Novak Djokovic will begin the defence of his Wimbledon title against Philipp Kohlschreiber and will avoid ‘Big Three’ rivals Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer before the final.
Nadal, who starts against Yuichi Sugita, was controversially seeded behind Federer – despite the Swiss being behind the Spaniard in the ATP rankings – due to the All England Club’s seeding formula, which many have accused of being outdated.
Nadal, his uncle Toni, four-time champion Djokovic and Greg Rusedski all criticised the system after Federer was hoisted above the world No. 2 to be seeded second, guaranteeing he would avoid world No. 1 Djokovic before the final.
But it ultimately made little difference as Nadal landed in Federer’s half, while last year’s runner-up Kevin Anderson – who takes on Andy Murray’s doubles partner Pierre-Hugues Herbert in round one – fell in Djokovic’s side. Read more