THE Championships at Wimbledon are set to begin tomorrow, with a huge two weeks of grass court action returning after being cancelled in 2020. We delve into the 32 men’s and women’s competitors who enter the main draw of their respective events following three rounds of qualifiers.

MEN’S

The 16 men’s competitors range from highly experienced names to younger developing players, with a couple of upset wins seeing lower ranked players enter the main draw. Top seed Pole Kamil Majchrzak fell at the final hurdle, with the 104th ranked player going down in four to 209th ranked Chilean Marcelo Tomas Barrios Vera. Second seed Mackenzie McDonald was much more fortunate, overcoming a two set deficit to compatriot Maxime Cressy, to claim entry to the main event, although fourth seed Francisco Cerundolo and fifth seed Yasutaka Uchiyama both fell to Zhizhen Zhang and Oscar Otte respectively. Rounding out the top qualifiers were a couple of Frenchmen in Arthur Rinderknech and Benjamin Bonzi, with the two top 10 seeds joined by compatriot Gregoire Barrere, while Denis Kudla and Brandon Nakashima joined McDonald in the main draw. A couple of Australians in Chris O’Connell and Marc Polmans also earned their way through, with 11 of the 32 seeds making their way into the main event and the remaining five hoping to continue causing upsets as the first round looms tomorrow.

Of the 16 competitors who earned a main draw entry, there are a couple who face dangerous opposition right off the bat. Arguably the most unlucky is Dutch competitor Tallon Griekspoor, who has drawn fourth seed Alexander Zverev, while McDonald faces daring Russian Karen Khachanov and O’Connell will look to knock 13th seed Gael Monfils off his perch. Bernabe Zapata Miralles will look to oust Cristian Garin, who has not played a lead-in tournament to Wimbledon so could prove an intriguing matchup against the warmed up Zapata Miralles, while Zhang is the first male Chinese competitor to make the main draw at Wimbledon during the Open Era, making his grand slam debut against fellow qualifer Antoine Hoang.

WOMEN’S

Just two top 10 qualifying seeds made it through to the main draw, as number one Maria Camila Osorio Serrano and fourth seed Anna Kalinskaya both reigned supreme in three, joined by six other seeds in the main entry. The 15th and 16th seeds Greet Minnen and Claire Liu both found their form, as a smattering of 20-30 ranked seeds earned their way through, with 23rd seed Croatian Ana Konjuh, 24th seed Belarusian Olga Govortsova, 30th seeded Chinese talent Wang Xinyu and 31st seeded Frenchwoman Clara Burel all finding a way to win through qualifiers. Of the four Australians in the final round of qualifiers just Ellen Perez found success, defeating French 10th seed Oceane Dodin in the process, as Priscilla Hon fell in three to Kalinskaya, Astra Sharma went down to Liu, Storm Sanders fell to Burel, and Arina Rodionova struggled to compete with hometown hopeful Katie Swan, going down in 67 minutes – the equal quickest match of the day, only rivalled by Govortsova’s win over Cristina Bucsa.

Perez and Burel will go head-to-head in the opening round while Minnen has drawn yet another Australian in hard-hitter Ajla Tomljanovic, so will look to utilise her form on grass thus far. Konjuh will take on the ever dangerous Sara Sorribes Tormo, and while it will be away from the Spaniard’s preferred clay surface, Sorribes Tormo had a solid run at Bad Homburg during the week so cannot be underestimated. Monica Niculescu has arguably drawn the toughest first round opposition in second seed Aryna Sabalenka, while Xinyu has been similarly unlucky set to face fourth seed Sofia Kenin.

Picture credit: ATP Tour