Gigi previews Wimbledon with a total of 21 Britons in singles action. The Sky Sports presenter also looks forward to the return of 23-time major winner Serena Williams at the All England Club and picks her winners! It’s all in her latest column…
I’m writing this around 3,500 miles away from the All England Club and the Wimbledon Championships, having just spent the afternoon watching a former Wimbledon champion play on a grass-court in New York’s Central Park.
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It was as surreal as it sounds as Andre Agassi played James Blake and Caroline Wozniacki faced Genie Bouchard in an invitational friendly.
But, surrounded by the grass, a lot of strawberries and a fair amount of Pimms, it more than whetted the appetite ahead of the Championships.
I thought it would be worth running through the Brits, how many there are, who they’re facing and what their chances are before looking at the other questions that the grass has thrown up!
In total there are 21 Brits across the two draws, a mix of direct entries, qualifiers and wild cards, with two of them seeded and four players making their Wimbledon main-draw debuts.
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Jack Draper reflects on his battles with injury after returning to action and speaks of the influence that Andy Murray has had on a difficult period in his career
The stand-out draw for the Brits by far was Jack Draper’s first-round meeting with world No 7 Taylor Fritz, who you would have to say is a contender – and a strong one – for the title this year after his semi-final last year and back-to-back finals on the grass in Stuttgart and Halle in recent weeks.
Draper, who returned from his latest injury setback with a semi-final showing at Eastbourne and with coach Andy Murray by his side, leads the head to head 3-2, with their one previous meeting at Queen’s going Draper’s way back in 2022.
When I spoke to the former world No 4 recently about the plan moving forward it was all about staying healthy and managing expectations.
So, while this is a blockbuster on paper, the draw could have been a lot kinder to the Brit, who will be playing only his second tournament since April.
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British No 1 Norrie aims to go deep
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Cam Norrie has a chance to go deep at Wimbledon
British No 1 and 26th seed Cam Norrie will be happy with his draw which sees him take on American qualifier Michael Zheng.
Zheng, ranked 143, is making his second Grand Slam main-draw appearance, having made his debut in Australia at the start of the year. And the other Brit to qualify on ranking, Jan Choinski, will face Vit Kopriva who sits 39 places above him.
Next to the three qualifiers and that includes Wimbledon debutant Max Basing, 23, who came through a five-set epic in qualifying to secure his maiden Grand Slam appearance.
The world No 331 will face fellow qualifier and world No 150 Shintaro Mochizuki in the first round.
Billy Harris, 31, was the subject of much discussion when he did not receive a wild card into the main draw, instead he fought through qualifying and 19th seed Karen Khachanov awaits in round one.
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And Ollie Tarvet – the world No 349 – repeated his feat of last year in navigating qualifying, with 25th seed Arthur Rinderknech his opening opponent.
Tarvet had all eyes on him last year when he fell to Carlos Alcaraz in the second round, it’s his second Grand Slam main-draw appearance.
That leaves the five wild cards with both Toby Samuel and Harry Wendelken making their Wimbledon main-draw debuts.
Wendelken, who makes his Grand Slam debut, takes on Frenchman Valentin Royer and will be feeling pretty good after qualifying for Queen’s earlier this month.
Samuel, on the other hand, has a tough draw against 15th seed and masters winner Jakub Mensik.
Elsewhere, Jack Pinnington Jones has the 28th seed and Queen’s semi-finalist Brandon Nakashima.
Arthur Fery takes on Damir Dzumhur, and Felix Gill faces a young man who 12 months ago was ranked outside the world’s top 600 and comes into Wimbledon as the 23rd seed after a remarkable rise.
Rafa Jodar, while seeded and very talented, is playing in his first pro-grass event after withdrawing from Queen’s and Eastbourne with an abdominal injury he picked up in training.
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Can the Brits take the women’s draw by storm?
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Katie Boulter made it through to the semi-finals at Queen’s Club
To the nine British women in the draw and – in on ranking – 30th seed Emma Raducanu, whose run to the final of Queen’s got her a Wimbledon seeding and showed what a threat she can be on the grass.
Raducanu faces Antonia Ruzic in the first round who she lost to earlier this year in Dubai, when Raducanu was suffering from a viral illness.
The winner would face either wild card Brit Harriet Dart or former Wimbledon semi-finalist and two-time grass-court title winner Jelena Ostapenko, who retired from her recent Eastbourne semi-final due to illness saying she had suffered sunstroke earlier in the week.
Then in the third round it could be world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka.
World No 59 Katie Boulter faces qualifier Tyra Grant.
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Engaged couple Alex de Minaur and Katie Boulter enjoy a light-hearted challenge at Miami’s F1 track with a friendly wager: ‘Loser has to do laundry for a week!’
Boulter, who has a summer wedding to Alex de Minaur fast approaching, had a good run to the semi-finals at Queen’s, losing to eventual winner Donna Vekic.
And Fran Jones completes the players qualified by ranking, world No 103 Jones, who told me at Eastbourne that this has been her toughest year on tour, will start her campaign against French player Diane Parry.
Seven of the nine British women are in the top half of the draw with only Boulter and wild-card Katie Swan in the bottom, with Swan taking on Irina Camelia Begu in the first round.
That leaves four players, including Wimbledon debutant Alicia Dudeney, who earnt a wild card after a great season which has seen her win four ITF titles and then securing her first top-100 win at the Nottingham Open when she beat Yulia Putinseva in qualifying.
She kicks things off against the American Alycia Parks.
Things then only get tougher for our remaining three wild cards, with world No 327 Mimi Xu up against world No 68 Daria Kasatkina, who’s a crafty player at the best of times and seems to shine on grass.
Hannah Klugman, 17, will be squaring up to former Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova and Mika Stojsavljevic faces world No 12 Belinda Bencic.
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Ryan Harrison believes Serena Williams thinks she can make a ‘splash’ at Wimbledon and Novak Djokovic will favour Wimbledon for his best chance at a major
How will Serena fare on her big comeback?
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Serena Williams makes her return to Grand Slam action at Wimbledon
So to this year’s questions on the grass at Wimbledon, how will Serena Williams fare back on a singles court for the first time in competitive singles action since the 2022 US Open? She starts against Australian Maya Joint.
Will Sabalenka leave Wimbledon as the world No 1 and her first Wimbledon title, with Elena Rybakina less than 1,000 points behind?
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Can Iga Swiatek become the first player to successfully defend the Wimbledon women’s title since Serena Williams in 2015 and 2016? And will Maja Chwalinska back up her French Open final showing with a deep run on the grass?
In the men’s, as long as the heatwave doesn’t return with a vengeance during the Championships, Jannik Sinner is a hot favourite to defend his title.
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Speaking at the F1 in Barcelona, Novak Djokovic discusses his Wimbledon preparations
Can Novak Djokovic, who is in the same half of the draw as Sinner, get that illusive 25th Grand Slam singles title?
And now that he has won a Grand Slam singles title how does the mindset and mentality of second seed Sacha Zverev change – if at all?
The great thing about tennis is that there are always so many questions to answer, a whole host of unknowns, the possibility of a fairytale, all playing out on a surface that former Wimbledon champion Andre Agassi once described as ice that has been plastered with Vaseline.
The only guarantee is that my predictions won’t work out, so to give myself a chance I will go for Sinner to defend his Wimbledon title and Sabalenka to win her first at SW19!
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20 2020