Wimbledon women’s singles: The must-watch first-round matches

The Wimbledon women’s singles draw was released on Friday morning ahead of Monday’s main draw tournament start. Like many years, the draw has some intriguing early-round matchups which should provide fans with quality tennis that typically would be seen in later rounds of the major.

The top 32 players in the tournament are seeded and won’t play each other until at least the third round. However, the players who are unseeded (33-128 spots) are randomly placed into the draw. Though it’s rare, there’s always the possibility of a first-round match between the World No. 1 and the World No. 33.

And who was the highest-ranked unseeded player at Roland-Garros a few weeks ago?

Barbora Krejcikova, the 2021 French Open champion, who is seeded 14th at the grass-court major. Needless to say, always be prepared for the unexpected.

Here are my must-watch matches of the women’s singles first round:

(1) Ash Barty (AUS) vs Carla Suarez Navarro (ESP)

Barty, the No. 1 player in the world, is the favorite to win the Wimbledon title. She’ll be looking to get further than her previous best result, a fourth round appearance in 2019, at the All England Tennis Club. I expect Barty to win this match on what’s her favorite surface. The thing that can’t be ignored are the storylines surrounding Suarez Navarro. The former World No. 6 was diagnosed with early-stage Hodgkin’s lymphoma back in September but is currently cancer-free and on the comeback trail. If you’re looking to get emotional from a match, this may be the one.

Alize Cornet (FRA) vs (5) Bianca Andreescu (CAN)

This match is located in the same quarter of the draw as the Barty, Suarez Navarro. That means we could potentially see a clash of top five seeds in the quarterfinals. There’s a lot of uncertainty surrounding Andreescu. Since her runner-up finish at the Miami Open back in April, she has a record of 3-3 and withdrew from a quarterfinals match in Strasbourg last month. NOTE: One of those losses was against Cornet last week on grass in Berlin (7-6, 7-5). With that being said, I am putting Andreescu on upset alert due to her recent inconsistent play and her susceptibility to injury.

Sloane Stephens (USA) vs (10) Petra Kvitova (CZE)

This one is pretty simple. You have two former major champions playing each other in the first round. Wimbledon is the major where Kvitova performs the best at. She is a two-time champion (2011, 2014) and has made a deep run in the Bad Homburg tune-up event this week. On the other hand, this is arguably Stephens’ worst major. She made it to the quarterfinals once in her career back in 2013 and has 3 first round exits. Expect a Kvitova victory but still view Stephens as a threat based on her past success.

(Q) Katie Swan (GBR) vs (23) Madison Keys (USA)

So you’re probably wondering why I find a matchup between 23rd seeded Madison Keys and World No. 290 Katie Swan, who qualified into the main draw, so intriguing. It’s because I think there’s a real possibility the British crowd plays a role in this match. Keys could very well use her serve and hard hitting groundstrokes to end points quickly and dominate the match. But, I do believe she could feel the pressure if Swan is able to go deep into a set. I still consider Swan to be a heavy underdog with a slight chance that Wimbledon magic occurs.

(7) Iga Swiatek (POL) vs Su-Wei Hsieh (TPE)

Who doesn’t love the creative and unorthodox shot-making of Su-Wei Hsieh? This match will be a good candidate for numerous fun and entertaining rallies. I do expect Swiatek to come out victorious because of her composure and unlikely willingness to let Hsieh control the points.