Australian News Today

Barty returns to Wimbledon grass for first time since 2021 triumph

Barty returns to Wimbledon grass for first time since 2021 triumph

While Barty’s appearance at Wimbledon will be in an entertainment capacity, there will be a number of Australians competing for the championship.

French open quarter-finalist Alex de Minaur will be Australia’s highest-ranked singles player, after his title win in the Netherlands shot him to a career-high ranking of No.7 in the world, and guarantees him a top-seeded spot at the tournament.

With the top 104 men’s singles players given a place in the starting draw, Australia will have at least nine men in the tournament, including Jordan Thompson, Alexei Popyrin and Chris O’Connell. Anyone outside the rankings will have to play for one of the 16 qualifying spots.

The women’s draw automatically includes the top 108-ranked female players, which means Daria Saville and Ajla Tomljanovic are the only Australian women guaranteed in the draw.

Tomjlanovic has a protected world ranking of 33. A player can request a special ranking if they are injured and do not compete in a tennis event for a minimum period of six months.

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A number of Australian women and men will need to progress into Wimbledon via qualifying.

After finding career-best form in 2022 with a Wimbledon and US Open quarter-final appearance – where she ended Serena Williams’ career – Tomljanovic missed the next three slams due to ongoing injury.

Her most recent grand slam appearance was at the French Open four weeks ago where she lost in the opening round to Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska.