Jack Draper and Emma Raducanu handed tough tests - Key talking points from Wimbledon draw
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Updated 27/06/2025 at 11:52 GMT+1
Britain's Jack Draper and Emma Raducanu have discovered their opening opponents for Wimbledon 2025 after the draw was made at the All England Club. Draper will take on Argentina's world No. 38 Sebastian Baez in his first-round match at SW19, while Raducanu will face 17-year-old Brit Mingge Xu in her opening encounter.
Frustrated Draper suffers shock exit to Lehecka in Queen's semi-finals
Video credit: SNTV
The Wimbledon draw took place on Friday morning, throwing up any number of intriguing match-ups and storylines.
Emma Raducanu was paired with Welsh wildcard Mingge Xu in the first round, while Jack Draper was handed a tough draw starting against world No. 38 Sebastian Baez of Argentina.
From big battles for the Brits to tricky tests for superstars of the sport, here are some of the top talking points from the Wimbledon draw.
Tough Raducanu draw begins with all-British battle
Emma Raducanu’s bid for Wimbledon glory begins against a fellow Brit, albeit one who will likely be little-known to the home crowds.
The British No. 1 is up against 17-year-old qualifier Mingge Xu, who notched her first WTA-level win on her debut as a wild card at the Nottingham Open earlier this month against Katie Volynets.
Xu, who is from Swansea in Wales, reached the Wimbledon juniors doubles final last year, but this will be her first main draw appearance at a Grand Slam proper.
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Raducanu: Chasing Boulter is 'motivating' but not 'main fuel'
Video credit: TNT Sports
Should Raducanu progress, she will face a tough task against former champion Marketa Vondrousova or Nottingham champion McCartney Kessler.
Things would not get much easier beyond that, with world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka potentially lying in wait in the third round…
Draper given daunting route to final
Jack Draper might be wondering what he did to upset the tennis Gods. The Brit goes into Wimbledon this year with his highest-ever seeding of No. 4, but it did not help him carve an easier path through the tournament.
His first-round opponent is Argentina’s Sebastian Baez, one of the highest-ranked players available to him in the draw at world No. 38, and a seven-time ATP title winner.
Looking further ahead, Alexander Bublik is a treacherous obstacle lying in wait in the third round, with the No. 28 seed having just beaten Daniil Medvedev in the Halle final to claim his first grass-court title.
Jakub Mensik is a possible last 16 opponent, before what could be a quarter-final for the ages against the great Novak Djokovic.
With Jannik Sinner also sitting on Draper’s side of the draw as a potential semi-final opponent, the British hope is going to have to do things the hard way.
Djokovic to take on the home crowd
Draper is not the only Brit that Djokovic could find in his path as the Serbian bids for his 25th Grand Slam title at the All England Club.
The sixth seed opens against Alexandre Muller, but if he progresses, he is guaranteed to encounter one of the home favourites next.
Two British wildcards, Dan Evans and Jay Clarke, have been drawn against each other in the first round, and the reward for the winner could be a second-round crack at Djokovic.
The 38-year-old Serbian, who claimed his 100th ATP singles title in Geneva last month before reaching the Roland-Garros semi-finals, will then likely have to battle past Alexander Michelsen and Alex de Minaur before a potential clash with Draper.
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Boulter faces Badosa in blockbuster
Spain’s No. 9 seed Paula Badosa may have been cursing her luck when British home favourite and grass-court specialist Katie Boulter came out of the hat to set up a tasty first-round tie.
Boulter, the British No. 2, is currently ranked No. 41 in the world and has had an up-and-down season.
She claimed the Clarins Trophy WTA 125 title on clay in May, but suffered second-round exits at the Australian Open and French Open before surrendering her Nottingham title at the quarter-final stage on the back of a last 16 exit at Queen’s.
Boulter will be hoping to rediscover her best form on her favoured surface. Two of her three best Grand Slam runs were both at Wimbledon – to the third round in 2022 and 2023 – and two of her three career singles titles also came on grass, with back-to-back Nottingham titles in 2023 and 2024.
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Highlights: Boulter suffers defeat to ruthless Keys at Roland-Garros
Video credit: TNT Sports
The 28-year-old will undoubtedly receive vocal backing from the London crowd, but she will be the underdog against world No. 9 Badosa, who reached the Australian Open semi-finals at the start of the year.
Swiatek and Gauff on collision course
The ladies’ draw threw up some fascinating potential quarter-finals, but none more so than a possible meeting of Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek.
Gauff comes in fresh off claiming the French Open crown, and the pair boast seven major titles between them.
However, Wimbledon has not been a happy hunting ground for either in previous years, with Gauff failing to make it to the last eight and Swiatek never progressing beyond that point.
The other projected quarter-finals see Sabalenka face Madison Keys, Jasmine Paolini take on Qinwen Zheng, and Mirra Andreeva meet Jessica Pegula.
Reigning champion Barbora Krejcikova opens her title defence against breakout star Alexandra Eala, who famously defeated former Slam champions Jelena Ostapenko, Keys and Swiatek on her run to the Miami Open semi-finals earlier this year.
Alcaraz dodges stacked top half of draw
Draper’s side of the draw certainly features a more imposing-looking field of players than the bottom half.
World No. 1 Sinner, seven-time champion Djokovic, Britain’s world No. 4 Draper and Italian livewire Lorenzo Musetti were all placed in the same section – not to mention the in-form Bublik.
Carlos Alcaraz, meanwhile, starts his title defence against Italian veteran Fabio Fognini and has a comparatively calm-looking run ahead of him.
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- Why Wilander has no 'issue' with Sabalenka attitude after 'unprofessional' Gauff remarks
The Spaniard, who reclaimed his Queen’s crown in the build-up to SW19, has Felix Auger-Aliassime, Andrey Rublev and Holger Rune in his projected run before a semi-final against third seed Alexander Zverev. He will take it.
Big tasks for British teenage wildcards
Beyond Xu, there were two other British teenagers to be given wildcards for the ladies’ singles draw: Hannah Klugman and Mika Stojsavljevic.
The former is a junior French Open runner-up and the latter a junior US Open champion, but they were both handed tough draws against seeded players on home turf.
Klugman, 16, is up against Canada’s Leylah Fernandez, seeded 29th, with American Peyton Stearns or Germany’s Laura Siegemund lying in wait for the winner.
Fellow 16-year-old Stojsavljevic will face No. 31 seed Ashlyn Krueger of the United States, with Ajla Tomljanovic or Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova awaiting in the second round.
Another eye-catching British tie is Jacob Fearnley's meeting with rising star Joao Fonseca.
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