Tenth seeded Canadian Denis Shapovalov will face Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany in the First Round at the 2021 Wimbledon Championships. The match is scheduled to be played on Monday June 28th, 2021 at approximately 1:30pm EST.
Denis Shapovalov is ranked #12 in the ATP rankings and is seeded tenth at this year’s edition of the Wimbledon Championships. The flashy young Canadian has made great strides with his game over the past couple seasons and broke into the top 10 for the first time last year. He considers hard courts as his preferred surface but does have the game and talent to be a successful grass court player, but has not traditionally had good results on the ATP Tour on this surface. Shapovalov is a former Junior Wimbledon champion, so there is no reason why that should not translate into Men’s tour success. He had a solid warm-up for this event by reaching the Quarter-Finals in Stuttgart and the Semis at Queen’s, and will be hoping to continue that momentum this week as he seeks to reach the second week here at the All-England Club for the first time. He enters this match against the seasoned veteran Philipp Kohlshreiber as the heavy favorite, and should have things his way here.
Philipp Kohlschreiber is a former top 20 player who is close to the end of a long and very successful career. He does not play a full schedule of events at this stage in his career and this will only be his fourth event for the 2021 season. A former Quarter-Finalist back in 2012, his experience will come in very handy here as he seeks to find any advantage that he can get against his dynamic young opponent Denis Shapovalov. The German veteran is the massive underdog here, but you should never count out someone as seasoned as he is, especially when you consider that his young opponent is prone to mental lapses at times. Kohlschreiber is still capable of some very good tennis, but it remains to be seen what his fitness levels are like and if his body can handle the rigors of Grand Slam competition.
This match should result in a relatively straightforward win for the Canadian Denis Shapovalov. He simply has too much firepower for his opponent to handle, and I expect him to advance here without many issues. If he is not fully focused then the German could make things interesting, but at 37 years old and without much tennis under his belt this season it is unlikely that he can pose much of a challenge here. Denis Shapovalov should win in straight sets here, advancing to the Second Round at Wimbledon.
