Wimbledon. Five-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams will make her 24th appearance at the Grand Slam tournament here, opening her campaign against 2019 semi-finalist Elina Svitolina. Friday’s Wimbledon draw will see two-time winner Andy Murray take on wild card entrant Ryan Peniston in a first-round match that will be a clash between British players.
Venus (43) has played only five matches this season and Svitolina, who returned to the tour in April, has both been given wild cards by the All England Club. The winner of this match could face 28th seed Elise Mertens in the second round followed by American number seven Coco Gauff. Gauff made her Grand Slam debut in 2019 by defeating Venus at Wimbledon when she was just 15. Venus is the 2000, 2001, 2005, 2007 and 2008 Wimbledon winner and has won the US Open Grand Slam twice.
The winner of the match between Murray and Peniston will meet either fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas or 2020 US Open champion Dominic Thiem. The third Grand Slam tournament of the year begins on Monday (July 3) with second seed Novak Djokovic opening a match against debutant Pedro Cachin (ranked 67) of Argentina to win his fifth consecutive and eighth overall championship.
