Wimbledon: Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Novak Djokovic - prediction, head-to-head, tournament so far

Fresh disconnected a amazingly hard-fought first-round win, Novak Djokovic returns to enactment connected Wednesday erstwhile helium faces Stefanos Tsitsipas successful the Wimbledon 2nd round.

The Serb needed 3 hours and 12 minutes to instrumentality down Wu Yibing, and helium present faces Tsitsipas, who avoided consecutive first-round losses astatine the Championships by beating Hugo Gaston successful consecutive sets.

Match preview

Djokovic has ne'er mislaid a first-round lucifer astatine the Championships successful his vocation spanning implicit 2 decades, and it stayed that mode connected Monday, adjacent though helium had to conflict hard against his Chinese opponent. 

No subordinate has much first-round wins successful the Open Era than the Serbian's 81, adjacent if helium needed to respond and refocus aft losing the 2nd acceptable to assertion the 3rd and 4th en way to a 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 success. 

With his past first-round nonaccomplishment astatine a Slam coming precisely 2 decades agone astatine the 2006 Australian Open, the 24-time victor astatine this level's consistency needs lauding.

Having not played immoderate tennis since his melodramatic five-set nonaccomplishment to Joao Fonseca astatine the French Open, the seven-time Wimbledon champion's level heading into the 3rd Major of 2026 was unknown.

In truth, his baseline level remains superior to the bulk of the field, but question marks volition stay for the 39-year-old, who had understandably played 4 tournaments this twelvemonth anterior to Monday's victory.

Nevertheless, helium heads into the midweek round-two gathering against Tsitsipas arsenic a immense favourite, adjacent though the Greek superstar comfortably dispatched Gaston successful consecutive sets.

The triumph implicit the Frenchman means the erstwhile satellite No. 3 has avoided consecutive tournament-opening exits astatine SW19, aft past year's status pursuing a nonaccomplishment of the archetypal 2 sets to Valentin Royer.

By defeating Gaston, Tsitsipas has present earned 10 vocation wins astatine the Championships successful his ninth appearance, underlining his disappointing results successful erstwhile years.

Indeed, Tsitsipas's 4 first-round exits astatine this signifier validate that notion, with a 50% triumph complaint successful tourney openers somewhat improving to 55% aft his 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 triumph implicit Gaston.

Having reached the Wimbledon 3rd circular lone 3 times, the erstwhile satellite No. 3 - whose ranking has slipped to No. 87 - undeniably faces an uphill conflict adjacent against a Djokovic nary longer successful his prime.

Tournament truthful far

Stefanos Tsitsipas:

First round: vs. Hugo Gaston 6-1 6-4 6-2

Novak Djokovic:

First round: vs. Wu Yibing 6-4 5-7 6-4 6-4

Head To Head

Paris Olympics (2024) - Quarter-final: Djokovic 6-3 7-6(3)

Australian Open (2023) - Final: Djokovic 6-3 7-6(4) 7-6(5)

ATP Finals (2022) - Round Robin: Djokovic 6-4 7-6(4)

Paris Masters (2022) - Semi-final: Djokovic 6-2 3-6 7-6(4)

Astana Open (2022) - Final: Djokovic 6-3 6-4

Italian Open (2022) - Final: Djokovic 6-0 7-6(5)

French Open (2021) - Final: Djokovic 6-7(2) 2-6 6-3 6-2 6-4

Italian Open (2021) - Quarter-final: Djokovic 4-6 7-5 7-5

French Open (2020) - Semi-final: Djokovic 6-3 6-2 5-7 4-6 6-1

Dubai (2020) - Final: Djokovic 6-3 6-4

Paris Masters (2019) - Quarter-final: Djokovic 6-1 6-2

Shanghai Masters (2019) - Quarter-final: Tsitsipas 3-6 7-5 6-3

Madrid Open (2019) - Final: Djokovic 6-3 6-4

Canadian Open (2018) - Round of 16: Tsitsipas 6-3 6-7(5) 6-3

Although Tsitsipas and Djokovic person not met connected the ATP Tour since the Serbian star's palmy tally to Olympic golden successful Paris 2 years ago, the 24-time Slam champion remains the favourite, adjacent astatine 39.

Having won 2 of their archetypal three, Tsitsipas has since mislaid 11 consecutive meetings with the GOAT, including a chastening Roland Garros last decision successful 2021 aft winning the archetypal 2 sets.

Their earlier meetings often came successful the aboriginal stages, but the erstwhile Greek No. 1's important descent successful the rankings makes Wednesday's brushwood the earliest successful their lopsided rivalry.

While Tsitsipas has a 100% grounds against top-10 players this year, facing Djokovic presents a antithetic situation entirely, particularly astatine Wimbledon, wherever helium has seldom pulled up trees.

We say: Djokovic to triumph successful 4 sets

It is hard to marque a lawsuit for Tsitsipas successful this rivalry, fixed his 11-match losing tally against Djokovic and his below-par humanities grounds astatine the Championships.

Djokovic past suffered a second-round decision astatine Wimbledon successful 2008, and not adjacent the Serbian superstar's competitory rustiness should origin a repetition connected Wednesday.