The Wimbledon draw ceremony was held on Friday morning in London and it did no favors for Novak Djokovic in the world No. 1’s bid for a third straight title at the All-England Club and for his continued quest of the 2016 calendar-year Grand Slam. Djokovic could face Milos Raonic in the quarterfinals and would run into Roger Federer if both players advance to the semis.
If there is some good news for the top-seeded Serb, it’s that he should coast through the early stages of the tournament. And that will be bad news for the host nation, as Djokovic is kicking off his campaign against Great Britain’s own James Ward before a possible date with Kyle Edmund. In the third round, Djokovic will likely go up against the winner of a huge-serving first-round affair between Sam Querrey and Lukas Rosol. Potential fourth-round showdowns in the top section of the bracket are Djokovic vs. David Ferrer (or Philipp Kohlschreiber) and Raonic vs. David Goffin.
Federer has to like his projected path through the All-England Club festivities, at least until a highly-anticipated semifinal against Djokovic. The 34-year-old Swiss opens with Guido Pella and would then meet either Ricardas Berankis or a qualifier. Things could get entertaining thereafter, with Alexandr Dolgopolov looming in the third round and possibly either Gael Monfils or Gilles Simon in the last 16. Federer’s nearest top-eight seed is Kei Nishikori, but the Japanese star has never been a factor on grass. The door could be open for someone such as Marin Cilic, Ivo Karlovic, or Gilles Muller to make a quarterfinal run.
Andy Murray has a much more favorable draw than Djokovic, but it is not without danger. Grass-court specialist Yen-Hsun Lu is the Scot’s expected second-round opponent and mercurial talents Benoit Paire and Nick Kyrgios could be on the docket in round three and round four, respectively. Kyrgios may first have to navigate through entertaining matchups with Radek Stepanek (first round), Dustin Brown (second round), and either Feliciano Lopez or Fabio Fognini (third round). Richard Gasquet, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, and John Isner are on the other side of Murray’s quarter.
The third section of the bracket is the most wide open, and some of the favorites may not be around for long. Stan Wawrinka has to begin his fortnight against fast-rising American Taylor Fritz before a potential date in the last 64 with 2009 U.S. Open champion Juan Martin Del Potro. French Open semifinalist Dominic Thiem has to face Florian Mayer right off the bat. They just faced each other in Halle, where Mayer carved up Thiem in straight sets on the German’s way to his second career ATP title. Tomas Berdych will start against Ivan Dodig, while Bernard Tomic has what should be a tough test on his hands in the form of Fernando Verdasco.
Other first-round contests to watch throughout the draw are Kohlschreiber vs. Pierre-Hugues Herbert, Jack Sock vs. Ernests Gulbis, Monfils vs. Jeremy Chardy, Karlovic vs. Borna Coric, Lopez vs. Rajeev Ram.
Complete #Wimbledon men's singles draw (without qualifiers): pic.twitter.com/oqICVxigIU
— Ben Rothenberg (@BenRothenberg) June 24, 2016
Full draw at the tournament website
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who ya got?
Roger has no hope in hell of getting to meet Nole.
Happy Brexit everybody!
No Brexit for Andy at Wimbledon please
I think Roger’s chances of winning this year are slim
Roger gets Nole on his side. Sweet… Feel like that happens a lot unless fed is the two seed.
How did every British wildcard get worst draw ever? Broady plays Murray, Ward plays Djoker, Edmund plays Djoker if he beats an solid Mannarino, Klein gets grass court beast Mahut, and Alexander Ward plays Goffin. Only actual wildcard that got a good draw was Brown and that’s only in first round (against Lajovic). Stepanek got Kyrgios. Speaking of Kyrgios he couldn’t have gotten a worse draw. It’s a shame he and Murray are pitted for the fourth round because those two are two of the top 5 contenders. With most other seeds I would’ve favored him to make QF out of his section. Instead his path to QF would have to be Stepanek (tricky), Brown (even more tricky), Lopez/Ram (both aren’t good lately but with two matches under their belt are grass court threats), and Murray (need I say more). Overall Kyrgios got screwed over by the dra was. Luckily for me Fed got a pretty good draw. Easy first couple of rounds then Monfils or Simon in round four (both aren’t too good on grass) then Nishikori/Karlovic/Cilic in QF. All pretty good matchups for Roger. Muller could be there too. I’m thinking if muller plays cuevas again he will get revenge and could take out Nishikori third round that is if Nishikori hasn’t withdrawn by then (not even joking I really don’t know if Kei is gonna be healthy here his health is just so unpredictable I hope he is though but even then he’s not that great on grass so muller could pull that one off). Also that mayer vs Thiem match is interesting. I’m thinking Thiem gets revenge but at the same time I’m kinda tempted to pick Mayer cuz Thiem even said before the tourney he would be happy with third round cuz it’s farther than he’s ever gone (I don’t buy that he would be happy with that though). Plus Mayer did just beat him and win Halle. So I dunno about that one. Not very good luck for Thiem (or Mayer for that matter). Should be a good one though.
