Top seed Carlos Alcaraz will begin his Wimbledon campaign against Jeremy Chardy and could meet fellow 20-year-old Holger Rune in a blockbuster quarter-final clash.

The Spaniard Alcaraz defeated Alex de Minaur to lift his first grass-court trophy at the Cinch Championships last week and could play the Australian again in the fourth round. Alexander Zverev is also in the top quarter and is seeded to me De Minaur in the third round.

Former finalist Matteo Berrettini is also in that section. The Italian starts against countryman Lorenzo Sonego.

Second seed Novak Djokovic will start his quest for a record-equalling eighth Wimbledon crown against Pedro Cachin and could face Andrey Rublev, Nick Kyrgios or Felix Auger-Aliassime in the quarter-finals.

Australian Kyrgios, who reached the title match last year, opens against wild card David Goffin, while Rublev plays Max Purcell.

In the top half, Stefanos Tsitsipas will renew his Lexus ATP Head2Head series against Dominic Thiem in a popcorn first-round match, with the winner facing two-time champion Andy Murray or British wild card Ryan Peniston. American Ben Shelton, who is making his debut, is seeded to meet Tsitsipas in the third round.

Daniil Medvedev opens against British wild card Arthur Fery, who studies at Stanford University. Medvedev has won five tour-level titles this season but has struggled to find his top level on the lawns in London, with his best result a run to the fourth round in 2021.

Stuttgart champion Frances Tiafoe is also in the top half and is seeded to meet Rune in the fourth round. The American, currently at a career-high No. 10 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, reached the last 16 in 2022.

British No. 1 Cameron Norrie achieved his best Grand Slam result at Wimbledon last year when he reached the semi-finals. The 12th seed starts against Czech qualifier Tomas Machac and might play Queen’s Club semi-finalist Sebastian Korda in the third round.

Italian Jannik Sinner led Djokovic by two sets to love in the quarter-finals last year before losing. The eighth seed opens against Juan Manuel Cerundolo and is seeded to meet Taylor Fritz in the fourth round.

Fourth seed Casper Ruud, who is in the same half as Djokovic, opens against French qualifier Laurent Lokoli. The Norwegian could play Sinner in the quarter-finals.

Top seeds Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek extended their winning streak to 13 consecutive matches Thursday after they advanced to the final at the Rothesay International.

Dodig and Krajicek, who triumphed at Roland Garros and last week at The Queen’s Club, ousted Australians Matthew Ebden and John-Patrick Smith 7-5, 4-6, 10-7 in the Eastbourne semi-finals. They will next meet fourth seeds Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic in Friday’s final after the Croatians cruised past second seeds Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury 6-2, 6-2.

Mektic and Pavic will be aiming for their third title of the season while Dodig and Krajicek look to extend their run by collecting a fifth trophy in 2023.

Top Seeds Fall In Mallorca
After booking a ticket into the Mallorca Championships singles semi-finals, Lloyd Harris returned to court with partner Yuki Bhambri to upset top seeds Santiago Gonzalez and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-4, 7-6(2) and reach the ATP 250 doubles final. Bhambri and Harris fended off 10 of 12 break points faced to advance.

In quarter-final action, Robin Haase and Philipp Oswald downed Argentines Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni 7-5, 6-4 after one hour, 29 minutes. The Dutch-Austrian team will next face Americans Nathaniel Lammons and Jackson Withrow for a spot in the championship match.

After qualifying at Roland Garros and picking up a win in his major main-draw debut, Italy’s Matteo Arnaldi has once again come through the qualifying draw at Wimbledon. On Thursday, the 22-year-old secured his first appearance at the All England Lawn Tennis Club with a 7-5, 6-4, 6-4 victory against Frederico Ferreira Silva.

As the top seed in qualifying, Arnaldi lost the opening set of his campaign against Shang Juncheng, but then won seven sets in a row. 

The Italian competed in the Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan last season and finished 2022 at No. 134 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. He since reached a career-high of World No. 72 after winning his fourth ATP Challenger Tour title earlier this month in Heilbronn, Germany.

Three other Top 10 qualifying seeds also booked their places in the main draw with Thursday wins. Fifth seed Radu Albot was a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-6(6) winner against Felipe Meligeni Alves, sixth seed Tomas Machac advanced past Lucas Pouille via a second-set retirement, and 10th seed Dominic Stricker beat Mattia Bellucci 6-3, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4. Stricker also competed at the Next Gen ATP Finals in 2022, reaching the semi-finals.

No other seeded players were among the 16 to advance to the Wimbledon main draw.

Four five-setters were contested on Thursday, with Wimbledon switching to the familiar best-of-five format for the final round of qualifying. A seeded player was upset in all four such matches.

