ANDY MURRAY will face Tomas Machac in singles combat next week at Wimbledon – but the ladies draw was marred by confusion, delay and a tech blunder.
Muzza, 37, will tackle the Czech player on Tuesday evening in his 16th and final appearance at a tournament where he has twice been the champion.
GettyAndy Murray suffered an injury at Queen’s last week[/caption]
PAEmma Raducanu found form at Eastbourne[/caption]
That is provided the British tennis hero is fit and ready to go having had a cyst removed from his spine only last Saturday.
His swansong participation is all dependent on how he responds to the rehab and recovery having struggled to walk more than a week ago.
The Scotsman last placed Machac at the Miami Open in March but in the third set he damaged his ankle and missed the next few weeks.
Those watching online and also sitting in the media centre room were left with mouths aghast by the opening section to place the 32 women seeds in the 128-player field.
There were confused looks between referee Denise Parnell and computer technicians over the positioning of Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia and Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva, especially when the wrong profile photos were displayed on the screens.
One esteemed newspaper journalist even had to shout out to the officials where they had gone wrong with their name callings.
Concerned Wimbledon staff had to call out and pause the draw so it could be checked what had gone wrong.
There was no need for a redraw and after discussions at the end, they signed it off for approval.
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The 137th Wimbledon Championships will start on Monday July 1 and there are 19 Brits involved across the two draws – seven women and 12 men – which is the highest total since 1999.
This is the first time since 1996 that neither of the Williams sisters, Serena and Venus, have appeared in the tournament.
Emma Raducanu returns to Wimbledon after a two-year absence and the former US Open champion will open up against Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova, who is competing under a neutral flag due to the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Katie Boulter, the No.32 seed, plays German Tatjana Maria – a semi-finalist two years ago – while Harriet Dart is up against Bai Zhuoxuan from China.
Czech ace Marketa Vondrousova, the defending ladies’ singles champion, has been drawn in the same quarter as world No.1 Iga Swiatek, who has a terrible record on grass compared to her favoured surface of clay.
Poland superstar Swiatek, 23, will face either British wildcard Fran Jones or Croatian Petra Martic in the second round.
Qualifier Sonay Kartal (versus Romanian Sorana Cirstea) and wildcards Lily Miyazaki (versus German Tamara Korpatsch) and Heather Watson (versus Belgian Greet Minnen) complete the homegrown line-up on the ladies’ side.
On the men’s side, No.28 seed Jack Draper was drawn with Swede Elias Ymer and could play fellow Brit Cameron Norrie in the second round if the former British No.1 gets past Argentine Facundo Diaz Acosta.
Dan Evans is recovering from a serious knee injury that saw him pull out of Queen’s but if he is fit, he is up against Chilean Alejandro Tabilo.
In terms of the wildcards, it was a mixed bag – Liam Broady (versus Dutchman Botic Van de Zandschulp), Charles Broom (versus Swiss ace Stan Wawrinka), Jan Choinski (versus Italian Luciano Darderi), Jacob Fearnley (versus Spaniard Alejandro Moro Canas), Arthur Fery (versus German Daniel Altmaier), Billy Harris (versus Spaniard Jaume Munar), Paul Jubb (versus Brazilian Thiago Seyboth Wild) and Henry Searle (versus American Marcos Giron).