Jack Draper: Wimbledon draw could have been kinder says Sky Sports Tennis presenter Gigi Salmon as she gives her predictions for the tournament
Presenter Gigi Salmon discusses the 20 Brits across the singles draws at Wimbledon, including Jack Draper's blockbuster meeting with Taylor Fritz, and picks her winners; watch the ATP and WTA Tours live on Sky Sports Tennis, streaming service NOW and the Sky Sports app
Monday 29 June 2026 07:54, UK
Gigi previews Wimbledon with a total of 20 Britons in singles action. The Sky Sports presenter also looks forward to the return of 23-time major winner Serena Williams at the All England Club and picks her winners! It's all in her latest column...
I'm writing this around 3,500 miles away from the All England Club and the Wimbledon Championships, having just spent the afternoon watching a former Wimbledon champion play on a grass-court in New York's Central Park.
It was as surreal as it sounds as Andre Agassi played James Blake and Caroline Wozniacki faced Genie Bouchard in an invitational friendly.
- Latest scores, results and upcoming matches 📝
- Men's singles draw I Women's singles draw 🎾
- Is Serena brave to make Wimbledon singles bid at the age of 44?
- Download Sky Sports app for analysis, news and video
- Not got Sky? Get Sky Sports or stream with no contract
But, surrounded by the grass, a lot of strawberries and a fair amount of Pimms, it more than whetted the appetite ahead of the Championships.
I thought it would be worth running through the Brits, how many there are, who they're facing and what their chances are before looking at the other questions that the grass has thrown up!
In total there are 20 Brits across the two draws: a mix of direct entries, qualifiers and wild cards, with two of them seeded and four players making their Wimbledon main-draw debuts. It was 21, but then what was feared in the tennis media came to pass with Emma Raducanu withdrawing due to injury.
There had been signs that all was not well for the former US Open champion during training, and when she postponed her press duties on Saturday, it was even more ominous.
In the past few days she has missed practice sessions, been photographed leaving the grounds in a protective boot and, when she did train, required heavy strapping on her right lower leg and ankle. It's such bad luck and timing for the British No 1, who had recently reunited with coach Andrew Richardson and had reached the final at Queen's.
While Raducanu will make headlines, when the draw was made on Friday the spotlight fell firmly on Jack Draper, drawn to meet world No 7 Taylor Fritz, who you would have to say is a contender and a strong one for the title here after his semi-final last year and back-to-back finals on the grass in Stuttgart and Halle in recent weeks.
Draper, who returned from his latest injury setback with a semi-final showing at Eastbourne and with coach Andy Murray by his side, leads the head to head 3-2, with their one previous meeting at Queen's going Draper's way back in 2022.
When I spoke to the former world No 4 recently about the plan moving forward it was all about staying healthy and managing expectations.
So, while this is a blockbuster on paper, the draw could have been a lot kinder to the Brit, who will be playing only his second tournament since April.
British No 1 Norrie aims to go deep
British No 1 and 26th seed Cam Norrie will be happy with his draw which sees him take on American qualifier Michael Zheng.
Zheng, ranked 143, is making his second Grand Slam main-draw appearance, having made his debut in Australia at the start of the year. And the other Brit to qualify on ranking, Jan Choinski, will face Vit Kopriva who sits 39 places above him.
Next, to the three qualifiers - and that includes Wimbledon debutant Max Basing, 23, who came through a five-set epic in qualifying to secure his maiden Grand Slam appearance.
The world No 331 will face fellow qualifier and world No 150 Shintaro Mochizuki in the first round.
Billy Harris, 31, was the subject of much discussion when he did not receive a wild card into the main draw. Instead, he fought through qualifying and 19th seed Karen Khachanov awaits in round one.
And Ollie Tarvet - the world No 349 - repeated his feat of last year in navigating qualifying, with 25th seed Arthur Rinderknech his opening opponent.
Tarvet had all eyes on him last year when he fell to Carlos Alcaraz in the second round. It's his second Grand Slam main-draw appearance.
