An opening with a strong French accent. On the occasion of the first day of Wimbledon, which starts this Monday in southwest London, 11 Blues will be present on the courts.
In the men’s draw, eight of the fourteen representatives entered will be on deck, including two French-French clashes: from the qualifiers, Hugo Gaston will challenge Alexandre Muller on court 6, while Gaël Monfils, author of a good run in Majorca, will meet Adrian Mannarino, triple eighth-finalist at SW19. The two men, who have already crossed paths twice in the British tournament (one victory each), will face each other in the second rotation after 12 hours on court 18.
French number one Ugo Humbert, disappointing at Roland-Garros, will have his work cut out for him from the start against Alexander Shevchenko. Rather comfortable on grass, Messin remains a failure in the first round last season, but has already reached the round of 16 at Wimbledon in 2019. As a curtain-raiser to the clash scheduled from 6 p.m. at the Euro football, a first Franco-Belgian match will liven up the day on the English courts: Arthur Cazaux (98th), will try to escape the clutches of the qualified Zizou Bergs.
A great opportunity for Diane Parry
Finally, Maxime Janvier, who surprised with his atypical celebrations during the qualifications, will face the Chinese Zhizhen Zhang. Drafted, Luca Van Assche (20 years old) will launch the blue day at 12 noon with a generational clash against Fabio Fognini (37 years old) on court 16.
In the women’s competition, Diane Parry will be in the spotlight. The right-handed player with a one-handed backhand has inherited the comeback of Naomi Osaka, who is not to her advantage on grass. Having received an invitation, the player who pushed Iga Swiatek to the end of a thrilling third set at Porte d’Auteuil has never made it past the third round at Wimbledon, a tournament she has not played in five years. An opportunity to seize for the Frenchwoman, therefore, who will have the honours of Court 2, in the third rotation from 12pm.
Two other tricolors will be on the program: the revelation of Roland-Garros, Varvara Gracheva, will face the Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko at 12 p.m. on court 5. Clara Burel, for her part, will challenge the qualifier Eva Lys.
