Welsh wildcard Mimi Xu has warned Emma Raducanu she is ready to cause a huge Wimbledon shock on her Grand Slam debut. The teenager will take on the former US Open champion in a first-round Battle of Britain.
Xu, 17, is ranked world No.302 but has already beaten two top-100 players on the grass this season. And she said: “I feel like I’m really ready for it. I’m really excited for it. Recently I’ve been playing really well. I was probably the first one on the grass this year. So I think my game really suits grass. I think I’m quite an aggressive tennis player. I’m really confident in my game at the moment. So I’m going to, go out there, enjoy every moment and give it a good go. And I believe, I’ve got a good chance if I do all that.”
Raducanu made her Grand Slam debut at Wimbledon in 2021 just after finishing her A levels. Xu has just done her Biology A level, has Raducanu’s former coach Nigel Sears as part of her team and has Chinese parents. “Emma speaks mostly to my mum in Chinese,” she said. “They speak a lot of Chinese.”
Raducanu on Friday lost a practice set to former champion Elena Rybakina on Court 1 as she tested out her back injury. Both British No.1s were given stiff draws. If Raducanu gets past Xu, she is likely to play former champion Marketa Vondrousova in the second round and then world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka is her scheduled third-round foe. Five of the 10 British women face seeds in the opening round.
In the men’s draw, Jack Draper is on a Wimbledon quarter-final collision course with seven-time champion Novak Djokovic. But Draper’s French Open conqueror Alexander Bublik lies in wait for the British No.1 in the third round.
Draper will start his campaign against Argentine world No.38 Sebastian Baez. He would then play the winner of the opening tie between former US Open winner Marin Cilic and Belgium’s Raphael Collignon before facing Halle winner and No.28 seed Bublik.
Dan Evans will face Jay Clark in another all-British tie with the winner set to play seven-time Centre Court king Djokovic in the second round.