G’day mate! All Aussie affair confirmed as ninth seed Alex de Minaur draws James Duckworth in Wimbledon men’s singles opener

Wimbledon hopeful Alex de Minaur will play his first spherical match towards in-form Australian compatriot James Duckworth after the drama surrounding the draw on the All England Membership.

Ninth seed de Minaur was pitted towards surprising Frenchman Corentin Moutet in Friday's draw, which might now arrange a conflict with seven-time champion Novak Djokovic within the quarter-finals.

However lower than three hours after the draw was accomplished, Moutet withdrew from the championship with a wrist harm, giving Duckworth, who had exited within the last spherical of qualifying, a dream alternative to play alongside fellow Sydneysider de Minaur as a 'fortunate loser'.

However whereas world quantity 55 Moutet guarantees to be an unpredictable opponent, world quantity 78 Duckworth, who’s making a comeback on the age of 32 after an injury-hit profession, poses simply as a lot of a risk to de Minaur, having lately reached the quarter-finals on the grass courts of Stuttgart.

De Minaur had received his solely earlier encounter.

With one Australian assured of a spot in at the least the second spherical, de Minaur continues to be the favorite to face seventeenth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime within the third spherical, supplied the Canadian beats one other Australian comparable to Thanasi Kokkinakis within the first spherical.

‘The Demon’ may even have to barter a possible huge fourth-round assembly with Hubert Hurkacz forward of his conflict with Novak Djokovic.

Within the girls's singles, Australian wildcard Ajla Tomljanovic, who reached the Birmingham Basic last, will face former French Open winner Jelena Ostapenko in one other Wimbledon conflict, having met in a scrappy fourth spherical encounter at SW19 three years in the past.

In that match, which the Australian received in three units, the Latvian known as Tomljanovic the 'worst participant on the tour' after she was accused of faking an harm.

It ended with Ostapenko confronting Tomljanovic on the internet, telling her: 'Your behaviour is horrible. You don’t have any respect in any respect.'

However Tomljanovic was adamant on Friday there was not any unhealthy blood between the 2, regardless of assembly Ostapenko in Eastbourne in 2022 and in addition dropping to her at this 12 months’s Australian Open.

“I might say we’re calm. Look, for me, what occurred is prior to now,” Tomljanovic stated.

Australia's primary Daria Saville will face Peyton Stearns of the US, whereas Olivia Gadecki – who stated reaching the primary draw was a “dream come true” – will play American teenager Robin Montgomery in a qualifier.

With Duckworth's late inclusion, 11 Australians are within the males's singles draw, with qualifier Alex Bolt dealing with the hardest problem towards eighth seed Casper Ruud of Norway as reward for battling by a stellar qualifying week.

The 31-year-old South Australian was known as up in its place to play in Roehampton on Monday after one other participant left the sector simply 10 minutes earlier than he was as a consequence of tackle.

Bolt received all three of his matches, together with Thursday's last towards Switzerland's Leandro Riedi through which he got here again from two units and match level down, and can now face two-time French Open finalist Ruud.

Reigning males's champion Carlos Alcaraz will play his first match towards Estonian qualifier Mark Lazzali on Monday, with Australian Aleksandar Vukic additionally set to face him if he can get previous powerful opponent Austrian Sebastian Ofner.