Men's top seed Carlos Alcaraz begins his quest for a maiden Wimbledon title when he tackles Frenchman Jeremy Chardy in Tuesday's first-round contest on Court One.
The Spaniard's best result at SW19 was a fourth-round exit in the 2022 tournament, while Chardy - who enters via a protected ranking - also reached the last 16 in the 2014 edition.
Match preview
For all of his triumphs on the clay and hard courts - winning his maiden Grand Slam crown at the US Open last year - it was a different story for world number one Alcaraz on grass up until the recently-concluded Queen's Club Championships.
Alcaraz had never managed to reach a grass-court final on the ATP Tour before his arrival in West Kensington, but the 20-year-old dropped just one set en route to the showpiece event, where a 6-4 6-4 triumph over Australia's Alex de Minaur saw the Spaniard break his duck on the surface.
That win at Queen's marked Alcaraz's fifth title from a magnificent start to proceedings in the 2023 season, during which he has suffered a mere four defeats from 44 matches, the most recent of which being his four-set French Open semi-final beating at the hands of Novak Djokovic.
Alcaraz was arguably on course for Roland-Garros stardom before injury cruelly cost him against the 23-time major winner, but the 2003-born protege enters Wimbledon as one of the clear favourites to add a second major honour to his ever-growing cabinet, despite his failure to make waves at SW19 so far.
Indeed, Alcaraz has reached the quarter-finals of all the Grand Slam events bar Wimbledon, where he fell to Jannik Sinner in the 2022 tournament, but the US Open champion heads to Court One as the best returner on the ATP Tour for the past 52 weeks - topping the charts for first-serve return points won with 36%.
Also ranking in the top 10 for second-serve return points won and break points converted - taking 43.1% of such opportunities over the past year - few will expect Alcaraz's run to come to a shock end at the first hurdle against a man 16 years his senior in Chardy.
A one-time Australian Open quarter-finalist from 2013 - the same year he achieved a personal-best ranking of 25 - Chardy has been seldom seen on the court in recent times, having missed the end of the 2021 season and the whole of 2022 due to an alleged reaction from a COVID-19 vaccine.
Chardy subsequently put his experience to good use as Ugo Humbert's coach, but he ended his lengthy hiatus at the Australian Open, progressing to the second round before being eliminated by British number one Dan Evans.
First-round exits at Masters events in Rome and Madrid followed for Chardy, whose preparations for Wimbledon have hardly gone swimmingly either, as he lost to the American Mackenzie McDonald in the first round of qualifying for Queen's.
A one-time ATP Tour champion at the 2009 Stuttgart Open, Chardy - who sits 542nd in the world - has been knocked out of the Wimbledon first round five times down the years, and he was denied a quarter-final appearance nine years ago by Marin Cilic.
Head To Head
With Alcaraz bursting onto the scene during Chardy's sabbatical, Tuesday's match will mark the first-ever meeting between two players at opposite ends of their careers.
Alcaraz dropped just one set at Queen's to a French player in Arthur Rinderknech before prevailing in three, and a second-round affair with the latter - who faces compatriot Alexandre Muller on Tuesday morning - could await the victor of this match.
We say: Alcaraz to win in three sets
While Chardy may possess more experience and know-how than his youthful colleague, the Frenchman will surely be unable to compete with the 20-year-old's electric movement across the court and his array of ferocious shots from all angles.
As a result, the top seed should seal a straightforward route into the second round with minimal difficulty, setting up a tie with another as yet unknown Frenchman in the process.
body check tags ::
Previews by email
