Wimbledon men’s singles draw: Alcaraz, Medvedev in stacked top half

The draw ceremony for the 2023 Wimbledon Championships was held on Friday at the All-England Club.

Carlos Alcaraz recently overtook Novak Djokovic for the No. 1 ranking thanks to his triumph at Queen’s Club, but that did not do the Spaniard any favors when it comes to the Wimbledon draw. Alcaraz’s top half of the bracket is absolutely stacked.

Fortunately for the top seed, it’s the second quarter of the draw that is especially loaded. A Daniil Medvedev vs. Stefanos Tsitsipas quarterfinal showdown is possible there, but neither player is especially comfortable on grass and Tsitsipas is in particularly dreadful form right now. If Medvedev and Tsitsipas are vulnerable, there are plenty of guys in that section who can capitalize on an opportunity. Cameron Norrie advanced to the Wimbledon semis last summer, Tommy Paul reached the fourth round, Francisco Cerundolo just won the Eastbourne title (beat Paul in the final), Sebastian Korda is great on grass, Tallon Griekspoor won ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Ben Shelton has a big game that can work well on this surface, Adrian Mannarino is a grass-court guru who finished runner-up in Mallorca on Saturday, and–oh, yeah–there is also two-time Wimbledon champion Andy Murray.

As for Alcaraz, his nearest seed is Nicolas Jarry and the world No. 1 could run into either Alex de Minaur or Alexander Zverev in the fourth round Possible quarterfinal foes for Alcaraz are Holger Rune, Frances Tiafoe, and Grigor Dimitrov.

Meanwhile, Tsitsipas kicks off his campaign against Dominic Thiem and could face Murray immediately thereafter. Medevedev vs. Mannarino is also a potential second-round tilt, as well.

At the bottom of the bracket, Djokovic will soon begin his quest for a fifth consecutive Wimbledon title. As per tradition, the defending champion will get the Day 1 order of play started on Centre Court.

It’s a bottom half that figures to be dominated by the 36-year-old Serb, who has not lost at Wimbledon since 2017 and is already halfway to the calendar-year Grand Slam thanks to triumphs in Melbourne and Paris. As if Djokovic needs any help, his path through the draw doesn’t appear to be very difficult. Nick Kyrgios, the 2022 runner-up, is in Djokovic’s quarter but may not be as big of a factor this time around given his questionable physical state and lack of play in 2023.

Elsewhere in the bottom half, Jannik Sinner and Casper Ruud are on a collision course for the quarters. On paper Sinner is the favorite to reach the semis out of that section, but the 21-year-old Italian is once again dealing with injury issues of his own.

Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand. You can follow him on Twitter at @Dimonator.