Wimbledon is “extra special” for Denis Kudla. It’s the tournament he has always dreamt of winning. And for a boy with a dream, the American has done well, competing in the main draw of The Championships seven times.
Kudla’s problem is that his next opponent is five-time champion Novak Djokovic, the World No. 1. Although defeating the 19-time Grand Slam winner is a daunting task for any player, the World No. 114 believes his mindset will be key.
“You need to go in playing these guys with all the belief in the world, execute my game plan,” Kudla said. “I need to play my ‘A’ game to beat him and the only way I’m going to do that is if I let it go, play free and believe.”
The first time Kudla played Djokovic was at Wimbledon two years ago, he was unable to play freely. The American did not find a way to settle down and he lost in just 93 minutes.
“Obviously Novak being tough as nails, I just didn’t settle at all. I was down 5-0 in about 10 minutes and I thought my worst nightmare was going to happen,” Kudla said. “Then at the [US] Open when I played him [later in 2019], I really settled. I was able to kind of push him a little bit more. But now going into this third match, I know what to expect. I know I’m capable of winning certain patterns if I execute in certain ways.”
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Djokovic is known for torturing opponents with his return of serve and Gumby-like flexibility. And according to Kudla, there are many more issues than that to deal with.
“His movement is pretty incredible when you’re playing him and then I think his serve is completely underrated,” Kudla said. “He was just hitting spot serves on big points and it was pretty difficult.”
Kudla has broken Djokovic just twice in six sets, and has not taken more than four games in a set against the all-time great. But one thing he has on his side is comfort on grass. The Ukrainian-born righty remembers playing an ITF juniors event in Philadelphia when he was a teen. Although he has grown to play his best tennis on the surface, it was not a perfect start.
“It was the worst grass. [I had] no idea what to do. We tried to serve and volley, but we were a bunch of 15, 16-year-olds that had no idea how to volley or do anything. Our serves were so slow, so it was not effective whatsoever and we were just messing around, not doing anything professional,” Kudla said. “It was an eye-opening experience.”
Once Kudla started to compete in professional events, grass began to grow on him. The American won his first ATP Tour match on the surface in Newport when he was 17. In 2015, he earned his career-best Grand Slam result when he advanced to the fourth round at Wimbledon.
“I didn’t necessarily do that great in the juniors, but coming into the pros as I got stronger, I hit the ball harder, I kind of knew my identity as a player,” Kudla said. “I knew that grass was going to be the best surface for me.”
Standing 5’11”, Kudla does not overwhelm opponents with jaw-dropping shotmaking. But he adjusts well to a grass court’s low bounces and manouevres the ball around the court to make things difficult for those across the net. The American also has an experienced grass-court player on his team in coach Robert Lindstedt, who made the Wimbledon doubles final in three consecutive years (2010-12).
Kudla believes that when facing an opponent of Djokovic’s calibre, players need to create their own game plan. But he does not shy away from looking to see what other players do successfully against the Serbian.
“You do look at guys [who] have been successful against Novak and have similar game styles as myself and see what was successful and what wasn’t successful,” Kudla said. “I’m not going to watch how Fed played Novak because I don’t play anything like Fed, so whatever he’s doing, I’m not going to be able to do that.
"It’s also just really tough to get any data on Novak that’s successful because he just wins so much, so all you’re going to see is a better way of not losing so badly.”
Kudla knows he has a big opportunity in front of him. Win or lose, he is eager for that chance.
“You want to play these guys early, you don’t want to play them late because they’re getting better and better,” Kudla said. “I’m looking forward to the challenge.”
