LONDON – Men’s defending Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic will face British teenage wildcard Jack Draper in his opening match but Simona Halep, the women’s winner at the last championships in 2019, will not feature after withdrawing.
World number one Djokovic is halfway to a calendar-year Grand Slam after winning the Australian and French Open titles, taking his overall tally to 19 majors. Draper, 19, will be making his Grand Slam main draw debut.
Romanian Halep announced earlier that she would be pulling out of the tournament with a calf injury that prevented her from playing at the French Open.
Serena Williams, who Halep beat to win the title in 2019, will begin her latest quest to claim a record-equalling 24 Grand Slam titles, against Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus.
Women’s top seed Ash Barty of Australia will face a first-round match against Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro who recently returned to action having recovered from cancer.
Britain’s twice champion Andy Murray, taking part in the singles for the first time since 2017 after two hip surgeries, was drawn to play Georgian 24th seed Nikoloz Basilashvili.
Eight-time Wimbledon champion Roger Federer, who turns 40 this year, takes on Frenchman Adrian Mannarino in round one.
Wimbledon is returning this year after the 2020 championships were cancelled because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The tournament is a government-approved ‘pilot event’ with a minimum 50% capacity, rising to a full 15,000 attendance for the men’s and women’s singles finals on Centre Court.
Should Djokovic avoid a first-round shock
he could play South Africa’s Kevin Anderson in the second round, which would be a repeat of the 2018 final.
His prospective semi-final opponent is third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas who he beat in this month’s French Open final.
Men’s second seed Daniil Medvedev opens against Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff with a potential clash against Croatia’s former runner-up Marin Cilic lurking in round three.
Serena Williams has been stuck on 23 Grand Slam titles since winning the 2017 Australian Open and her love of Wimbledon’s grass courts offers another opportunity to match the record of Australian Margaret Court. Her draw looks reasonably kind too.
The sixth seed’s first big test could be Germany’s 25th seed Angelique Kerber.
American teenager Coco Gauff, who took Wimbledon by storm when she reached the fourth round as a 15-year-old in 2019, could face Williams in the last 16. Gauff plays British wildcard Francesca Jones in the first round.
The standout match of the women’s opening round sees twice Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, seeded 10, up against former US Open champion Sloane Stephens.
World number five Dominic Thiem has also pulled out of Wimbledon due to a right wrist injury that will keep him out of action for several weeks, the 27-year-old said.
Thiem was forced to retire from his opening match at the Mallorca Open on Tuesday – the Austrian’s first grasscourt event since a first-round defeat at Wimbledon two years ago.
He made a solid start against France’s Adrian Mannarino to take a 5-2 lead in the opening set but injured his wrist in the eighth game before retiring.
Thiem said on Instagram that tests found a “detachment of the posterior sheath of the ulnar side of the right wrist” an injury that will not allow him to compete on the circuit for several weeks.
He will wear a splint for five weeks before beginning his rehabilitation to regain mobility as well as muscle strength.
“I’m going to do everything the doctors say in order to recover as quickly as possible. They’ve informed me that I might be out for several weeks, but I will do my best to be back on court soon,” Thiem said according to Reuters.
“I’m really sorry for pulling out of the upcoming three tournaments I had in my calendar: Wimbledon, Hamburg and Gstaad. They are very important tournaments for me.
“I appreciate all the support from the fans in these difficult moments – I’m determined to come back stronger.”
Thiem had also pulled out of next month’s Tokyo Olympics to concentrate on Wimbledon and defending his US Open Grand Slam title in New York later this year.
