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WIMBLEDON, England – The Wimbledon women's tournament draw ceremony on Friday morning gave Serena Williams a good start on the way to an eighth possible title here.
Williams, 25th seeded despite a world No. 183 ranking after taking leave to have a baby last year, opens against the 107th Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands, who did not won a match at Wimbledon since 2012. This match, weather permitting, will be played on Tuesday, with all the others In the second round, Williams would face the winner of a match between the number 136 Viktoriya Tomova, qualified, and the Number 167, Tereza Smitkova, who won a first-round match in the bottom half of the women's draw. By winning a lower level tournament last week in Ilkley, England
Placed in the lowest group of seeded players, Williams had to face one of the top eight players in the third round. She drew fifth seed, Elina Svitolina, who is perhaps the least comfortable of the top eight on the grass. Svitolina reached the fourth round of Wimbledon last year, but before that had never passed the second round. In the fourth round, Williams could face a player with a lower ranking but a stronger pedigree: Madison Keys, 10th seed, the runner of the United States Open. last year, who won two titles on grass, or the 19th seeded Magdalena Rybarikova, who reached the semifinals of Wimbledon last year.
Williams is in the bottom quarter of the draw, which is anchored by Caroline Wozniacki who has never reached a quarter-final at Wimbledon. Other opponents in the quarter-finals for Williams include Agnieszka Radwanska, 32nd seeded, defeated by Williams in the 2012 final, and CoCo Vandeweghe, 16th seed, quarter-finalist at Wimbledon.
Sloane Stephens, champion of the US Open The second of the Open de France, anchors the other quarter in the lower half of the table. She is joined by Karolina Pliskova, seventh seed, and Venus Williams, ninth seed, vice-champion of Wimbledon last year.
The first half of the women's draw, which begins Monday, includes Garbiñe Muguruza, third seed. defending champion, who opens against a British wildcard, Naomi Broady. Simona Halep, seeded number one, and Petra Kvitova, eighth seeded, were the favorites of the forecasters before the draw. In the fourth round, Kvitova could face the winner of a possible third-round match between multiple Grand Slam champion, Maria Sharapova, and the French Open champion, Jelena Ostapenko, in 2017. [19659005] The draw of the men, less known players among the unrated ranks, this time has two unclassified players who were among the top five seeds in the tournament last year.
Andy Murray, a two-time Wimbledon champion and seeded here last year, is now ranked 156th and un-ranked after missing 11 months of competition. He had an uncomfortable start to the tournament with a first-round match against Benoît Paire and a second-round match against Jérémy Chardy, who is 12-2 on grass this year, or Denis Shapovalov, 26, the junior of Wimbledon. champion two years ago.
Stan Wawrinka, ranked fifth last year, is also unclassified, with a ranking of 225th. In the most prestigious first-round match, Wawrinka drew Grigor Dimitrov, sixth-seeded Wimbledon in 2014, sixth seeded in the first round.
The best male players who maintained high rankings received significantly more comfortable openings. Defending champion and top seed Roger Federer will face Dusan Lajovic in 57th, Lukas Lacko, 94th overall, or Benjamin Bonzi, 285th in the second round.
In the fourth round, Federer could face 16th place Borna Coric, who beat him in the final of a grass tournament in Halle, Germany, this month.
Rafael Nadal, the best ATP player but second behind Federer because of the Wimbledon formula Second place will be awarded to Dudi Sela, ranked 129th, and will face Vasek Pospisil, ranked 93rd, or Mikhail Kukushkin, 90th. The glitches that he is most likely to face earlier in the tournament, No. 29 Marco Cecchinato and No. 14 Diego Schwartzman, have never won a match at Wimbledon.
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