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Women’s Tennis Serena handed easy Wimbledon schedule

SERENA WILLIAMS avoided any early match-ups against opponents with success to speak of at Wimbledon in a draw today that could put her against No 5 seed Elina Svitolina in the third round.

Williams is returning to the grass-court tournament for the first time since 2016 after missing it last year while pregnant. She gave birth to a daughter in September.

She is ranked outside the top 150 but the All England Club decided to seed her 25th based on past success, which includes collecting seven of her 23 grand slam singles trophies at Wimbledon. Williams’s first-round opponent when play begins on Monday will be 107th-ranked Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands, who has one career tour title.

Williams is competing for the first time since she pulled out of the French Open ahead of a fourth-round showdown against five-time major champion Maria Sharapova in early June, citing an injured chest muscle. That was Williams’s return to grand slam action after a 16-month absence.

Rus has only once been as far as Wimbledon’s third round, back in 2012. That was the last time she won a match at the All England Club. She was beaten in the first round of qualifying a year ago, as were both of the women Williams could meet in the second round, 136th-ranked qualifier Viktoriya Tomova of Bulgaria and 167th-ranked wild card recipient Tereza Smitkova of the Czech Republic.

Svitolina has only once been as far as the fourth round.

Williams’s possible fourth-round opponent, 2017 US Open runner-up Madison Keys, made one quarter-final appearance, while the 36-year-old potential quarter-final foe, reigning Australian Open champion Caroline Wozniacki, has never been beyond the fourth round.

Williams could face her older sister, five-time champion and 2017 runner-up Venus, in the semi-finals. The ninth-seeded Venus opens against 62nd-ranked Johanna Larsson of Sweden, who is 0-7 at Wimbledon.

The Williams sisters are not in the doubles draw. They have won 14 grand slam titles as a pair, including six at Wimbledon.

In the top half of the women’s singles bracket, the quarter-finals could be French Open champion Simona Halep v two-time Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova, and defending champ Garbine Muguruza v No 6 Caroline Garcia. In the bottom half, No 2 Wozniacki was drawn to face Svitolina, while 2017 US Open champion Sloane Stephens could play No 7 Karolina Pliskova.

The potential men’s quarter-finals, in the top half are eight-time champion Roger Federer v 2017 US Open runner-up Kevin Anderson, and 2014 US Open champion Marin Cilic vs. No 6 seed Grigor Dimitrov. 

In the bottom half of the bracket, it could be two-time Wimbledon winner Rafael Nadal v 2009 US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro, and No 4 Alexander Zverev v No 7 Dominic Thiem.

Two-time champion Andy Murray will face 48th-ranked Benoit Paire in the first round. It’s a rematch of Murray’s fourth-round victory over the Frenchman at the All England Club in 2017.

That was Murray’s last win before he sat out nearly a year because of an injured hip that was surgically repaired in January.

He returned to action last week and so is ranked only 156th and unseeded at Wimbledon, which he won in 2013 and 2016.

Murray could face 26th-seeded Denis Shapovalov of Canada in the second round.

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