Novak Djokovic and Nick Kyrgios will kick off their Wimbledon campaigns on Tuesday as they begin their collision course for a potential quarterfinal showdown. Djokovic is running into Tennys Sandgren, while Kyrgios opens with Denis Istomin.
Tennys Sandgren vs. (12) Novak Djokovic
Djokovic’s 2018 comeback from various physical problems has been riddled with speed-bumps, but the ride has been smoother of late as he heads into Wimbledon. Following disastrous performances in Indian Wells and Miami, the 12-time Grand Slam champion reached the Rome semifinals, the French Open quarters, and finished runner-up to Marin Cilic at Queen’s Club–where he got a look at one championship point. With both Cilic and Roger Federer on the other side of the Wimbledon draw, Djokovic seems like one of the favorites to book a spot in the title match or even win the whole thing.
Before the world No. 21 can look that far ahead, he has a first career meeting with Sandgren set for Tuesday. Sandgren made a stunning run to the Australian Open quarterfinals earlier this season and his clay-court swing included a runner-up performance in Houston and a quarterfinal finish in Geneva. But clay and slow hard courts suit the 57th-ranked American’s game extremely well. Grass is a different story. Sandgren has played a grand total of two matches on the greenery, losing to Bjorn Fratangelo at the 2017 Ilkey Challenger and to Frank Dancevic a few weeks later in Newport. A reinvigorated Djokovic should have no trouble giving the underdog a free lesson in grass-court tennis.
Pick: Djokovic in 3 losing 12 games or fewer
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(15) Nick Kyrgios vs. Denis Istomin
Kyrgios and Istomin will be going head-to-head for the third time in their careers on Tuesday. Both of their previous encounters have gone Kyrgios’ way; 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 in a grass-court Davis Cup contest four years ago and 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 one season later at Roland Garros. There is no reason to think anything will change unless Kyrgios is less than 100 percent, but he displayed some encouraging signs in his grass-court singles comeback. The 18th-ranked Australian advanced to the Stuttgart semifinals and fell to Federer in a final-set tiebreaker before succumbing to Cilic 7-6(3), 7-6(4) during semifinal action at Queen’s Club, where he beat Andy Murray, Kyle Edmund, and Feliciano Lopez.
Istomin is still going relatively strong at 31 years old with a decent ranking of 92nd in the world. The Uzbek has always been a solid grass-courter, so it is no surprise that he played all three weeks in the buildup to Wimbledon. Istomin reached the Stuttgart quarters, lost in the final round of Halle qualifying, and defeated Andreas Seppi in Eastbourne before suffering a bad grass-court loss to Marco Cecchinato. This is not the easiest of opening-round draws for Kyrgios, but the 15th seed will likely serve Istomin off the court before things get too competitive.
Pick: Kyrgios in 3 with at least one tiebreaker
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