Montreal’s Felix Auger-Aliassime has been given the sixth seed in men’s competition as four Canadians are set to compete in the main singles draws at Wimbledon.
The draws for the grass-court Grand Slam were released Friday, with Auger-Aliassime entering as the highest-seeded Canadian.
Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., is seeded 13th in the men’s draw, while Bianca Andreescu of Mississauga, Ont., and Vancouver’s Rebecca Marino will play in the women’s competition.
The draw did not include top-ranked female Canadian Leylah Fernandez, who was left off the Wimbledon entry list earlier this month. The world No. 16 from Laval, Que., suffered a stress fracture in a quarter-final loss to Italy’s Martina Trevisan at the French Open.
Auger-Aliassime, the world No. 9, is 30-15 this season and won his first ATP title at Rotterdam in February.
Shapovalov will open against France’s Arthur Rinderknech. The world No. 16 reached the semifinals at Wimbledon last year before losing to then-world No. 1 Novak Djokovic.
Shapovalov will look to end a rough patch entering the Grand Slam that has seen him lose the first match in his last five tournaments.
Andreescu, the 2019 U.S. Open champion, will open against American qualifier Emina Bektas.
Andreescu, ranked 64th, has never advanced past the opening round at the All England Club, but has impressed on grass this season. She plays Caroline Garcia in the final of the Bad Homburg Open on Saturday.
WATCH | Andreescu beats top-seeded Kasatkina in Bad Homburg quarters:
Bianca Andreescu of Mississauga, Ont., defeated top seed Daria Kasatkina of Russia 6-4, 6-1 to reach the semifinals of the Bad Homburg Open in Germany.
Marino, No. 107 in the world, will make her first appearance in the main draw at Wimbledon since 2011, where she reached the second round.
She will start the tournament against Poland’s Katarzyna Kawa (No. 132).
Dabrowski and Olmos look for a second title this season after winning in Madrid last month.
Serena’s comeback
Serena Williams will begin her Wimbledon comeback by facing Harmony Tan, a 24-year-old from France who is ranked 113th and owns a 2-6 career record in Grand Slam matches.
Because of her lack of activity over the past 12 months, Williams — who has been No. 1 in the rankings for a total of 319 weeks — is outside the WTA’s top 1,200 and could have ended up anywhere in the field and against any opponent in the first round. She only returned to the tour this week by playing two doubles matches at a tuneup event in England.
While the 40-year-old American’s track record would merit a seeding, the All England Club adheres strictly to the rankings for seeds.
Williams has won seven Wimbledon championships, part of her total of 23 Grand Slam singles titles, a record for the professional era. Tan, meanwhile, will be making her debut at the grass-court tournament.
If Williams gets past Tan, next up could be a match against Sara Sorribes Tormo, who is seeded 32nd but has never been past the third round in 19 past major appearances.
The third round potentially would put Williams against a tougher test: No. 6-seeded Karolina Pliskova, who was the runner-up to Ash Barty last year at Wimbledon and also reached the final of the 2016 U.S. Open — beating Williams in the semifinals there.
Reference-www.cbc.ca