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
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(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
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Stan in 3 or 4. Big servers tend to get a set at Wimbly. Djokovic in a 3 set snoozer.
Joker in a beatdown; Wka in 3.
Novak in 3 but maybe loses a set. Hope not, but. I fear for him for some reason.
Stan should win in 3 too, but Opelka scares me.
You’re a fan – fear is what we do! 🙂
Wawrinka in 4, maybe 5 (Opelka is very underated and I think Wawa will find it difficult to break his serve on this surface.)
Djokovic in 3 losing 8-12 games
I think some of the results from the first day prove that some players simply dont commit to that high level required to win unless its a major and it doesnt take much of a drop in performance/loss of focus to lose matches prior to a major (e.g. Anderson, Cilic). Anderson had excuses coming back from a long injury lay-off which most likely cost sport bettors at Queen’s that believed in his ability to turn up and perform and then again now by performing to the level that we’ve come to expect. Thanks Kevin.
Cilic doesnt really have an excuse except for being a lazy bum unless its a major and then being equally disappointing when he faces the top 3 at the later stages of a major.
Now that we know who’s actually turning up, predicting for the rest of the tournmanent should be a tad easier.
“but this will likely be less competitive than many expect.”
Right, as uncompetitive as Kyrgios V Thompson or Theim v Querrey Lol
or Zverev v Vesely
Fed said in his post match interview that the CC was slow and the ball was heavy so it’s it’s difficult for him to hit through the court. I guess this benefits the hard hitters, who could hit as hard as possible and not too worried about the ball flying over the baselines.
I think Stan will benefit from this; Djoko too as he hits a bit flatter and more penetrating shots. Rafa’s topspin won’t work well on the slow but low bouncing surface; Fed too as he’s not a hard hitter to begin with.
Let me start off by stating that tennis is my hobby, more to the point, watching tennis is my hobby so I will defer to you when it comes to the technicalities but I am very cynical about people’s vision of the speed of the courts because it all seems to be a matter of opinion based on who does well or does not do well. Federer is just looking for excuses as to why he lost a set to an unknown WC.
I have always been under the impression that fast courts favour big hitters now it seems that it’s slow courts that benefits them.
Perhaps Fed could tell his friends in high places that scheduling his matches solely on CC is a disadvantage. He might be better off playing on court 18.
Fast courts favour big servers, not exactly hard hitters. Slow courts favour hard hitters, defensive players and counterpunchers.
Rafa is a unique player even though he’s a counterpuncher; he prefers courts that are medium quick, not slow, and come with good bounces because of the top spins that he puts on the ball. The slower courts actually favour players like Djoko the most, giving time to defend and counter attack. Djoko hits flat and penetrating shots so he’s able to drive through the slow courts, like the big hitters.
Having said that, Djoko is one special player who can play and win on any type of court surface, slow or medium or quick! Amazing!
Fed likes quick courts because, as mentioned, quick courts favours big servers (and also those who have great serves). Of course Fed is so good a player that he too could win on slower surfaces, though he is more bothered by the counterpunchers on slower surfaces.
I think the speed of the court less important than the way the ball bounces.Obviously the two things are related.
After losing the first set, Fed still won easily. It’s always difficult when top players play unknown players for the first time because they’ve never seen them play whilst an unknown player knows everything about a top player’s game. The first set is often tricky.
If I were Fed, I wouldn’t like to play all matches on the CC. Sometimes it would be very nice to play on the smallest courts, so I’d appreciate and remind myself where my journey started. It would also be refreshing.
I’m sure he would do that, but it’s not him who chooses nadline. That’s a bit far stretched to imply that Fed can just make a call… Money is a priority in this superficial western ‘capitalism’. Who cares about what players want, if they get much more money when the top guys play on CC.
The problem is not that you’re not a Fed fan, but in depicting him as a spoiled,lying and arrogant player. He’s actually saying what he thinks in a press conference, unlike the same diplomatic, ‘safe’ cliches we hear from most players in general. I really don’t think he said the court was slow, just to excuse that lost set. You can see it clearly, Wimbledon grass is not as quick as it was once. And again, it’s about money. Who cares about players and correctitude?
Wimbledon courts have been slow for over a decade. Henman confirmed that the other day when suggesting that the Wimbledon committee would be looking at whether it’s still necessary to apply their seeding formula which was brought in in 2002 when the courts were fast.
Stan in a royal battle with Opelka. Opelka’s big serve is really very tough to break, imagine its a fast grass court!
No chance for his opponent!
So Opelka finally wins the match in five sets, winning the final set 8-6.
Stan had no biz losing that match! I’m so upset!!! He dosed off in 4th set and hence lost the match. Choops!!!
All those who pencilled Stan in qtrs semis even finals here ..where are they now ? I kept saying what has Stan ever done in grass that many onboarded that train ?
Agree with that,but all these matches are tough,over 5 sets.
I love Wimbledon with lots of upsets and unheralded players going far..as long as my favourites don’t get upset!!
Djoko dispatched Kudla easily as expected. He has added in Goran Ivanisevic as his coach for this Wimbledon, I understand that he has since added some pace to his 2nd serve, making it hard to return as well. It looks like he’s really very determined to retain the Wimbledon crown.
Players, including Denis Kudla who plays grass court game on grass, are complaining about how slow the courts are this year. There are more rallies, and big servers not having that much advantage as their serves could be returned more frequently compared to the past years. (There’s an article on tennis.com that talked about the slow court speed this year).
I think the hot weather this year contributes to that, the baseline look so worn out after only two or three days play; I think the ball could be bouncing higher in the dry weather too, making it look even slower. I don’t think it’s like this in the past one or two years and I doubt the Wimbledon committee purposely slow down the court, it’s more due to the dry and hot weather imo.
All these may benefit Djoko the great mover and the great returner of serves. I think he’ll most likely reach the final at least, if not winning it.
Looking at Djoko’s draw, those big servers wont have much chances against him; I doubt FAA could. Perhaps, it’s Goffin, who doesn’t rely on big serving, but uses his agility and his movements, and taking the ball early, may still stand a chance, though not a big chance I must say.
Djoko’s draw is working out okay. Sure, it’s tougher than Fed’s early rounds, but already a few seeds have fallen out and if he gets into the 2nd week he’s on the easy side.
I expect he will be in the final once more, but we’ll see. I hope FAA does play him, although I wouldn’t be hopeful for FAA despite his obvious talents. The Next Gen are generally not performing that well on grass so far, I guess they need some time to learn the craft of the surface.
The seemingly slower courts are also good news for Rafa. Not so for Fed, although he still has a nice draw apart from being on Rafa’s side.