Third seed Fabian Marozsan, who made headlines with an upset of Carlos Alcaraz in Rome last month, was beaten by Maximilian Marterer, with the German claiming a 7-5, 6-4, 6-7(5), 5-7, 7-5 result. Belgium’s Kimmer Coppejans upset fourth seed Taro Daniel 6-3, 4-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2; France’s Laurent Lokoli outlasted 13th seed Michael Mmoh 2-6, 7-6(2), 6-3, 2-6, 6-2; and Chile’s Tomas Barrios Vera downed 21st seed Thiago Seyboth Wild 6-4, 6-7(3), 2-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Sho Shimabukuro, Oscar Otte, Dennis Novak, Gijs Brouwer, Enzo Couacaud, Hamad Medjedovic, Harold Mayot and Shintaro Mochizuki also qualified for the main draw with Thursday wins.

The advancing players will find out their opening main-draw opponents during Friday’s draw, which is set for 10 a.m. local time.

How do you post consistent results on a surface that is anything but?

Nick Kyrgios believes a sense of on-court freedom is key to mastering the grass-court game. The 28-year-old Australian, who racked up a Tour-leading 12 wins on the surface in 2022, is renowned for enrapturing fans with his unpredictable, imaginative strokeplay.

“I think just the ability to take one hand off the racquet [is vital on grass],” Kyrgios told ATPTour.com last week. “Volleys, slicing, blocking returns, all the intangibles. You get so many bad bounces on grass, and [you have to be] able to slice and drop shot and bring so many different aspects to the game.”

Kyrgios’ homeland has a deep-rooted culture of grass-court tennis. The Australian Open was held on the surface until 1987, and the country’s ATP Tour stars continue to live up to that history. This year has been no exception, with Jordan Thompson (‘s-Hertogenbosch) and Alex de Minaur (at the Queen’s Club) both reaching ATP Tour finals across the opening two weeks of the grass-court season.

“I think you look at some of the best grass-court players in the world, someone like Roger [Federer] was so good because he was able to adapt and hit so many different shots,” said Kyrgios. “I think Aussie’s don’t mind getting a bit dirty and trying to find different ways to win. So that’s why you see so many of us having some good results on [grass].

“Pretty much as soon as we played tennis there were national tournaments in Australia on grass. Under 10s, 12s, 14s. So we all grew up on and we were all very comfortable on it. There’s no surprise when I see other Aussies having good results on it. We all feel really comfy on it.”

Kyrgios announced himself on the world stage as a 19-year-old in 2014 when he downed then-World No. 1 Rafael Nadal en route to the Wimbledon quarter-finals. Eight years later, the Australian charged to his maiden major final at SW19, where he was unable to prevent Novak Djokovic from winning his fourth consecutive title. Despite falling just short of a dream major trophy, Kyrgios holds fond memories of his exploits in London a year ago.

“It was amazing. The fact that it’s only been a year. It’s been crazy,” he said. “Everything off the court and all the attention obviously… It is a tournament where I think every tennis player wants to do well. People that don’t play tennis know about Wimbledon.

“I think it’s the fact that you’ve done all the work over your life to actually post the result of that tournament, that’s going to be remembered for the rest of your life. It’s a pretty special feeling. I think every tennis player, at the end of day, works so hard to have one of those results at a Grand Slam.

“I was one short but I’m not sad about saying I lost to the greatest player of all time and gave him a real match. It’s going to be good walking there for the first time [this year] and there’s going be a lot of media attention around it as well. So let’s see how it goes.”

After missing the first five months of the 2023 season following knee surgery, Kyrgios made his comeback to the ATP Tour in Stuttgart earlier this month. Ongoing issues with his left knee mean his defeat to Wu Yibing in Germany will be his only competitive match before Wimbledon. Far-from-ideal preparation, but Kyrgios is not concerned about any raised expectations on him this time around.

“I think if anything it’s going to help me, the fact that I’ve already posted such a good result there and I know that Centre Court so well,” said Kyrgios, who holds a 20-8 record at the grass-court major. “I know what I need to do to be successful. I think all the pressure is off me, to be honest.

“I think that people always say once you have results, that’s when the pressure starts kicking in. But for me, it’s been the reverse my whole career. When I’ve won tournaments or when I’ve done really well, it’s almost the opposite. It’s almost like you’ve proven yourself and now you can actually just relax and have some fun with it.

“I don’t think I’ve got anything left to prove in my career to be honest. I’ve beaten some amazing players, won some really big tournaments, [made the] final of a Grand Slam, won a doubles Grand Slam. I feel like now, this is why you work. So you can actually have fun and just enjoy it.”

Kyrgios is bidding to follow his countrymen Rod Laver, John Newcombe, Pat Cash and Lleyton Hewitt in lifting the men’s singles trophy on Centre Court during the Open Era (since 1968). Regardless of how far he goes this year, the seven-time ATP Tour titlist will relish being back on one of the most historic sites in tennis at the All England Club.

“I think it’s just Wimbledon in general,” said Kyrgios, when asked about what made him so passionate about the grass-court major. “Just the accommodation, in terms of staying right next to the courts, to just stepping foot on that site. You just feel like that’s tennis.

“Every other tournament is tennis, obviously, but there’s something about Wimbledon that just breathes it. There’s so much culture there and that’s where it kind of began. So, I think I’m really happy that my best result ever at a singles Grand Slam was at Wimbledon. I think that’s just an incredible thing to [be able to] say.”