Today marks the start of the 137th edition of the British Open and the 56th edition of the Open Era.
Wimbledon is traditionally the third Grand Slam tournament of the year and is highly anticipated, as it will be a dress rehearsal for the players ahead of the Olympic tournament in Paris between July 27 and August 4. The All England Club ends on July 14, and the reigning women's and men's champions are Marketa Vondroushova and Carlos Alcaraz, respectively.
Alcaraz, who recently claimed a maiden Roland Garros title and a third career Slam overall, reached the trophy on the hallowed turf in London last year after an epic five-set final with Novak Djokovic. The 21-year-old Spaniard begins his crown defense with a match against Estonian qualifier Mark Lyall, who was born a week after Alcaraz. Carlos, who is third in the main draw of the tournament, can meet the American Francis Tiafoe in the third round.
The Spanish super-talent is in the half of No. 1 seed Yannick Siner. The champion from Halle, where he handled Poland's Hubert Hurkach in two tiebreaks, opens his campaign against Germany's Yannick Hanfmann. If the Italian, who triumphed at the Australian Open and reached the semifinals at Roland Garros this year, reaches the second round, he will face a treacherous challenge - one between former finalist Matteo Berretini or Hungary's Marton Fucovic.
World No. 2 Novak Djokovic has been included in the race, although there were doubts whether he would participate. Earlier last week, the seven-time All England Club champion announced that he would only play if he could fight at 100% for the title, and on Friday confirmed after an exhibition match against Daniil Medvedev that he was pain-free after surgery on a torn medial meniscus on the right knee. The injury prevented him from facing Casper Ruud in the quarter-finals of the French Open a month ago. However, the Joker is ready for action and is aiming for an eighth title, having reached the final in the last five editions of Wimbledon. Nole started against Czech qualifier Vit Kopriva. The Serbian has also been declared to participate in the Olympics in Paris, where he will chase the first gold in his career.
Roland Garros finalist Alexander Zverev (4) opens with a match against Roberto Carbayes Baena of Spain. Daniil Medvedev, the fifth in the scheme, has Alexander Kovacevich (USA) as his opponent at the start, and his compatriot Andrey Rublev (6) plays with the 23-year-old Argentine Francisco Comezana. Two-time champion Andy Murray, who, like Djokovic, has been a doubt due to spinal surgery, has a nasty opponent for what is likely to be his last appearance in front of his home crowd, facing Tomasz Makhach. The Czech beat him twice this year in Marseille and Miami. Curious first round men's clashes include Nicolas Jarry v Denis Shapovalov, Gael Monfils v Adrian Mannarino, Matteo Arnaldi v Francis Tiafoe, Sebastian Korda v Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Félix Auger-Aliasime v Thanasi Kokkinakis and the all-Australian duel between James Duckworth and the champion of Hertogenbosch Alex de Minor.
Grigor Dimitrov is our only male representative this year. Our first racket will play for the 14th time at Wimbledon, his first appearance dating back to 2009, when he lost in the first round as a qualifier. His best ranking came in 2014 when he lost to Novak Djokovic in the semi-final stage of the tournament after a strong performance. Last year, Grigor was eliminated in the round of 16. He is now seeded tenth and will begin his campaign against world number 56 Dusan Lajovic of Serbia. The two take the court today at 1:00 p.m. Bulgarian time in the first match on Court 2, and if successful over Lajovic, Dimitrov will face the winner of the match between the qualifier Christian Garin from Chile and the Chinese Junchen Shan in the next phase. In the third round, the Bulgarian can play Stan Wawrinka or Monfils.
In the women's event, where for the first time since 1996 the women's tournament will be without sisters Venus and Serena Williams, champion Vondrousova begins her title defense against Spain's Jessica Buzas Maneiro. The trophy holder is seeded sixth after triumphing as unseeded last year. In the third round, she could face Barbora Krejcikova in an all-Czech clash.
World No. 1 Iga Swiatek starts with a match against former Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin. The Pole, who was jubilant at Roland Garros last month, could play 2018 trophy winner Angelique Kerber of Germany in the third round. American Coco Goff is second in the draw and starts against her compatriot Caroline Doleheid. Aryna Sabalenka from Belarus is ranked number 3 and opens against another representative of the United States - Emina Bektash. Fourth seed Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, champion from 2022, plays at the start with Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania. Two-time finalist Ons Jabert from Tunisia (10) has Japan's Moyuka Uchijima as her opponent in the first round. Among the interesting matches at the start are Yulia Putintseva - Angelique Kerber, Caroline Garcia - Anna Blinkova, Ayla Tomljanovic - Jelena Ostapenko, Ekaterina Alexandrova - Emma Radukanu, Paula Badosa - Karolina Mukhova and Victoria Azarenka - Sloane Stevens.
Bulgaria will also have its representative among women. After Gergana Topalova remained successful from the main draw, our only tennis player in this year's edition is Viktoria Tomova. Our first racket has been in great form of late and although she crashed out in the semi-finals in Bad Homburg, Germany, as of today she will record a new world ranking of number 48. It is these strong performances from Vicky that give her hopes of another second round at tournament – something that the Bulgarian achieves in all three of her appearances in the main circuit, including in the last two years. Tomova opens with a match against world number 40 Xinyu Wan of China on Tuesday. If she manages to overcome it, our best tennis player will surely play an American - Ashlyn Kruger or the fifth seeded Jessica Pegula, who won the title on grass in Berlin.
The total prize fund of the British Open tennis championship is exactly 50 million pounds, which is an increase of almost 12% compared to last year's edition. The men's and women's singles winners will walk away with checks for £2,700,000 each and the losers will walk away with £1,400,000. £60,000 each goes to all players who make it through the qualifiers. | BGNES
