Nadal, Federer In Loaded Half At Wimbledon; Several Top First-Round Clashes

Rafael Nadal, the 2008 and 2010 titlist, has been drawn in a loaded quarter at The Championships, and in the same half as eight-time former winner Roger Federer. Defending champion Novak Djokovic, a four-time winner at the All England Club, headlines the top half of the draw with last year’s finalist Kevin Anderson, Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas.

The draw ceremony, held at the All England Club on Friday morning, has pitted Nadal in the same section of the draw as No. 29 seed Denis Shapovalov, Nick Kyrgios, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Bernard Tomic. Early popcorn matches include fifth seed Dominic Thiem against Sam Querrey, No. 12 seed Fabio Fognini versus Frances Tiafoe, 2017 runner-up and No. 13 seed Marin Cilic versus Adrian Mannarino and No. 27 seed Lucas Pouille versus Richard Gasquet.

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Popcorn First-Round Matches At A Glance
Anderson v Herbert
Thiem v Querrey
Tiafoe V Fognini
Cilic v Mannarino
Tomic v Tsonga
Kyrgios v Thompson
Fritz v Berdych
Pouille v Gasquet

If Nadal, who plays Yuichi Sugita in the first round, is to complete the Roland Garros-Wimbledon title double for the third time (2008, 2010), the Spanish icon may need to work his way past Kyrgios, Tsonga or Shapovalov in the third round, Cilic in the fourth round, Thiem in the quarter-finals, second seed Federer in the semi-finals and Djokovic in the championship match. Nadal, who has won 18 Grand Slam championship trophies and has a 40-18 match record at Wimbledon, lost to Djokovic 10-8 in the fifth set in last year’s fourth round.

Djokovic, who lifted the Wimbledon crown ranked No. 21 in the ATP Rankings last year, will open his campaign against Philipp Kohlschreiber and could meet No. 16 seed Gael Monfills, MercedesCup finalist and No. 19 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime or 2014 semi-finalist Grigor Dimitrov in the fourth round. Should Djokovic reach the quarter-finals, the World No. 1 may potentially challenge seventh-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas, who advanced to the fourth round in 2018, or No. 11 seed Daniil Medvedev.

Nadal and Djokovic, who are in the top two spots in the 2019 ATP Race To London, could both potentially qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals, to be held at The O2 in London from 10-17 November, as a result of deep runs at The Championships. Buy Your Tickets Today

Federer, the second seed, who will be looking to add to his 20 Grand Slam championship crowns, competes at the All England Club for the 21st year. With a 95-12 record at the grass-court major, the Swiss superstar will open his campaign for a ninth trophy against Lloyd Harris. The 37-year-old, who captured a 10th Noventi Open trophy last week, could face Pouille or Gasquet in the third round, No. 14 seed Borna Coric in the fourth round, and potentially eighth seed Nishikori or ninth seed Isner in the quarter-finals.

Fourth seed Anderson, who beat Federer in last year’s quarter-finals prior to a 26-24 fifth-set finish against Isner in the semi-finals, continues his comeback from an elbow injury and takes on Pierre-Hugues Herbert in the first round. He may face 2015 finalist and No. 15 seeds Milos Raonic or two-time former quarter-finalist Wawrinka, the No. 22 seed, in the fourth round. Sixth seed Zverev, a two-time quarter-finalist at Roland Garros, faces Jiri Vesely first up, while No. 10 seed Karen Khachanov, who also features in Anderson’s quarter of the draw, takes on Soon-woo Kwon in the first round.