Djokovic and Barty land top seeds at Wimbledon
World men's No. 1 chasing Federer and Nadal for all-time grand slams record
World No. 1 Novak Djokovic will launch his defence of his Wimbledon title against British wild card Jack Draper.
As expected, Friday's draw confirmed that the Serbian star is the top seed in the tournament, which begins on Monday. World No. 2 Daniil Medvedev of Russia is seeded second, followed by Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, Alexander Zverev of Germany and Andrey Rublev of Russia.
Roger Federer of Switzerland, who has won a record eight men's singles titles at Wimbledon, is the No. 6 seed.
Djokovic will be pursuing his third straight Wimbledon title and sixth in all as he chases Federer and Rafael Nadal for the most all-time wins in a Grand Slam tournament. Federer and Nadal, who withdrew from the tournament with an injury, each have 20.
The 34-year-old Djokovic won his 19th Grand Slam title last month at the French Open.
In the first round, Medvedev will face German Jan-lennard Struff. Tsitsipas drew American Frances Tiafoe, while Zverev will meet qualifier Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands.
Rublev will play Federico Delbonis of Argentina in the first round, with Federer drawing Adrian Mannarino of France.
Local favourite Andy Murray, a former world No. 1 and two-time Wimbledon champion, will return to Wimbledon for the first time since 2017 and meet the No. 24 seed, Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia. Hip problems have plagued Murray.
Even without former Grand Slam
champions Naomi Osaka and Simona Halep in the field, world No. 1
Ashleigh Barty of Australia will face a tough path toward her first Wimbledon title when play begins Monday at the All England Club.
Barty will have to contend with the hip injury that forced her to withdraw from the second round of the French Open last month, as well as former world No. 6 Carla Suarez Navarro in her opening match. The Spaniard has returned to the WTA Tour after being diagnosed with early stage Hodgkin's lymphoma last fall.
Should Barty reach the fourth round, which would match the farthest she has gone at Wimbledon, French Open champion and No. 14 seed Barbora Krejcikova could be waiting for her there. Barty has never advanced past the Round of 16 at the All England Club.
The No. 2 seed is Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, who will open the tournament against Romanian Monica Niculescu. No. 3 Elina Svitolina of Ukraine will be opposed in the first round by Alison Van Uytvanck of Belgium.
The highest-seeded American, No. 4 Sofia Kenin, will meet Xinyu Wang of China, and the first-round opponent for No. 5 seed Bianca Andreescu will be Alize Cornet of France, who beat the Canadian in Berlin a week ago.
The bottom half of the top 10 seeds features three Grand Slam winners and a former world No. 1.
Serena Williams, a seven-time Wimbledon champion, is the No. 6 seed and will meet Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus in the first round. Williams, 39, is making another bid to win her 24th Grand Slam championship, which would tie Margaret Court for the most all-time.
No. 7 seed Iga Swiatek of Poland, the 2020 French Open champ, drew Su-wei Hsieh of Taiwan as her first-round opponent, and former world No. 1 Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic, the No. 8 seed, drew Tamara Zidansek of Slovenia.
Ninth-seeded Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, seeking her first Grand Slam finals appearance, will meet another Slovenian, Kaja Juvan, in the first round. Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic will be opposed by American Sloane Stephens.
World No. 2 Osaka of Japan withdrew from the tournament for “personal time” off. No. 3 Halep, from Romania, is recovering from a calf injury.
When Zhang Zhizhen steps out
at Wimbledon next week to face France's Antoine Hoang, it will be a long-overdue milestone for Chinese men's tennis.
The world No. 178 will be the first Chinese male to play in the Wimbledon main draw in the professional era, having survived the qualifying event at Roehampton this week.
The 24-year-old, who booked his spot by defeating Argentine Francisco Cerundolo in four sets on Thursday, will be only the fourth Chinese man to play singles in the main draw of a Grand Slam since the Open era began in 1968.
No Chinese man has played in the singles since 1959.
Wu Di (2013, 2014, 2016), Zhang Ze (2014, 2015) and Li Zhe (2019) have all played at the Australian Open.
It has been something of a mystery why Chinese men have failed to emulate the country's women, who have provided many top players including Li Na who won the French and Australian Open titles before retiring in 2014.
Zhang Zhizhen is currently the only Chinese male player in the top 250 in the ATP rankings.