Gigi Salmon column: Jack Draper and Katie Boulter hopes, Jelena Ostapenko vs Ajla Tomljanovic and happy campers

In her latest Sky Sports column, Gigi Salmon looks ahead to Wimbledon where Carlos Alcaraz and Marketa Vondrousova return as reigning champions while Katie Boulter, Andy Murray, Jack Draper and Emma Raducanu feature as part of the British charge…

Apologies in advance to any child leaving the twins’ birthday party whose party bag doesn’t stack up exactly to his friends – I was putting them together while listening to the Wimbledon singles draw and with 19 Brits involved, together with a lot of other notable storylines to come out of it, 100 per cent of my focus and attention wasn’t where it should have been!

Before I break it down in greater detail, here are some headlines for you: 19 Brits in the main draw, six in on ranking, with two seeded, one through qualifying and 12 awarded wildcards. Emma Raducanu will face 22nd seed Ekaterina Alexandrova, one of only three Brits to get a seeded player, while Andy Murray would face Tomas Machac, who he faced in Miami when he tore ankle ligaments.

Seven-time Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic, who was also a doubt after undergoing minor knee surgery, has drawn Czech qualifier Vit Kopriva and is in the opposite side of the draw to Carlos Alcaraz, which means we could have a repeat of last year’s Wimbledon final. With that said, it also means we cannot have a Jannik Sinner vs Carlos Alcaraz final.

World No 1 Iga Swiatek, who hasn’t played on grass yet this season after withdrawing from Berlin saying that she needed to ‘rest and recover after an intense nine weeks’ that saw her win at Madrid, Rome and Roland Garros, was able to unwind while watching Taylor Swift and will now square up to former Australian Open Champion Sofia Kenin, who she faced in the first round in Melbourne at the start of the year.

British No 1 Katie Boulter is seeded for the first time at Wimbledon after sneaking in at 32 and being rewarded for a great year that has seen her win a 500 level title in San Diego, successfully defend her Nottingham title on grass and pick up her first tour level win on clay.

She faces former Wimbledon semi-finalist Tatjana Maria, who possesses a crafty slice of both wings. When it comes to playing a power player like Boulter, Maria’s coach and husband Charles-Edouard Maria believes she will not change anything “because if she keeps the ball low, it is not easy for the other girl to hit the ball so hard and she also has a plan B and C is needed.” So, Boulter will need to be at her aggressive best.

Fellow British No 1 Jack Draper, seeded at a Grand Slam for the first time after coming in at 28, will face Swedish qualifier Elias Ymer, with the chance of facing Cam Norrie, the man he replaced at British No 1, in round two. Draper is having a breakthrough year, reaching two finals including winning his first title on the grass in Stuttgart.

Then it was off to Queen’s where he beat defending champion and Roland Garros winner Carlos Alcaraz with his leftie game at its explosive best. And not forgetting the Vogue shoot that he recently did, where he said that he quite likes being in front of the camera. With that comes attention, plenty of which he will be getting at Wimbledon.

Andy Murray has said, and rightly so, that “I’ve earned the right to do that,” when it comes to leaving it as late as possible to make a decision as to whether or not he will play in the singles competition as he recovers from an operation to remove a cyst from his back. He went on to say ahead of his final Wimbledon that “it’s probably more likely that I am not able to play singles right now.”

Andy and brother Jamie, as expected, were awarded a wildcard into the men’s doubles and with a Tuesday start for singles the extra time might just allow Murray to get himself to a place where he feels he can compete, with Machac his first-round opponent.

Emma Raducanu comes in on a wildcard but is up to 135 in the live rankings and will take a number of positives into Wimbledon with a semi-final run in Nottingham, followed up by a quarter-final run in Eastbourne which saw her pick up her first top-10 win after beating Jessica Pegula.

Raducanu will face 22nd seed Ekaterina Alexandrova in a tough but winnable match, with Alexandrova having reached the semi-finals on the grass in Hertogenbosch. Get through that match and it’s not a bad section of the draw to be in, with Maria Sakkari the highest seed.

There will be plenty of Brits to keep an eye on over the first couple of days, at least, with Paul Jubb and Billy Harris arriving off the back of reaching their first tour level semi-finals in Mallorca and Eastbourne, respectively.

As is tradition at Wimbledon, the men’s champion will open up proceedings on Centre Court on the first Monday as Carlos Alcaraz faces Estonian qualifier Mark Lajal, while the honour of opening things up on Tuesday falls to defending women’s champion Marketa Vondrousova as she takes on Jessica Bouzas Maneiro of Spain. Vondrousova suffered an injury scare in Berlin when she slipped on the grass and ultimately had to retire from her match.

So, if you’re a fan of forward planning then it will be the ATP top half and WTA bottom half on Monday, with the WTA top half and ATP bottom half on Tuesday.

When it comes to securing tickets the queue begins on Sunday at 2pm and if you like tennis and camping then your reward could be getting your hands on one of 500 tickets released each day for Centre (excluding the last four days), No 1 and No 2 courts, together with Grounds Pass Tickets. Only two person tents are permitted, gazebos are not allowed – just in case you were thinking of taking yours along – and if you are going to camp then the stewards will be waking you up at 6am to form an orderly queue!

Now for my first round match not to miss. There are so many that the draw has thrown up, but just for the added spice it brings with it and looking away from the main show courts, I will say Jelena Ostapenko vs Ajla Tomljanovic. The pair met back in the third round in 2021, a match in which the Australian accused Ostapenko of faking an injury when she was 4-0 down in the deciding set.

Tomljanovic was heard saying: “You know she’s lying right, everyone knows she’s lying,” to which the Latvian replied that Tomljanovic had ‘zero respect’ and was the ‘worst player on tour.’ It’s a match I will be keeping an eye on.

And when it comes to predictions, I might just swerve this one as I’m so bad at it. I was having a chat with Laura Robson recently and she said why is it that if everyone goes for the player who is the favourite, we feel we have to go for someone else! Let’s just pick the favourite, something I rarely seem to do. This year, though, there isn’t an overwhelming favourite in either draw with perhaps a smaller field to choose from in the men’s, so I will leave the predictions up to you!

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