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

The Wimbledon men’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 would typically be seen in later rounds of the tournament.

The top 32 players in the tournament are seeded and won’t play each other until 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.

In fact, it has recently happened before at Wimbledon. In the 2015 first round, top seeded Novak Djokovic played the highest-ranked unseeded player in Phillip Kohlschreiber. Djokovic prevailed and ended up winning the match 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.

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

Sebastian Korda (USA) vs (15) Alex de Minaur (AUS)

Alex de Minaur, 22, comes to Wimbledon after winning the Eastbourne tune-up event this past week. Korda, 20, played in his first-ever grass court event this season at the Halle Open and recently just broke into the Top 50 of the ATP Rankings. Both players will have a bright future on tour. I expect a battle in this match and will give the slight edge to de Minaur due to Korda’s inexperience on grass.

(W) Andy Murray (GBR) vs (24) Nikoloz Basilashvili (GEO)

Former World No. 1 Andy Murray hasn’t been able to consistently stay on-court since the end of 2017 as he has dealt with hip injuries and a positive COVID test. In fact, this will be his first Wimbledon since 2017, when he lost in the quarterfinals to Sam Querrey. The favoritism will most certainly go towards Murray in this match but it’s important to never rule out a player who is seeded 24th in the draw. Basilashvili’s best result at Wimbledon came when he was a qualifier back in 2015, making it to the third round. His lack of career success on grass makes this a very winnable match for Murray. Hopefully, this tournament can serve as a kickstart for a Murray resurgence on tour.

Nick Kyrgios (AUS) vs (21) Ugo Humbert (FRA)

Kyrgios is one of tennis’ greatest oddities and someone who has, for some reason, been unable to break into the world’s top 10. If Kyrgios maximizes his talent, this match is an easy win. But we don’t know what Kyrgios will show up on the court on Tuesday. Humbert is a very solid player who just won a title at Halle just over a week ago and figures to be a very tough opponent. The last tournament Kyrgios played was at the Australian Open back in February. Who did he beat in the 2nd round of that major? Ugo Humbert in 5 sets. So, expect a great match with fireworks and high emotion throughout.

Sam Querrey (USA) vs (11) Pablo Carreno Busta (ESP)

Put Carreno Busta on upset alert immediately. He has played in five Wimbledon tournaments and has never made it out of the first round. On the other hand, this is Sam Querrey’s best major. The current World No. 54 made it all the way to the semifinals in 2017 and has also made two quarterfinal appearances in 2016 and 2019.

Jan-Lennard Struff (GER) vs (2) Daniil Medvedev (RUS)

This matchup is an interesting one. First of all, Struff earned his first career win against Medvedev in the Halle Open Round of 32 two weeks ago (7-6, 6-3). Secondly, Medvedev just won a title in Mallorca ahead of Wimbledon. And finally, the best result at Wimbledon, from both players, is a third round appearance. I would like to think Medvedev gets a win in the best-of-five set format but don’t expect Struff to go down easy.