Carlos Alcaraz will begin his quest for a third straight Wimbledon title and put his career-best 18-match winning streak on the line against dangerous Italian Fabio Fognini, and women’s top seed Aryna Sabalenka will open her campaign versus Canadian qualifier Carson Branstine.
Friday’s draw conducted at the All England Club produced its usual intrigue with some eye-catching first-round clashes.
Men’s top seed Jannik Sinner, beaten by Alcaraz in the French Open final, meets fellow Italian Luca Nardi, and sixth seed Novak Djokovic, seeking to tie Roger Federer’s record of eight Wimbledon singles titles, has a tricky opener against world No. 40 Alexandre Muller.
Defending women’s champion Barbora Krejcikova, the 17th seed who pulled out of the Eastbourne tournament Thursday with a thigh strain, faces Alexandra Eala of the Philippines.
No. 2 Coco Gauff’s first-round opponent is Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska. Third seed Jessica Pegula, Gauff’s potential semifinal opponent, plays Italian qualifier Elisabetta Cocciaretto.
Fourth seed Jasmine Paolini, the runner-up at Wimbledon last year, faces Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia and is seeded to meet Sabalenka in the semifinals.
Britain has 23 players in the singles events, the most for the home nation since 1984, with men’s fourth seed Jack Draper carrying the weight of expectation on his shoulders after a rapid rise. Draper faces a tough path, though, if he is to emulate two-time champion Andy Murray.
Draper, 23, has a tricky opener against 38th-ranked Sebastian Baez and could face past runner-up Marin Cilic of Croatia in Round 2 and Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik, whom he lost to at Roland Garros, in the third round.
To win the title, Draper could have to beat Djokovic in the quarterfinals, Sinner in the semis and Alcaraz in the final.
Britain’s women’s No. 1 Emma Raducanu opens against compatriot Mingge Xu, one of three British teenage wild cards in the women’s draw. Should 2021 US Open champion Raducanu win that, she would play 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova or 32nd seed McCartney Kessler in the second round before a potential third-round meeting with Sabalenka.
One potential standout second-round match could feature Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen against four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka.
Alcaraz, who warmed up for Wimbledon by winning the Queen’s Club title, will be wary of the threat posed by the enigmatic Fognini, although the 38-year-old Italian player is not the force he was when he reached ninth in the rankings in 2019 and has never been past the third round in 14 previous appearances at Wimbledon.
Alcaraz could then face British qualifier Oliver Tarvet, the world No. 719 whose reward for reaching the main draw is a first-round match against Swiss qualifier Leandro Riedi. Alcaraz’s potential semifinal opponent is No. 3 Alexander Zverev, who plays France’s Arthur Rinderknech in his opening match.
Gauff, coming off her second major title at the French Open, will open Wimbledon on Tuesday against Dayana Yastremska, a 2024 Australian Open semifinalist.
Win that, and Gauff might face former No. 1 and two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka in the second round, while a rematch with No. 28 seed Sofia Kenin could await in the third. Kenin eliminated Gauff in the opening round at Wimbledon two years ago.
Petra Kvitova, the 2011 and 2014 Wimbledon champion who announced she will retire later this year, takes on No. 10 Emma Navarro in the first round.
As defending men’s champion, Alcaraz will open play on Centre Court on Monday, which will feature the bottom half of the men’s draw and the top half of the women’s draw.
Krejcikova will begin play on Centre Court on Tuesday.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
