The second day of the 2018 Wimbledon Championships begins on Tuesday, with Rafael Nadal, Simona Halep and Novak Djokovic among the players in action.
Here are three matches to watch on Tuesday (x denotes seeding):
Dudi Sela (ISR) v Rafael Nadal (ESP x2)
Two-time champion Nadal, fresh from his 11th French Open triumph, arrives at the All England Club having not played a grass-court warm-up, opting instead to practice instead in Mallorca. The 32-year-old Nadal has not got beyond the last-16 at Wimbledon since finishing runner-up to Novak Djokovic in 2011. Nadal holds a 2-0 career lead over 33-year-old Sela who made the third round in 2017 before injury forced him to retire against Djokovic.
Simona Halep (ROM x1) v Kurumi Nara (JPN)
Fresh from her maiden Grand Slam breakthrough at the French Open, world number one Halep says the pressure is off at Wimbledon where she was a semi-finalist in 2014. The Romanian hit with 2002 men’s champion Lleyton Hewitt last week to build up her grass-court skills. Nara, standing at just 5ft 1in (1.55m) has a Grand Slam pedigree – in 2017, she defeated two-time major winner Svetlana Kuznetsova in the second round of the US Open. Made the third round on her Wimbledon debut in 2010 after coming through qualifying.
Tennys Sandgren (USA) v Novak Djokovic (SRB x12)
Djokovic begins his bid for a fourth Wimbledon title buoyed by making the final at Queen’s last month. The former world number one was forced to quit his Wimbledon quarter-final with an elbow injury in 2017, a setback which sparked a worrying dip in confidence as he slumped out of the world’s top 20.
Sandgren of the United States stunned the sport by making the Australian Open quarter-finals in January knocking out Stan Wawrinka and Dominic Thiem. He also caused a storm for his alleged support of right-wing groups, something the devout Christian denied.
“You seek to put people in these little boxes so that you can order the world in your already assumed preconceived ideas. You strip away any individuality for the sake of demonising by way of the collective,” the 26-year-old told reporters in response. Reached the final in Houston this year but will be making his Wimbledon debut.
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