Lulu Sun to play world No 8 in first round at Wimbledon

Lulu Sun has been drawn against No 8 seed Zheng Qinwen in the opening round at Wimbledon.

Having won three matches in the qualifying tournament to make it into the main draw, Sun was unable to avoid a seeded player when the draw made was on Friday and she’ll be up against this year’s Australian Open finalist on either Monday or Tuesday.

Zheng is ranked eighth in the world, compared to Sun who is at 123, so it will be the Chinese star who’ll go into the match as favourite.

However, Sun played extremely well during Wimbledon qualifying and has spent the past three weeks playing matches on grass.

Zheng only entered the WTA 500 tournament in Berlin to prepare for Wimbledon. 

In the first round in Germany, she beat Naomi Osaka in three sets and then lost 6-4 6-4 to qualifier Katerina Siniakova.

Sun had hoped to avoid a top-five player in the first round of the draw and while she’s done that, Zheng will be a tricky opponent for her, although she will relish the opportunity to go up against someone of the 21-year-old’s quality.

Meanwhile, Erin Routliffe and Gabby Dabrowski, who are the No 2 seeds, have been drawn against 17-year-old Russian sensation Mirra Andreeva and her compatriot Anastasia Potapova in the opening round of the ladies’ doubles.

In the gentlemen’s doubles Michael Venus and Neal Skupski are the No 9 seeds and in their opening match they will play the all-Austrian duo of Alexander Erler and Lucas Miedler, who are both ranked 41 in the world.

If Venus and Skupski win this match, they could play Jamie and Andy Murray in the second round.

This would be significant for two reasons, firstly because Jamie is Venus’ usual partner and secondly, this is almost certainly Andy’s last ever Wimbledon.

Marcus Daniell has teamed up with Theo Arribage from France for what’s likely to be the 34-year-old’s final appearance at Wimbledon.

In the first round Daniell and Arribage have been drawn against Britain’s Julian Cash and America’s Robert Galloway.