Federer to open Wimbledon defence against Lajovic

Roger Federer will begin his campaign for a record ninth Wimbledon title against Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic on Monday.

The world No.2, given the top seeding by the All England Club, will open play on Centre Court in a repeat of his second-round contest last year.

Federer came through that one in straight sets and will be expected to do so again, with Lajovic ranked No.103 in the world.

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Borna Coric is a potential fourth-round opponent – the Croat having beaten Federer to win the Halle title on grass only last week – while big-serving eighth seed Kevin Anderson and 11th seed Sam Querrey are in the same quarter.

The biggest obstacle in Federer’s path to the final could well be third seed Marin Cilic, last year’s runner-up who has already won the Queen’s Club title in this year’s grass-court campaign.

Stan Wawrinka and Grigor Dimitrov have been drawn to face each other in the first round of The Championships 2018#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/NUkm3Q5Yfy

— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) June 29, 2018

Possibly the pick of the first-round matches pits three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka, unseeded after injury problems, up against sixth seed and ATP Finals champion Grigor Dimitrov.

The bottom half of the draw sees Spanish second seed, and world No.1, Rafael Nadal take on Israel’s Dude Sela in round one.

In the same quarter, Argentine fifth seed Juan Martin del Potro plays Germany’s Peter Gojowczyk, while Britain’s two-time champion Andy Murray continues his return from injury against Frenchman Benoit Paire.

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Three-time champion Novak Djokovic is another working his way back to form and fitness, and he begins against American Tennys Sandgren.

German fourth seed Alexander Zverev plays Australian James Duckworth, and Austrian seventh seed Dominic Thiem takes on Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis.

Projected quarterfinals:

Roger Federer (1) v Kevin Anderson (8)

Marin Cilic (3) v Grigor Dimitrov (6)

Dominic Thiem (7) v Alexander Zverev (4)

Juan Martin del Potro (5) v Rafael Nadal (2)