Wimbledon R2 previews and predictions: Nadal vs. Kukushkin, Kyrgios vs. Haase

No. 2 seed and two-time champion Rafael Nadal will be back in Wimbledon action when he goes up against Mikhail Kukushkin on Thursday. Nick Kyrgios and Robin Haase are also aiming for a place in the last 32.

Mikhail Kukushkin vs. (2) Rafael Nadal

Nadal and Kukushkin will be going head-to-head for the fourth time in their careers and for the second time at Wimbledon when they meet again in the second round on Thursday. All three of their previous encounters have gone Nadal’s way, he is 7-1 in total sets, and he has breadsticked Kukushkin on a whopping five occasions. The two veterans most recently faced each other at this same event four years ago, when Nadal prevailed 6-7(4), 6-1, 6-1, 6-1.

Almost no one has been competitive with the Spaniard of late, although that can obviously be chalked up at least somewhat to the fact that the clay-court season just came and went–with Nadal capturing titles in Monte-Carlo, Barcelona, Rome, and at the French Open. The world No. 1 maintained his fine form in his first official grass-court match of the season, hammering Dudi Sela 6-3, 6-3, 6-2 on Monday. Kukushkin advanced by beating Vasek Pospisil 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, improving to 4-1 in main-draw matches on grass in 2018. The 77th-ranked Kazakh defeated Alex De Minaur, David Ferrer, and Kyle Edmund in Eastbourne before succumbing to eventual champion Mischa Zverev in the semifinals. Kukushkin is a capable competitor on this surface, but–as his past woes in this matchup suggest–he does not wield enough power to hit Nadal off any kind of court.

Pick: Nadal in 3 losing 8-10 games

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(15) Nick Kyrgios vs. Robin Haase

Kyrgios and Haase took similar routes to the Wimbledon second round at the expense of dangerous grass-court players. In a somewhat expected serving duel with Denis Istomin, Kyrgios pocketed the only break of the entire day midway through the fourth set and got the job done 7-6(3), 7-6(4), 6-7(5), 6-3. Haase held off Marius Copil 7-6(0), 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(4). The result is their second-ever showdown on Thursday, with Kyrgios having won their only previous contest 6-3, 6-4 on the red clay of Estoril in 2015.

On the opposite side of the draw from Roger Federer and Marin Cilic, Kyrgios is a trendy pick to reach the final–and he just may do it if he can remain healthy. Returns on grass are so far encouraging, as he missed the clay-court swing but got right back in gear to reach semifinals in Stuttgart (lost to Federer in a third-set tiebreaker) and Queen’s Club (lost to Cilic in two tiebreakers). Haase played all three weeks in the buildup to Wimbledon and made second-round exits on all three occasions (to Bernard Tomic in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, to Roberto Bautista Agut in Halle, and to Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in Halle). Another round-two ouster is likely in the cards, because Kyrgios’ serve should be too big in the pressure moments and Haase is not as skilled in tiebreakers as his result against Copil suggests.

Pick: Kyrgios in 3

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