Carlos Alcaraz will begin his US Open title defence against Dominik Koepfer, and it's a pretty good matchup for him.
Koepfer has been a pretty solid player for much of his career. He finally returned to a good level this year after last year's struggles, and it's been good to see. A solid hardcourt player who spent some time in the US College system should see him feel really comfortable on the US Courts.
He is a lefty and uses the wide serve + forehand combo really well. He's not on the same level as Alcaraz, but he'll put up a fight and punish you if you give him the chance. The Spaniard needs a challenge like that after the disappointing Cincinnati Masters finish.
A tough matchup should give him confidence if he wins, and that's what he needs after a brutal loss like that. They have never played so far, but the Spaniard is a big favourite because he does so many things well.
Head-to-head:
This will be the first time they play against each other on the ATP Tour, and it should be interesting. Both love to use their forehand to create advantage, and both have a decent enough serve to set it up. So expect some good rallies here.
Prediction:
Obviously, Alcaraz is the better player and does all things better. Koepfer will mostly struggle to create a lot of advantage, especially if the rallies become long. The German will put a lot of pressure on Alcaraz to get him to overhit and perhaps it will work for a while.
It's not going to work for the whole duration of a best-of-five match, so Alcaraz should be safe. He will need to take the match seriously, and he doesn't want to play Koepfer too much into a rhythm. He's beaten some solid players in the past but never found his level against Top 10 ranked players.
Prediction: Carlos Alcaraz to win in three sets.
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