That leaves the five wild cards, with both Toby Samuel and Harry Wendelken making their Wimbledon main-draw debuts.
Wendelken, who makes his Grand Slam debut, takes on Frenchman Valentin Royer and will be feeling pretty good after qualifying for Queen's earlier this month.
Samuel, on the other hand, has a tough draw against 15th seed and Masters winner Jakub Mensik.
Elsewhere, Jack Pinnington Jones has the 28th seed and Queen's semi-finalist Brandon Nakashima.
Arthur Fery takes on Damir Dzumhur, and Felix Gill faces a young man who 12 months ago was ranked outside the world's top 600 and comes into Wimbledon as the 23rd seed after a remarkable rise.
Rafael Jodar, while seeded and very talented, is playing in his first pro-grass event after withdrawing from Queen's and Eastbourne with an abdominal injury he picked up in training.
Can the Brits take the women's draw by storm?
There are now eight British women in the draw but, after Raducanu's withdrawal, none will be seeded.
The next highest player is world No 59 Katie Boulter, who faces qualifier Tyra Grant. Boulter, who has a summer wedding to Alex de Minaur fast approaching, had a good run to the semi-finals at Queen's, losing to eventual winner Donna Vekic.
Fran Jones completes the players qualified by ranking. World No 103 Jones, who told me at Eastbourne that this has been her toughest year on tour, will start her campaign against French player Diane Parry.
Six of the eight British women are in the top half of the draw, with only Boulter and wild card Katie Swan in the bottom, with Swan taking on Irina Camelia Begu in the first round.
That leaves five players, including Wimbledon debutant Alicia Dudeney, who earned a wild card after a great season which has seen her win four ITF titles and then securing her first top-100 win at the Nottingham Open when she beat Yulia Putintseva in qualifying. She kicks things off against the American Alycia Parks.
Things only get tougher for our remaining four wild cards, with world No 152 Harriet Dart taking on former Wimbledon semi-finalist and winner of two grass-court titles, Jelena Ostapenko. The winner of that match comes across... world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka. Ostapenko did have to withdraw from her recent Eastbourne semi though, stating she had got sunstroke and that she wanted to recover in time for Wimbledon.
Elsewhere, Mimi Xu is up against world No 68 Daria Kasatkina, who's a crafty player at the best of times and seems to shine on grass, while 17-year-old Hannah Klugman squares up to former Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova and Mika Stojsavljevic faces world No 12 Belinda Bencic.
How will Serena fare on her big comeback?
So to this year's questions on the grass at Wimbledon. How will Serena Williams fare back on a singles court for the first time since the 2022 US Open? She starts against Australian Maya Joint.
Will Sabalenka leave the tournament with the world No 1 ranking and her first Wimbledon title, with Elena Rybakina fewer than 1,000 points behind?
Can Iga Swiatek become the first player to successfully defend the Wimbledon women's title since Serena Williams in 2016? And will Maja Chwalinska back up her French Open final showing with a deep run on the grass?
In the men's, as long as the heatwave doesn't return with a vengeance during the Championships, Jannik Sinner is a hot favourite to defend his title.
Can Novak Djokovic, who is in the same half of the draw as Sinner, get that illusive 25th Grand Slam singles title?
And now that he has won a Grand Slam singles title, how does the mindset and mentality of second seed Sacha Zverev change - if at all?
The great thing about tennis is that there are always so many questions to answer, a whole host of unknowns, the possibility of a fairytale - all playing out on a surface that former Wimbledon champion Andre Agassi once described as ice that has been plastered with Vaseline.
The only guarantee is that my predictions won't work out, so to give myself a chance I will go for Sinner to defend his Wimbledon title and Sabalenka to win her first at SW19!
Watch the ATP and WTA Tours, live on Sky Sports or stream with NOW and the Sky Sports app, giving Sky Sports customers access to over 50 per cent more live sport this year at no extra cost. Find out more here.
