Dominik Koepfer vs Filip Krajinovic Expert Wimbledon Picks Against the Spread - 7/2/2019
Dominik Koepfer vs Filip Krajinovic
5:30 am EST, 2nd July 2019
Wimbledon, England
Grass courts
Dominik Koepfer was the recipient of the wildcard into the main draw of Wimbledon. Even though organizers usually keep those for domestic players, one is usually reserved for the winner of the challenger in Ilkey, a few weeks before. Dominik Koepfer performed on a very high level there throughout the tournament, beating some solid challenger tour names like Yannick Maden, Ugo Humbert and Go Soeda, before edging out Denis Novak in the finals. He is a 25-year old from Germany, who is not very known to the casual tennis fans. That is because he took an unusual career path for a tennis player from Europe, deciding to play NCAA tennis for the University of Tulane. It turned out great for him, in my opinion. Had a later start as a pro, but that didn't really slow him down much, because he's already on the edge of Top 100. Besides that title in Ilkey, he doesn't really have much experience on grass. Lost in the 2nd round of Surbiton about a month ago and was eliminated in QF of Nottingham. But let me remind you, that tournament was mostly played indoors on carpet, because of the poor weather. Last year he had mediocre results on this surface and was stopped in the final qualifying round of Wimbledon.
Filip Krajinovic is another guy who spent a large part of his youth in the US. He was considered one of the most talented tennis players in the world. In order to make the most out of it, he decided to move to Florida at the age of 13, to live and train at the famous IMG Academy. After turning pro, injuries were slowing down his progress and he couldn't make the expected breakthrough for a long time. But in the last couple of years, he is finally playing some really good tennis and is capable of challenging some of the best players in the world. That being said, he never really got it going on the grass courts. His record at Wimbledon is 0-2 in the main draws, with couple extra losses in qualifiers. But, some of those are from times when he was not such a good player and didn't have an all-court game like at the moment. I believe that his game right now is way better suited for grass courts with improved serve and ability to hit the ball with velocity when needed.
Matchup
It is very interesting that these two guys already played against each other, even though they are usually competing at different levels. A couple of months ago, Krajinovic dropped down to challenger tour and won a tournament in Heillbron. Dominik Koepfer was his first obstacle to the title and it turned out to be one of the toughest as well, after being very competitive in all three sets. I am interested in how they match up on grass courts though. I don't see Koepfer having weapons to really push Krajinovic around and making him feel uncomfortable with all the pace. He's a lefty and doesn't have a big game. But that lefty stuff that usually works on challenger level gets thrown out of the window in this situation, with Krajinovic's backhand being his preferred wing.
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Betting odds & prediction
We've got a pretty interesting situation here with Krajinovic being just slightly favored over a guy that hasn't done anything worth mentioning on this level yet. Majority of the public bettors like the Serbian player here, but the line is not budging. It seems that some sharp money on the other side is keeping that line at bay, but I'll respectfully disagree with the wiseguys in this spot. They are giving too much credit to Koepfer for that Ilkey title. Krajinovic is on another level and is one of those guys against whom you need something special to put him away. Koepfer doesn't have it yet.
Josh's Pick: Filip Krajinovic -128
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