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 on Friday.

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 on Friday that she would be pulling out of the tournament with a calf injury that prevented her from playing at the French Open.

That means two of the top three players in the WTA rankings are missing from the field; World number two Naomi Osaka withdrew last week.

“I can honestly say that I’m really down and upset about having to take this decision. This period has been difficult but to miss the last two Majors has made it even more challenging mentally and physically,” Halep wrote in a posting on social media. “We will see what the future holds but I’m hoping it will make me a stronger person and athlete.”

The men’s draw is also missing some big names, with two-time winner Rafael Nadal and US Open champion Dominic Thiem also absent.

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.

French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova takes on Dane Clara Tauson, with the Czech star bidding to win the one Grand Slam singles title her late former coach and idol Jana Novotna won, in 1998.

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.

Djokovic and Federer were placed on opposite halves of the bracket, meaning they only could meet in the final which would be a rematch of their epic 2019 title showdown.

Two years ago at Wimbledon, Djokovic edged Federer in a fifth-set tiebreaker after saving two championship points in the 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 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 Serena 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.

The action begins on Monday.

Published in Dawn, June 26th, 2021