ANDY MURRAY HAS been drawn on the opposite side of the draw to top seed and defending champion Novak Djokovic but faces an extremely tough route to the final in his quest for a second title at SW19.
Murray will face Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushin in the first round, who is ranked 58th in the world rankings and has lost to Murray on both the two occasions they have previously played each other.
The bad news for Murray is that he may have to get past Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Rafa Nadal and seven-time champion Roger Federer to set up a potential meeting with Djokovic in the final. He will enter Wimbledon in a rich vein of form, however, after following up his best ever clay-court season by winning the title at Queen’s on Sunday.
Meanwhile, defending champion and world number one Djokovic has been handed a tricky opening match against world number 33 Phillip Kohlschreiber, who reached the quarter-final back in 2012. A last four match with fourth-seed Stan Wawrinka is likely to be Djokovic’s biggest obstacle but he could potentially face Lleyton Hewitt, Bernard Tomic and Kevin Anderson, all of whom are dangerous opponents on grass.
Federer, hoping to win a record eighth Wimbledon triumph, faces Damir Dzumhur in the first round while Nadal plays Thomaz Belluci and Wawrinka is up against Portugal’s Joao Sousa.
In the women’s draw, fourth-seed and 2004 champion Maria Sharapova takes on British number two Johanna Konta. Sharapova is in the same half of the draw as top seed Serena Williams, who kicks off her attempt to win a sixth Wimbledon title against Russia’s Margarita Gasparyan.
Williams is bidding to hold all four majors at the same time for the second time in her career and could face sister Venus in the fourth round of this year’s competition.
Petra Kvitova, who stormed to her second title last year when she crushed Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard in the final, will begin against Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands.
“Australian footballer gets called up to Australian squad.”
Is there any other country besides us and maybe North Korea which would run an article like this.
@PScald: haha . Nothing really wrong with the story though . Prob got published here as Martin O’Neill was looking at him., made the right choice . Senseless for him to play for Ireland . All tbouse long haul flights to prob sit on the bench
For someone who grew up in Australia he sounds like someone who grew up in Dublin’s Northside!
Very tidy player, always demands the ball in tight spaces. Has a great range of passing and could do a job for Ireland I reckon. Definitely the stand out Centre Mid in the A-League.
Soccerwhaaas??
A