June Chris Oddo 06/30/2017

Azarenka Draws Bellis in Wimbledon Return

It’s a fairly balanced women’s singles draw at Wimbledon, with favorites sprinkled about the top and bottom half—and a few popcorn first-rounders.Men's Draw: Big Four to Face Early ChallengesNone more enticing perhaps than Victoria Azarenka vs. 18-year-old CiCi Bellis. Azarenka, playing in just her second event since returning to the tour after giving birth to her son Leo, is a two-time semifinalist that reached the quarterfinals in 2015, but she hasn’t quite knocked the rust from her game and she’ll face one of the WTA’s up-and-comers in Bellis, who reached the semifinals in her first grass-court event at Mallorca.See the Complete Wimbledon Women's Singles Draw HereThe winner of this match will face either No.15-seeded Elina Vesnina or a qualifier, and could face No.2-seeded Simona Halep in the third round.Another enticing first-rounder to watch will be contested by Sabine Lisicki and No.27-seeded Ana Konjuh in the bottom half.There are some excellent potential third-rounders if the seeds hold, including Kristina Mladenovic and CoCo Vandeweghe and Jelena Ostapenko and Madison Keys. Here is how the third round shapes up if the seeds hold.

#Wimbledon projected R32 women's singles pic.twitter.com/UCRHbt0L25
— TennisNow (@Tennis_Now) June 30, 2017

And here is how the round of 16 shapes up if the seeds hold:

Women's R16, if seeds hold, #Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/g1WOBqaSIc
— TennisNow (@Tennis_Now) June 30, 2017

And the quarterfinals:

PROJECTED QUARTER-FINALSKerber v Kuznetsova
Ka Pliskova v Wozniacki
Cibulkova v Svitolina
Konta v Halep#Wimbledon
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) June 30, 2017

Other notable first-rounders include:No.11-seeded Petra Kvitova vs. Johanna Larsson of Sweden
Alizé Cornet vs. Camila Giorgi
No.25-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro vs. Eugenie Bouchard
No.4-seeded Elina Svitolina vs. Ashleigh Barty
No.9-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska vs. Jelena Jankovic. ]]>

Chris Oddo

Chris Oddo is a freelance sportswriter, podcaster, blogger and social media marker who is a lead contributor to Tennisnow.com. He also writes for USOpen.org, Rolandgarros.com, BNPParibasOpen.com, TennisTV.com, WTAtennis.com and the official US Open program.