that is some horrible draws for wild cards
Wildcards may not have been so lucky but the qualifiers actually all landed in great spots at least first round. There are a few qualifier vs qualifier matchups then a bunch of qualifier vs non seeded matchups (ex: Q vs Lorenzi, vs Bellucci, vs Berankis). Then only three qualifier vs seed matchups and not against high seeds. They’re Q vs (32) Pouille, vs (26) Paire, and vs (25) Troicki. There are quite a few dangerous qualifiers/possible qualifiers too. For example Albano Olivetti who has a massive serve could advance a round if he got someone like Lorenzi or Bellucci or another qualifier first round. Same with Fratangelo. He Olivetti and Nishioka have already qualified. Also if Marcus Willis qualifies and gets a good draw then he is an intriguing player to watch out for. He is capable of awesome tennis but consistency isn’t there considering he’s never even been top 300. The 25 year old Briton is making a great comeback from a five or six month injury layoff and is at 775 in the world right now. So what he’s done already is beyond impressive and if he continues by beating Medvedev that would be insane. And if he got Lorenzi or something first round and won that would be even more epic.
Also Kudryatsev just qualified by housing Pavlasek 3 2 and 1. Beatdown city. Also bemelmans is closing on the main draw up 5-2 in the fifth against Brands.
Oh and an even better example of a great draw for a qualifier. A qualifier plays Elias. Elias is in the middle of a clay challenger right now. The qualifier who gets Elias will be thrilled lol. That’s also a great draw for Elias on the flip side as it’s just his second Wimby main draw.
Willis qualified!!!! Let’s go!! The guy was the last player to be invited to an all British PRE qualifying tournament for the qualies and he won it to make the qualies then qualifies with a highly impressive four set win over Medvedev. He’s such an entertaining player. Kind of like a lefty British version of Brown minus the dreadlocks.
Dang it. Willis gets Berankis and if he were to win that he would play Fed. I wanted Willis to have a chance at making a good run but fed will take him out if he gets past Berankis. And I’ll be rooting for Roger too but I want Willis to make that a good match if it happens.
a good run? Making the second round would be shockingly epic for him. Not a bad draw.
Yeah that’s true it would be epic. What I really mean is I didn’t want to root against Willis in a match but I of course want Fed to win that if it happens. But yes Berankis is a good draw for him. And that match against fed actually would be pretty cool to see. Also what I didn’t know is that Willis isn’t even the lowest ranked guy to qualify. He’s ranked 775 while Olivetti is ranked 791. Both these guys have big serves and I’m surprised they’re that low. Willis is cuz of injury but I don’t know about Olivetti. I think he was injured a while ago but came back like a little while back.
Best second round matchups for me are Brown vs Kyrgios (two of my fav players) and Stan vs Del Po (also two of my fav players). Stan got a pretty tough draw like Kyrgios. He would have to beat Fritz then probably Del Po then his third rounder would be easier actually with either Young Mayer qualifier or Pouille. A really good opportunity section is Sousa’s. He could go out to tursunov and if he doesn’t a qualifier could take him out cuz he’s not great on grass. Either Sousa tursunov or a qualifier has a great shot at the third round.
Nole is unlikely to win this GS.
Why
Is it just me or is there not much chatter before a GS? I for one am tired of Nolandy finals. I hope some new blood shines through to the final.
It is cos Novak and Andy have provided boring finals and together don’t have the charisma either 🙂 compared to what a Nadal or Fed would bring.
Novak did great to win 4 in a row but the RG final that made him get a career slam and Novak slam deserved a better final than the borefest we saw.
Tennis Channel racket bracket pool http://www.tourneytopia.com/RacquetBracketWimbledonATP/TennGrandWimbledon/Pre-Register.aspx