All is ready in London for a new edition of Wimbledon that starts on Monday. The historic British Grand Slam held its draw on Friday, leaving stellar pairings from the first round.
The presence or absence of Novak Djokovic was one of the great unknowns of the day. Finally, the Serbian decided to take the risk and participate in the tournament even though less than three weeks ago he underwent meniscus surgery after being forced to withdraw from Roland Garros.
He faces Vit Kopriva in his debut on Tuesday and has a feasible draw to the quarterfinalswhen Hubert Hurkacz, one of the best services on the circuit, and Alex de Miñaur, winner of S’hertogenbosch, appeared.
The Australian saw exactly how his first rival changed in the last minute. Hours after the draw, the loss of Frenchman Corentin Moutet due to injury was made public.to be replaced by the highest ranked player among those who fell in the final round of the qualifying phase, Australian James Duckworth.
“Since I was preparing for Roland Garros, I had a bone bruise. Despite efforts to recover and be ready for Wimbledon, the pain persists“wrote the Frenchman on his Twitter account.
“After careful consideration with my team and doctor, we made the difficult decision to withdraw from the tournament.. “This is not a casual decision, but it is necessary to ensure that I do not jeopardize my participation in the next Olympic Games,” he added.
For his part, Carlos Alcaraz was lucky to be paired in the first round with the 262nd in the world, Estonian Mark Lajaland he would have a more or less peaceful path to a hypothetical semifinals, where he could cross paths with Jannik Sinner, avoiding Novak Djokovic until the final.
Lajal will come into this match after making it through the Wimbledon qualifying phase against three tennis players ranked higher than him, Passaro, Rocha and Duckworth, but the 21-year-old, 1.91 tall Estonian should not be a problem for Alcaraz who can face each other one in the second round with Aleksandar Vukic and Sebastian Ofner and where the first serious test was not until the third period, when Frances Tiafoe appeared on the horizon.
The American, however, has been a shadow of his former self since knocking out Rafael Nadal at the 2022 US Open and indeed enters this tournament with many doubts, after injuring his knee following a fall at Queen’s less than two weeks ago past.
From there, Alcaraz will face Ugo Humbert in the round of 16. The Frenchman is an excellent player on grass, with last year’s Halle title as a credential, but this season he has been disappointing on the surface with defeats in the first rounds at Queen’s and Mallorca.
In the quarterfinals, the grass-allergic Casper Ruud will appear, the only player in the top 40 who has never played a grass tournament. this year or most likely Tommy Paul, champion at Queen’s last week and one of the few who can boast of having an even head-to-head with Alcaraz, whom he has beaten twice.
Having lost his second seed status, by giving up 500 points as a Queen’s win, Alcaraz starts this tournament as third favorite and that means he has to face Jannik Sinner, world number one, in the hypothetical semifinals, while avoiding Novak Djokovic until the final.
Alcaraz will have the privilege of inaugurating the center court on Monday at 2:30 pm (Spanish peninsular time) as the current champion.
According to the draw, based on the rankings, the quarterfinals will meet Sinner against Daniil Medvedev, Alcaraz against Casper RuudAlexander Zverev against Andrey Rublev and Djokovic against Hubert Hurkacz.
Source: La Verdad
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