Novak Djokovic and Stan Wawrinka will continue their Wimbledon campaigns when they take the court for second-round action on Wednesday. The major champions have respective tests against Americans Denis Kudla and Reilly Opelka.
(1) Novak Djokovic vs. Denis Kudla
Djokovic’s Wimbledon title defense got off to a strong start on Monday, when he took care of Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3, 7-5, 6-3. The straightforward affair was hardly surprising for the world No. 1, who is coming off a clay-court swing that included a title in Madrid, a runner-up performance in Rome, and a semifinal showing at the French Open. Djokovic is now an incredible 65-10 lifetime at Wimbledon with four titles.
Up next for the top-seeded Serb is a first-ever meeting with Kudla, who may be as close as this tour has to a grass-court specialist. The 111th-ranked American has earned more than half (six) of his career Grand Slam main-draw victories (11) at Wimbledon. He played a whopping four grass-court warmup events prior to arriving at the All-England Club, including the Surbiton Challenger during the French Open. Like Kohlschreiber, Kudla–who erased Malek Jaziri 6-4, 6-1, 6-3 in round one–is not an easy early-round opponent on the slick stuff. But Djokovic had no problems against the veteran German and he almost certainly won’t have any on Wednesday.
Pick: Djokovic in 3 losing 8-10 games
[polldaddy poll=10354586]
(22) Stan Wawrinka vs. Reilly Opelka
Wawrinka and Opelka will also be going head-to-head for the first time in their careers on Wednesday. At 6’11”, Opelka can be compared to fellow American John Isner–who made a run to the Wimbledon semifinals last summer but really took almost a decade to figure out how to play on grass. Rallies in which the ball stays so low are not easy for such tall players, but Opelka can obviously take that aspect out of the game if he serves well. Although world No. 63 did not serve great in round one, he benefited from a favorable draw and cruised past Cedrik-Marcel Stebe 6-3, 7-6(4), 6-1.
Grass has never been Wawrinka’s best surface, but he is more than capable of faring well on it and has done so at times in the past. The two-time Wimbledon quarterfinalist destroyed qualifier 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 on Monday, making for a perfect way to ease into the tournament. Opelka will be a more difficult proposition, but this will likely be less competitive than many expect.
Pick: Wawrinka in 3
[polldaddy poll=10354583]
Leave a Reply