Auger-Aliassime, Pospisil to square off at Wimbledon
WIMBLEDON, England — Felix AugerAliassime will face Vasek Pospisil in an allCanadian first-round match at Wimbledon.
In Friday’s draw, the No. 19-seeded Auger-Aliassime of Montreal was placed against a Vancouver player set to compete for the first time since October after undergoing back surgery.
The 18-year-old Auger-Aliassime, who has rocketed up the rankings this year, is looking for his first career Grand Slam win in his second main-draw appearance. It’s his first Grand Slam of the year after failing to qualify for the Australian Open and missing the French Open because of injury.
Pospisil, 29, is ranked 188th in the world, but has a protected ranking of 73rd – allowing him to make his return at Wimbledon.
Auger-Aliassime won his only match against Pospisil last year at a hard-court event in Indian Wells, Calif.
Top-ranked Canadian Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ont., the No. 15 seed, faces world No. 94 Prajnesh Gunneswaran of India in the first round. Raonic, a Wimbledon finalist in 2016, never has squared off with Gunneswaran.
No. 29 seed Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., meets world No. 74 Ricardas Berankis of Lithuania in the first round. The struggling Shapovalov, who has won just two of his past 10 matches, is 1-0 against Berankis lifetime, beating him last year at Indian Wells.
Brayden Schnur of Pickering, Ont., could get into the main draw as a lucky loser if a player drops out before play begins Monday.
On the women’s side, Eugenie Bouchard of Westmount, Que., is the lone Canadian. The world No. 79, a Wimbledon finalist in 2014, faces world No. 59 Tamara Zidansek of Slovenia.
In women’s doubles, Ottawa’s Gabriela Dabrowski and Yifan Xu of China are seeded fourth. They face Ons Jabeur of Tunisia and Fanny Stollar of Hungary in the first round.
In men’s doubles, Pospisil and Matthew Ebden of Australia meet Dusan Lajovic and Filip Krajinovic of Serbia in the first round.
Within the first minute of the draw ceremony, there arrived a bit of information many were wondering about: Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal were indeed set up for a potential semifinal meeting, with Novak Djokovic possibly awaiting that showdown’s winner in the final.
Toward the end of the proceedings came the most fascinating first-round matchup of all: 39-year-old Venus Williams, a five-time champion at the All England Club, against 15-year-old American Coco Gauff, the youngest player to qualify at the All England Club in the half-century Open era.
In between, there were plenty of other things to keep an eye out for once the grass-court Grand Slam tournament begins, including the placement of Venus’ younger sister, Serena, in what shapes up as by far the toughest quarter of the women’s field. She might need to beat defending champion Angelique Kerber in the fourth round, then No. 1 Ash Barty in the quarterfinals.
Gauff grew up idolizing the Williams sisters, who have both been ranked No. 1 and own a combined 30 Grand Slam singles titles.