British No 1 Johanna Konta to play Natalia Vikhlyantseva
Saturday 30 June 2018 13:26, UK
Serena Williams' bid for an eighth Wimbledon singles title will begin against Arantxa Rus, while British No 1 Johanna Konta will face world no 106 Natalia Vikhlyantseva.
Williams, champion on her last two appearances in SW19, is playing her second Grand Slam since returning from the birth of her first child and has been seeded 25th despite dropping to 183 in the world rankings.
She has been handed a first career meeting with the Dutch world No 107 as she targets a 24th major singles title having given birth to daughter Alexis Olympia in September.
The 36-year-old won the 2017 Australian Open while pregnant and made her return to Grand Slam action at the recent French Open and, should she come through her first-round match, will face Tereza Smitkova or Viktoriya Tomova.
World No 5 Elina Svitolina is the first seed Williams could face in a projected third-round blockbuster, while a quarter-final with Madison Keys is also a possibility and her seeded quarter-final opponent is world No 2 Caroline Wozniacki.
Konta, who reached the semi-final last year at the All England Club, plays Russia's Vikhlyantseva for the first time, with Simona Halep a potential fourth-round opponent in what would be a repeat of their breathtaking quarter-final last year.
Defending champion Garbine Muguruza is also in Konta's half and the Spaniard will face Britain's Naomi Broady in her opener while top seed Halep, who ended her search for a Grand Slam title at the French Open, will face Kurumi Nara in SW19.
Denmark's world No 2 Wozniacki, who also broke her Grand Slam duck this year winning the Australian Open, will face Varvara Lepchenko while five-time champion and last year's runner-up Venus Williams meets Johanna Larsson.
As for the rest of the British women, Harriet Dart has been handed the toughest task, facing Karolina Pliskova in the first round while British No 2 Heather Watson will meet Kirsten Flipkens.
Katy Dunne will play 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko while Katie Swan meets Irina Camelia Begu and Katie Boulter's first-round opponent is Veronica Cepede Royg.
2004 Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova faces fellow Russian Vitalia Diatchenko as she targets a first Grand Slam title since 2014 and two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova meets Aliaksandra Sasnovich as she looks to continue her remarkable year having already won five titles in 2018.
We will keep you up to date with all the news ahead of Wimbledon including our live blogs once the action gets underway on July 2.
Our next tennis action comes from the German Open in Hamburg. Watch the action live on Sky Sports Arena from Monday, July 23 from 10am.
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