Djokovic Opens Wimbledon Against China's Wu Tonight

They mowed the All England Club grass again this morning, the whites are blinding, and the queues outside the gates snake around the whole district. Wimbledon has opened its doors, and the draw looks almost rigged to put every Serbian player on court on day one. They are all out there. And the biggest name among them is waiting for the dark.

Novak Djokovic begins his campaign in the evening, in that slot when the London light fades and Centre Court takes on its peculiar hush before the serve. Across the net stands Yibing Wu, a Chinese player currently ranked 99th in the world, a man whose grass-court resume is nowhere near that of the figure on the other side. On paper, the gap is enormous. On grass, where the ball stays low and a match can swing on two or three points, no serious player walks in relaxed.

Why is this draw so loaded?

Because this time Djokovic is the seventh seed, and in Grand Slam terms that means one thing: the road to the trophy runs through dangerous courts far earlier than he would like. The seven-time Wimbledon champion does not start from the position of outright favourite he held in years past, and that changes the whole calculation. By the draw, he could only meet defending champion Jannik Sinner in the semi-finals, since both have landed in the same half. In other words, anyone dreaming of that clash has to wait. Both men must first survive the early rounds, and tennis knows how treacherous those can be.

Sinner opens against Miomir Kecmanovic, which puts a Serbian face on the big stage straight away. Kecmanovic has nothing to lose, playing the top favourite and the man defending the trophy, so every game he takes is pure profit. Matches like that can be awkward for the favourite, because the chaser carries no weight while the defender hauls a full pack of expectation.

The finest story of day one, though, belongs to a new name. Teodora Kostovic, at eighteen, makes her Grand Slam debut, and not against just anyone but against world number one Aryna Sabalenka. The draw is merciless, but an experience like this is never forgotten. A young Serb steps onto the biggest grass stage on the planet against the toughest opponent she could have drawn, and that scene alone is worth more than whatever the scoreboard reads tonight.

What does day one hold?

A full Serbian schedule. Hamad Medjedovic plays Austria’s Sebastian Ofner in round one, a match where the favourite is hard to call and where everything may turn on serve. Alongside Djokovic, Kecmanovic and Kostovic, that makes four Serbian names on the opening day of a tournament, something that does not happen often and that gives this day a special tone.

All eyes still settle on the evening slot and on the man who knows every inch of this grass. Djokovic is hunting an eighth title at the place where he has already written half his legend, and a goal like that is not hidden. Seventh seed or not, he rarely looks like a man in trouble on Centre Court. Wu will have to play the match of his life just to unsettle him, and on grass Novak does not forgive those who enter afraid.

I believe Djokovic gets through tonight without major trouble, but Wimbledon has a way of surprising precisely when everyone is looking the other way. Do you think this draw, with Sinner in the same half, really stands in Novak’s path to an eighth title, or is grass still his court without equal?