Raducanu faces British teenager Xu at Wimbledon as Draper gets tough draw

Wimbledon 2025

Venue: All England Club, June 30 – 13 .

In a stunning first-round match at Wimbledon, Emma Raducanu will face Mimi Xu, a youngster from England.

British No. 1 Raducanu, who is 38th in the world, was given a difficult-looking draw after falling just short of the championship seeding.

The path for world number four, who faces Argentine’s 38th-ranked Sebastian Baez, is also challenging.

Novak Djokovic, a seven-time champion and contender for a 25th consecutive major singles title, could face Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals.

In the second round, defending champion Carlos Alcaraz and British qualifier Oliver Tarvet could face off against him because he is still a college player in the United States.

Barbora Krejcikova, the women’s champion last year, is set to face 20-year-old Filipino Alexandra Eala in her title defense. She withdrew from Eastbourne this week due to a thigh injury.

The singles draws of Raducanu and Draper are the highest total since 1984, leading 23 British players overall.

Seven of the British contingent’s have already climbed the world rankings, with Tarvet the only qualifier and 15 handed wildcards.

In the second round, if Raducanu defeats 17-year-old Xu, she will face either Marketa Vondrousova, the 2023 champion, or McCartney Kessler, the 32nd seed.

In the third round, the 22-year-old might face Aryna Sabalenka, the world’s number one.

The two other British teenagers who were given wildcards, Hannah Klugman and Mika Stojsavljevic, also received tough draws against seeded opponents.

Leylah Fernandez, the 29th seed in Canada, is the opponent Klugman, 16, who Raducanu memorably defeated to win the US Open in 2021.

Stojsavljevic, the 16-year-old junior champion, will face American Ashlyn Krueger, the 31st seed.

In the women’s singles draw, 10 British players are paired against seeded opponents, making up half of the total.

Paula Badosa, the ninth-seeded Spanish player, and Katie Boulter, who Raducanu replaced as the nation’s top player earlier in June, have been drawn.

It marked a significant moment for Draper when he regained his position as world number four following his semi-final run to the Queen.

As fourth seed, Draper was guaranteed to stay out of Jannik Sinner or Carlos Alcaraz, who had already been the heavy favorites to win the title, until at least the semi-finals.

However, Draper was quick to warn against overdoing the seeding until the draw was held, and he has proven to be correct.

In the second and third rounds, Draper could face Marin Cilic, a 2017 finalist, and Alexander Bublik, a 28th seed, in the same match as Baez.

In the final eight, the Czech 15th seed Jakub Mensik faces the looming threat of sixth seed Djokovic or Australian 11th seed Alex de Minaur, who is a huge server who could pose a serious threat on grass.

British number two Jacob Fearnley will face popular Brazilian teenager Joao Fonseca, while 2022 semi-finalist Cameron Norrie will face veteran Spanishman Roberto Bautista Agut, who also advanced to the top four in 2019.

Men’s singles:

Single women:

BBC tennis correspondent Russell Fuller

The 23 Britons have drawn seeds, but only four will face lower-ranked foes in the first round, and only four have already done so.

Boulter and Kartal draw terrible matches, with Kartal facing top-seeded Badosa and Ostapenko, who holds two grass-court titles to her name.

And Raducanu, who has already defeated two top-100 players on the grass this summer, will be very cautious.

Only four players, including Fearnley, Draper, Evans, and Raducanu, will have a higher ranking than their opponents in their first round matches, and Fearnley will face Brazilian hotshot Fonseca.

Men’s singles:

full draw

Single women:

by BBC Sport’s Ask Me Anything team

Before the draw, seedongs are distributed to the top 32 players in the men’s and women’s singles rankings.

The top seed would be the one with the highest ranking, and so on, according to how the seedings correspond to their world rankings. However, if, for example, the world number 10 withdraws from the tournament, the world number 11 will take their place as the tournament’s top 10th seed.

Due to the nature of the draw, seeded players won’t be able to meet another seeded player until later in the tournament.

With 128 players each singles draw, 96 players, including wildcards and qualifiers, are unseeded.