cross-court to get her opponent out of position and set up winners of her own.  The other area in which Safarova holds the advantage, as evidenced by her top-10 doubles ranking, is that she is far more comfortable and skilled in the forecourt than the American, which typically bodes well on grass.  If she can get up there with any regularity, it will be Stephens who is under pressure to come up with something special if she hopes to get the win.

This has all the trappings to evolve into something special, and if Safarova and Stephens bring their best to the table, then this could easily turn into one of the more entertaining third-round battles.  They are two evenly-matched players, confident in their games, and each possesses the kind of weaponry and a playing style that often brings success on these hallowed lawns.

Grigor Dimitrov vs. Richard Gasquet

Factors such as a rivalry, contrasting styles, and flashy shot-making ability can all be used to hype a match, but in the end there is no way to guarantee that the final product will deliver.  That is the conundrum with trying to predict what will happen in the third-round encounter between Grigor Dimitrov and Richard Gasquet.  All of the ingredients are there for this to become one of the more entertaining matches of the early rounds, and yet it is a clash that could just as easily fizzle as it could sizzle.

One reason many believe this match could sizzle stems from the raw talent and potential so many people saw and perhaps still see in these two players.  In the case of Gasquet, he graced the cover of France's premier tennis magazine before he was a teenager, and he was a talent many believed would be the future of men's tennis.  Although not heralded as early as Gasquet, almost from the moment he set foot on the court as a professional, Dimitrov has been nicknamed “Baby Fed” in reference to Roger Federer.  People recognized so many similarities in the Bulgarian's game with that of the Swiss that there was almost an automatic assumption that Dimitrov was destined for greatness.

Neither of these men has lived up to the lofty expectations that others have set before them.  That is not to say, however, that they have not put forth some inspired efforts.  Thanks to their flashy playing styles, they have produced some very memorable performances.  Although Gasquet and Dimitrov can inflict damage with their forehands, they are best known for their one-handed backhands.  Each man can rip the ball up the line, slice and dice it, hit a delicate drop shot, find the most acute of angles, and engineer a devastating, dipping pass from anywhere on the court with just that one single stroke.  Together, Dimitrov and Gasquet own two of the most versatile shots in the men's game, and when facing each other, they should theoretically be able to generate something extra special.

Since both players boast so much variety and possess relatively similar strengths, it is difficult to gauge who will hold the edge in Friday's match.  The odds could favor Dimitrov.  As the 11th seed, he is the higher-ranked of the two combatants, and after reaching the semifinals of this event last year, he has already proven his merits on the grass.  He is also more offensively minded than the Frenchman and a bigger ball striker, which should put him in a favorable position to control more of what is happening on the court. 

But nothing is that straightforward.  Gasquet may be ranked lower, but he is seeded just 10 places behind the Bulgarian.  Furthermore, he has not been in the same kind of slump that Dimitrov has endured for the greater part of 2015, and like Dimitrov, he has also been to the final four of the Championships.  Additionally, he has the luxury of knowing that he has defeated the 11th seed in all four of their previous meetings.  Assuming he can hold his ground and avoid getting pushed too far behind the baseline in their upcoming encounter, there is no reason why he cannot earn a fifth consecutive victory.

Between Dimitrov's slump and Gasquet's history of mental fragility, this could easily turn into a match governed by nerves and riddled with unforced errors.  But hopefully for the sake of the players and the fans, it will be just the opposite.  With any luck, these two men will bring out the best in one another to create another memorable performance that is a feast for eyes around the globe.