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Emma Raducanu will take on the young British wildcard Mimi Xu in the opening round of Wimbledon. Xu, 17, is one of three home teenage debutants in the women’s draw, and she will get a first shot at the British No 1.
The former US Open champion reached the fourth round last year but Raducanu faces an uphill battle to do so again, with the top seed, Aryna Sabalenka, and the former Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova both in her section.
It was a tough draw for the British players overall, with Katie Boulter – unseeded this year – taking on a top-10 star in Paula Badosa, while the British No 3, Sonay Kartal, faces the 20th seed, Jelena Ostapenko.
The 16-year-olds Hannah Klugman and Mika Stojsavljevic also drew seeds, with the former facing the 2021 US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez and Stojsavljevic meeting Ashlyn Krueger.
The bottom quarter could throw up some big-hitting contests in the second week, with Iga Swiatek potentially facing a fourth-round clash against the former champion Elena Rybakina and a quarter-final with the second seed, Coco Gauff, the Pole having dropped to eighth in the rankings.
The defending champion, Barbora Krejcikova, meanwhile, will take on the exciting Filipino teenager Alexandra Eala in the opening round, provided the Czech recovers from a leg injury in time.
In the men’s draw, Jack Draper has his work cut out to make a deep run at SW19. The 23-year-old goes into the tournament as a genuine title contender for the first time after climbing to fourth in the world rankings and will take on Argentinian Sebastián Báez in the opening round.
But from there things are set to get significantly tougher with the former finalist Marin Cilic a likely second-round opponent and Alexander Bublik, the player he lost to in the fourth round of the French Open and who won the big grass-court warm-up event in Halle last weekend, his first scheduled seeded rival in the third round.
Novak Djokovic, who has made the final in every edition since 2017, could be waiting in the quarter-finals, with the world No 1, Jannik Sinner, in the semi-finals.
Carlos Alcaraz, seeking a hat-trick of titles, is in the bottom half of the draw and will open the tournament on Centre Court on Monday against the veteran Italian Fabio Fognini.
