Serena Williams Poised For Svitolina Test Following Wimbledon Draw - UBITENNIS
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Serena Williams Poised For Svitolina Test Following Wimbledon Draw

Here is who Williams may have to defeat in order to win the Wimbledon title.

By Adam Addicott
4 Min Read
Serena Williams (zimbio.com)

23-time grand slam champion Serena Williams will play her first match at the tournament in almost two years against Arantxa Rus.

The 36-year-old is seeded 25th in the draw despite her current rankings of 183rd in the world. Earlier this week, officials at The All-England Club decided to award Williams a seeding based on a special rule of the tournament. Set to play her first match against Rus on Monday, the American could face a stern test later in the tournament.

In the third round Williams could take on fifth seed Elina Svitoliva. The Ukrainian No.1 has already won three WTA titles this season. At Wimbledon she achieved her best run last year by reaching the fourth round. Svitolina has a 1-4 head-to-head record against Williams, but won their last meeting at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

“She’s a great champion. She has unbelievable experience, unbelievable game for the tennis. Very unique. It’s going to be very interesting to see her coming back. Hopefully I can play against her.” Svitolina said of Williams earlier this year.

Should Williams reach the second week of the tournament, she may have to take on Madison Keys followed by Caroline Wozniacki. Since making her debut at the tournament in 1998, Williams has failed to reach the fourth round only three times – 1998, 2005 and 2014.

Top seed Simona Halep will get her bid for a second consecutive major title underway against Kurumi Nara. The Romanian is one of only two top-15 players in her section. Meaning that she will take on nobody ranked higher than 30th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova during the first three rounds. Should could then take on either Johanna Konta or Elise Mertens in the last 16.

Defending champion Garbine Muguruza started her campaign against British player Naomi Broady. Drawn in the same half as Halep, she may have to get past a series of tricky players to reach the last eight. Anett Kontaveit is a possible third round rival followed potentially by either former Wimbledon girls champion Ash Barty or Daria Kasatkina.

In the bottom half of the draw, second seed Wozniacki starts against Varvara Lepchenko. The 27-year-old is bidding to reach the quarter-finals of the tournament for the first time on her 12th attempt. Standing in the way will be either Ekaterina Makarova or Petra Martic in the second round. Meanwhile, Agnieszka Radwanska and Coco Vandeweghe could be opponents later in the week.

Maria Sharapova, who will be playing in the tournament for the first time since 2015, may need to overcome both Jelena Ostapenko and Petra Kvitova if she wishes to reach the last eight.

The Wimbledon draw will get underway on Monday.

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