Abdullah Shelbayh vs Max Wiskandt Prediction, Stats, Form, H2H, 1/29/25

We’ll pause our previews from the Open Occitanie for a day to look at a pair of matches from the Challenger Tour at the Koblenz Open in Germany. First up, Abdullah Shelbayh vs Max Wiskandt.

Wiskandt’s win probability is only 38%, while Shelbayh is favoured to win at 1.50 odds. The handicap is three games and the total games line is 22.

Jon Reid’s Shelbayh vs Wiskandt prediction is for Shelbayh to cover the handicap.

Abdullah Shelbayh vs Max Wiskandt Prediction: Shelbayh Well Clear of Wiskandt in First Round Encounter

• Prediction: Shelbayh -3 Games
• Best Odds: 1.88
• Bookmaker: Pinnacle
• Stakes: 4/10

Odds as at 10:30 pm UK Time on January 28th, 2025. Odds may now differ.

I’m already waiting for the bitter disappointment of Shelbayh losing to a player that he should beat by 5-6 games on Wednesday, as it happens far too often with him (and would be par for the course this month), but my word, having the Jordanian as just a three-game favourite is ludicrous.

It’s not just about him being a decent Challenger Tour level player, but also about Wiskandt just not being at the level for these kinds of events. He managed to qualify (thanks to a draw that pitted him against a pair of clay courters, the latter of which seems to be ageing out of competitiveness), but for me this is where the journey ends.

His serve is pretty poor, relatively speaking, and he’s taking on Shelbayh, who is a decent point starter and returner. His backhand can be pressured into errors – another weakness you don’t want to have in this match, as Shelbayh is a lefty that can play patiently with topspin-heavy forehands crosscourt into that backhand – and other than short balls to attack, his forehand doesn’t present many problems for players that have plenty of rally tolerance.

As I said, nothing is ever certain with Shelbayh (or in betting in general), but this seems the ideal matchup for him to find some form after a few tough draws to start the season.

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Abdullah Shelbayh Recent Form

The former top-200 21-year-old had a brutal end to the 2024 season that hurt his ranking and the aforementioned tough draws to start his 2025 campaign haven’t helped in that regard.

He has one dominant win against a relative no name, and in his last two matches he’s had to contend with Hamad Medjedovic (an incredibly talented player who skipped Australian Open qualifying to stay in Europe in an attempt to break the top-100) and Daniel Rincon, who has some pop to his lefty game and has been in decent form to start 2025 himself, losing to some big hitters himself.

I went over the matchup above, but with an opponent who isn’t all that strong and whose weaknesses he should be able to exploit fairly easily, now is the time for Shelbayh to put a win on the board.

Max Wiskandt Recent Form

I was pretty big on Shelbayh at -3 games at first glance. Looking up Wiskandt’s statistics in recent times at the Challenger level (where we have match-by-match) data only solidified that stance. Finally, tuning into parts of his matches on Challenger TV and doing some tape study only served to further reinforce the fact that Wiskandt is being overvalued here.

He’s struggled to win more than 70-75% of his first serve points, even on hard courts, when not playing a local wild card. He doesn’t have a whole lot to hit through somewhat slower courts and the solid play of Shelbayh and his backhand leaks far too many unforced errors.

Even when looking at matches to watch on demand on the Challenger Tour site, I tried finding comparable playing styles to Shelbayh, even if the players weren’t as strong as him in my ratings, and they resulted in losses for Wiskandt.

There just isn’t anything for me to like about his game and I’m still confident he’ll require a poor showing from Shelbayh to keep things close.

Abdullah Shelbayh vs Max Wiskandt H2H – Stat of the Match

This is the first meeting between the two, with Shelbayh playing primarily at the Challenger level, while Wiskandt has done a lot of his work down on the ITF Tour.

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