{"id":223185,"date":"2025-06-29T05:26:23","date_gmt":"2025-06-29T05:26:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/223185\/"},"modified":"2025-06-29T05:26:23","modified_gmt":"2025-06-29T05:26:23","slug":"jack-draper-has-it-all-to-do-it-is-too-soon-for-emma-raducanu-but-im-backing-cam-norrie-to-do-well-dan-evans-wimbledon-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/223185\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack Draper has it all to do, it is too soon for Emma Raducanu but I’m backing Cam Norrie to do well: DAN EVANS’ Wimbledon preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2025 Wimbledon<\/a> Championships get underway on Monday and DAN EVANS will be among the British players taking part.<\/p>\n

Evans – who will face fellow Brit Jay Clarke in round one of the men’s singles \u2014 previews the action for Mail Sport below.<\/p>\n

His pre-tournament assessment of the British hopefuls starts with world No 4 Jack Draper<\/a>…<\/p>\n

JACK DRAPER (4) v Sebastian Baez (Arg)<\/p>\n

Jack’s first couple of rounds look OK but once you look further ahead he has a very tough draw – about as tough as it could be.<\/p>\n

He’ll have to play very well, he’ll feel very good if he’s sitting there in the quarters, where he could potentially meet\u00a0Novak Djokovic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Jack <\/p>\n

Jack Draper should get through the early rounds but could face Novak Djokovic in the quarters<\/p>\n

JACOB FEARNLEY v Joao Fonseca (Bra)<\/p>\n

Tough first-round draw and he’ll be in good form if he comes through that.<\/p>\n

I’m not sure what happened last week in Eastbourne against Marcos Giron when he lost 6-3, 6-1. I think that might have been a very windy day and he didn’t play his best tennis.<\/p>\n

But the way he has taken to the tour straight out of college\u2026 he is a very impressive guy.<\/p>\n

The most impressive thing for me is how well he plays on every surface – his first seasons on clay and grass he adapted so well.<\/p>\n

CAM NORRIE v Roberto Bautista Agut (Spa)<\/p>\n

Even when he was struggling last year, I never worried about Cam. You always know he’s doing the right things off the court, his game will be in good shape.<\/p>\n

He puts in the work on and off the court. He’s reliable and I knew at some point he would come back and the\u00a0French Open<\/a>\u00a0was evidence of that when he reached the fourth round.<\/p>\n

With Cam, you know the work’s been done and he’s always ready.<\/p>\n

\"Cam <\/p>\n

Cam Norrie plays Spain’s\u00a0Roberto Bautista Agut in round one and will be ready for the battle<\/p>\n

HENRY SEARLE v Ethan Quinn (USA)<\/p>\n

Quinn is a talented player but he hasn’t played much on the grass and I think Henry has a chance – I’ll go for a four or five set win.<\/p>\n

Henry is from the Midlands like me so I pay attention to what he’s doing and we share the same fitness coach.<\/p>\n

He works hard, he has some things to improve but he’s a former junior champion here and at 19 he’s still a very young talent.<\/p>\n

EMMA RADUCANU v MIMI XU<\/p>\n

Emma is a very good player but I think we just need to make sure she’s happy, rather than looking at her results here.<\/p>\n

Hopefully she puts on a good performance but I think it’s a year too soon for her to be looking at a run at the Championship.<\/p>\n

There has been a lot going on, with the stuff we’ve read about in the press. It’ll be a tough task for her to go deep here but I hope she does.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Emma Raducanu is a former Grand Slam champion but unlikely to win the women’s singles<\/p>\n

SONAY KARTAL v Jelena Ostapenko (Lat, 20)<\/p>\n

Sonay goes under the radar. She and her coach, who has been with her since she was a kid, they just go about their work.<\/p>\n

She doesn’t get much press but she’s made third round of Grand Slams and we shouldn’t turn a blind eye to that, that’s difficult to do.<\/p>\n

She’s been going along nicely and a big run might not be far away.<\/p>\n

KATIE BOULTER v Paula Badosa (Spa, 9th seed)<\/p>\n

Katie is coming in unseeded this year and she said that will give her some freedom to swing – it’s a different view!<\/p>\n

You always want to be seeded but she is a top player and a top, top grass court player. This is her best surface and I think she’ll beat Badosa.<\/p>\n

\"Katie <\/p>\n

Katie Boulter is unseeded and faces a tricky start but she’s got a good chance of progressing<\/p>\n

HANNAH KLUGMAN v Leylah Fernandez (Can, 29); MIKA STOJSAVLJEVIC v Ashlyn Krueger (USA, 31)<\/p>\n

Of the other wildcards, some of the boys have a shot but this year is all about the three young girls.<\/p>\n

Those three are excellent talents and people don’t seem to realise: you don’t just get given a wildcard, you have to show you deserve it.<\/p>\n

Hannah made the final of the junior French Open, Mika won the US Open and Mimi has had some great wins on the seniors.<\/p>\n

I play a lot of golf with Hannah’s coach, Ben Haran. I know how hard they have been working.<\/p>\n

Mika used to be coached by a good friend of mine, Mark Taylor, so I’ve been on court with her a few times, she’s got a big game.<\/p>\n

Mimi Xu is the one I know least about but she’s had a few huge wins on the grass, two top-100 wins in a matter of weeks and she might never look back.<\/p>\n

She could win a couple of matches here, you’re in quallies of Grand Slams and before you know it you’re there.<\/p>\n

OTHER BRITISH CHALLENGERS\u00a0 <\/p>\n

BILLY HARRIS v Hubert Hurkacz (Pol)<\/p>\n

DAN EVANS v JAY CLARKE<\/p>\n

JACK PINNINGTON JONES v Tomas Martin Etcheverry (Arg)<\/p>\n

JOHANNUS MONDAY v Tommy Paul (USA, 13)<\/p>\n

GEORGE LOFFHAGEN v Pedro Martinez (Spa)<\/p>\n

OLIVER CRAWFORD v Mattia Bellucci (It)<\/p>\n

ARTHUR FERY v Alexei Popyrin (Aus)<\/p>\n

OLIVER TARVET v Leandro Riedi (Sui)<\/p>\n

FRANCESCA JONES v Yuliia Starodubtseva (Ukr)<\/p>\n

HARRIET DART v Dalma Galfi (Hun)<\/p>\n

HEATHER WATSON v Clara Tauson (Den, 23)<\/p>\n

JODIE BURRAGE v Caty McNally (USA)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2025 Wimbledon Championships get underway on Monday and DAN EVANS will be among the British players taking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223186,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[92,1070,5005,93,79,1068,16,15,5068],"class_list":{"0":"post-223185","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-emma-raducanu","10":"tag-jack-draper","11":"tag-sport","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tennis","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-wimbledon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114764997417337020","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}