The Wimbledon draw ceremony was held on Friday morning at the All-England Club. Novak Djokovic landed in the top half, so a third consecutive Djokovic vs. Carlos Alcaraz final is possible.
Of course, there is a long way to go–especially for Djokovic–before that potential matchup can take place. The seven-time champion finds himself in the toughest section of the bracket along with Jack Draper and Alexander Bublik. In a nightmare development for the 23-year-old Brit, he could face a red-hot Bublik in round three–and the Kazakh just beat Draper at Roland Garros.
Elsewhere in the top half of draw, No. 1 Jannik Sinner has a favorable path to the semifinals. Three of the other top players in that quarter–Lorenzo Musetti, Tommy Paul, and Grigor Dimitrov–have been struggling with injury problems.
At the bottom of the bracket, Alcaraz will kick off his title defense with what will almost certainly be Fabio Fognini’s final Wimbledon match. The two-time winner could eventually meet Felix Auger-Aliassime in the third round, Andrey Rublev or Stefanos Tsitsipas in the fourth round, and Holger Rune or Frances Tiafoe in the last eight.
Nobody has it worse than Draper, but the draw also delivered bad news to Alexander Zverev. The third-ranked German could face one of his two nemeses, Taylor Fritz and Daniil Medvedev, in the quarterfinals. Fritz has beaten Zverev five straight times, including last year in SW19 and just recently in the Stuttgart final. Medvedev took down Zverev in Halle for his fourth consecutive win in their rivalry.
First-round matches to watch include Fritz vs. Mpetshi Perricard, Ugo Humbert vs. Gael Monfils, Alex Michelsen vs. Miomir Kecmanovic, Learner Tien vs. Nishesh Basavareddy, Tallon Griekspoor vs. Jenson Brooksby, and Jake Fearnley vs. Joao Fonseca.
Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand. You can follow him on Twitter at @Dimonator.