Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Maxime Cressy Wimbledon Odds, Preview, Prediction (June 28)

Auger-Aliassime vs. Cressy Odds

Felix Auger-Aliassime got to the quarterfinals here at Wimbledon last year, and with many big names missing from this year's Championships the young Canadian has been a trendy pick to win it all.

The draw did not care for Auger-Aliassime, though, dealing him a very tricky first-round test in Maxime Cressy.

Who's going to be able to take this one? Let's get into how to bet it.

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Auger-Aliassime Comes In With Concerns

While it's true that Auger Aliassime has exorcised some of his demons and figured out how to win matches in Grand Slams, it should be said that none of his runs have ever started off in convincing fashion.

Auger-Aliassime went five sets in his opening-round match this year at the Australian Open, then four in his second-round match.

At the French Open, he had to recover from a two-set deficit against Juan Pablo Varillas. Last year at the US Open, he dropped a set to Evgeny Donskoy in the first round after getting knocked out in the opening round of Roland Garros.

He has the ability to be dominant on a surface like grass and has calmed some of his nerves, but the young Canadian has never really gotten out of the gate convincingly in big tournaments.

It'll be fascinating to watch how he makes his start here at the All England Lawn Tennis Club.

Aside from the Grand Slam stuff, it hasn't really been the best grass-court season for Auger-Aliassime. He did reach the semifinals at Hertogenbosch, but he was knocked out as a huge favorite against Tim Van Rijthoven.

The next week, he failed to make it past Hubert Hurkacz — again as a decently-sized favorite. He's now 30-15 this season which isn't bad, but it's hard to call it a massive success.

Cressy Riding High Into Wimbledon

Cressy was a relative unkown to casual tennis fans until defeating Pablo Carreno Busta at last year's US Open, but he's done well to back up that result and become a mainstay on the ATP Tour.

The American had an excellent start to the season with a run to the final in Melbourne, where he fell to Rafael Nadal in close fashion, and again in the Australian Open he made some noise by making it to the fourth round and nearly taking Daniil Medvedev five sets.

After what was effectively a four-month slump as the tour turned to American hard courts and clay, Cressy has found his form again on grass.

He qualified for Halle and took Hurkacz three sets before losing in a third-set tiebreak the next week in the Eastbourne final. His run there included wins over Reilly Opelka, Dan Evans, Cam Norrie and the red-hot Jack Draper.

Cressy is a highly unorthodox player who utilizes the serve-and-volley on nearly every single service, but with a ton of pop behind his first serve he has proven to be one of the most difficult players on tour to break. That's particularly true when the courts are quick like they are in London.

It's also worth noting that Cressy does well against big serves, considering he returns from inside the baseline and expertly redirects the power to his advantage.

Betting Value

Simply put, this is a nightmare matchup for Auger-Aliassime. While both men are very skilled on grass, Cressy has the ability to keep the margins razor-thin here with his incredible holding percentage on the grass.

I also think Cressy can impact the big Auger-Aliassime serve for reasons I noted above; we saw him do damage against Hurkacz's serves and Reilly Opelka's last week in Eastbourne.

This match will probably come down to whether or not Auger Aliassime can take advantage of the three looks at passing shots he has on big points, and given what we've covered about his nerves I am not confident he will do that.

I'm not totally sold on Auger-Aliassime winning this match, let alone covering. I'll take the games and sprinkle the moneyline.

Pick: Cressy +4.5 games | Cressy +265 (0.5u)