ANDY MURRAY will BATTLE a British tennis player at Wimbledon for the just the second time in his career as he was drawn to face Ryan Peniston next Tuesday.
Only once before has the Scot had to tackle someone from the same country in this grass-court Slam and that was Liam Broady, who he thrashed in three sets in 2016 – the year he lifted his second SW19 Championship.
However, fuming fans have demanded a redraw for the women's bracket after many of the strongest grass courters found themselves in the bottom half.
On his 15th appearance at Wimbledon, the 36-year-old avoided having to face any of the big names and will be generally pleased with his draw.
Yet he would have to play either former US Open champion Dominic Thiem or No.5 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas should he make it to the second round.
Peniston, 27, made his Wimbledon debut last year and thanked a battle with cancer in helping him to excel.
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After beating Swiss star Henri Laaksonen in the first round last year, Peniston declared his cancer was “blessing in disguise” because it made him “tougher as a player and a person”.
He said: “It definitely affected my growth. I was a really late bloomer. I was always about a foot smaller than all my peers.
“They all were growing and getting bigger serves and everything. I was struggling just trying to run around and get the balls."
He is also no stranger to causing an upset, beating Casper Ruud at last year's Queen's.
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Arthur Fery and George Loffhagen – who have both earned £55,000 for their wildcards – probably could not believe their luck that they were handed plum ties in the first round.
World No.389 Fery, 20, has to find a way past Daniil Medvedev, the No.3 seed, who is appearing in Wimbledon whites in a neutral capacity due to his Russian nationality.
And debutant Loffhagen will take on fiery Dane Holger Rune, who is the No.6 seed.
Cameron Norrie, who is the highest ranked Brit in No.12 spot, was drawn against qualifier Tomas Machac of the Czech Republic on Tuesday.
No.27 seed Dan Evans opens up on Monday versus Frenchman Quentin Halys.
Elsewhere, Liam Broady plays France’s Constant Lestienne and Jan Choinski takes on Serbian Dusan Lajovic.
Nick Kyrgios, who has injury doubts surrounding his participation, plays Belgian David Goffin, who lost to Norrie in last year’s quarter-finals.
Novak Djokovic, who will attempt to win an eighth crown next month, will appear on Centre Court on Monday afternoon against Pedro Cachin of Argentina.
Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, the world no.1 and reigning US Open champion, will make his first appearance of the tournament on Tuesday against Jeremy Chardy of France.
There are six British women in the 128-player draw next week but all of them required wildcards as their world ranking was not good enough for direct entry.
In the ladies’ singles, it was a fairly underwhelming draw for the home-grown stars as they avoided the big names – though Heather Watson was paired with former French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova.
On Monday, Harriet Dart will play Frenchwoman Diane Parry, Katie Swan takes on 2021 Olympic champion Belinda Bencic of Switzerland and Jodie Burrage is up against American Caty McNally.
On Tuesday, British No.1 Katie Boulter tackles Australian Daria Saville while Sonay Kartal faces Madison Keys, who was defeated in the 2017 US Open final.
The standout tie involves five-time champion Venus Williams, who turned 43 this month, against Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, playing in her first match since giving birth last October.
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Elena Rybakina, the defending champion from Kazakhstan, will open her campaign on Centre Court on Tuesday against American Shelby Rogers.
And in the top half, Poland’s world No.1 Iga Swiatek should have no troubles with China’s Zhu Lin.
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