Wimbledon draws released
Marcos Baghdatis, Maria Sakkari, and Stefanos Tsitsipas found out who their first round opponents will be at Wimbledon.
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Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas comes into the event seeded seventh, and ranked sixth in the world. The 20-year-old from Athens reached the fourth round last year, and will play against Italy’s Thomas Fabbiano (world number 102) in the first round on Monday. Tsitsipas won both of their previous meetings, including a straight set win in the third round of Wimbledon last year. Fabbiano has never been past the third round of any Grand Slam tournament. The winner will face either Croatian Ivo Karlovic, or Italian qualifier Andrea Arnaboldi, in the second round. Should he advance, Tsitsipas could potentially face 30th seeded Kyle Edmund of Great Britain in the third round, 11th seeded Daniil Medvedev of Russia (who holds a 4-0 head-to-head lead over Tsitsipas) in the fourth round, and world number one and defending champion Novak Djokovic of Serbia in the quarterfinals.
Cyprus’ Marcos Baghdatis, currently ranked 138 and entered here with a main draw wildcard as this will be his last tournament as a professional tennis player, will take on unseeded Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany in the first round on Tuesday. Baghdatis reached the second round last year, and his best result at Wimbledon was reaching the semifinals back in 2006. Struff, currently at a career-high ranking of 34 in the world, reached the third round in London last year for his best ever result at the event. The two players have met once before, back in 2016 on the grass of Stuttgart, with the German prevailing in three sets. The winner will play either 14th seeded Borna Coric of Croatia, or unseeded Aljaz Bedene of Slovenia, in the second round.
On the women’s side, Greece’s Maria Sakkari is seeded 31th in the event. She fell in the first round last year, but her best result at Wimbledon was making the third round back in 2017. She will face world number 92 Bernarda Pera of the United States in the first round on Monday. Pera has never won a match at Wimbledon before, and the two players have never faced each other at the professional level. Their only previous meeting was a junior match back in 2010 on clay, which Pera won in straight sets. The winner will play either Germany’s Mona Barthel or the Czech Republic’s Marie Bouzkova, in the second round. World number eight Elina Svitolina of Ukraine is a potential third round opponent for Sakkari, should she reach that stage.
Sakkari will also be competing in the doubles event with Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic. Sakkari and Tomljanovic have never played doubles together before. They will take on the 11th seeded pair Czech-Slovenian pair of Lucie Hradecka and Andreja Klepac in the first round.
Valentini Grammatikopoulou was hoping to join Sakkari in the women’s draw, as the 22-year-old Greek took part in the qualifying tournament. However, Grammatikopoulou fell 6-4 3-6 10-8 to 20th seeded Kaja Juvan of Slovenia in the first round of qualifying. Juvan then went on to win her next two matches to reach the main draw. Grammatikopoulou has now lost in qualifying of all three Grand Slam events this year, and each time to a player who ultimately qualified for the main draw.
