British No.1s Jack Draper and Katie Boulter produced wins in their first-round matches at Wimbledon 2024 on Tuesday, and incredibly, they are now both set to face the British No.2s in the second round.
Draper, seeded 28th, lost the first set of his clash against unseeded Swedish player Mikael Ymer on Centre Court before winning 3-6 6-3 6-3 4-6 6-3 to delight British fans in a five-set thriller.
Boulter, meanwhile, found herself 3-0 down but battled back to defeat Tatjana Maria, which has set up an all-British second-round battle against Harriet Dart.
Draper, who has been tipped for a big career in tennis by Andy Murray, is also set for an all-British clash with Cameron Norrie – who like Dart – is a British No.2. That will be particularly tasty, given Draper only replaced Norrie as the No.1 in June.
Draper was bumped up to Centre Court on Tuesday morning after Murray’s dramatic late withdrawal and he is hoping for a deep run in the veteran’s absence.
Boulter, meanwhile, the world No.29, headed into this year’s Championships seeded for the first time and was in the form of her life going into Wimbledon.
Former British No.1 Tim Henman even tipped Boulter to reach the second week of the tournament – but she was given a big scare in her first-round match.
German player Maria, ranked world No.63 – which is 34 places below Boulter – raced into a 3-0 first-set lead on the No.3 Court as the British crowd fell silent, with Boulter making far more unforced errors than her opponent.
She was able to recover from the deficit, eventually levelling up the set at 4-4, as her boyfriend Alex de Minaur – seeded ninth in the men’s singles – watched on.
Boulter required a tie-break to clinch the first set as British fans helped her get narrowly over the line 7-6 (8-6).
The 27-year-old went up a level in the second set, taking it 7-5 to book her spot in the second round, where she will face fellow British player Dart.
Boulter won the Nottingham Open title less than a month ago, her third trophy on the WTA Tour to date, after she beat Emma Raducanu in the last four.
She recently went on a 7-0 winning streak in completed matches on the grass, a spell which also saw her enjoy a run to the quarter-finals in Eastbourne.
How far will Katie Boulter go at Wimbledon?
Katie Boulter has never been past the third round of Wimbledon, crashing out at that stage for the last two years.
But she’s unseeded and will enjoy somewhat of an easier route this time around with Tim Henman tipping her to produce her best tournament performance yet.
Asked if Boulter or Emma Raducanu would progress further at SW19 this year, Henman told : ‘That’s a good question. I think probably Katie Boulter.
‘She is knocking on the door of the top 20. She’s a bit more experienced and she’s played a lot more tennis.
‘I definitely think they both could be in the second week. It’s going to be interesting to see.’
How far will Jack Draper go at Wimbledon?
Andy Murray is a huge fan of Jack Draper and can see the British No.1 doing well at this year’s Championships.
‘I’ve known Jack for a long time – he grew up near where I live,’ Murray told .
‘We’ve played together in the Davis Cup and I see him on the Tour. He’s a really exciting player to watch and I think he’s got a big future.
‘It was a great win for him at Queens against Carlos Alcaraz. Beating the defending champion in the way that he did showed how well he is playing at the moment.
‘It came off the back of him winning in Stuttgart and that obviously gave him a lot of confidence.
‘Jack’s definitely got the ability to go right to the top of the game. There’s always a lot of pressure on the British players at Wimbledon but hopefully he can do well there.’