Tennis fans have shared their thoughts on the 2023 Wimbledon Championships women's draw, featuring the likes of Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina.
With the grasscourt Major scheduled to commence on Monday, July 3, the tournament released the women's draw on Friday, June 30. Earlier this week, the Grand Slam released their list of seeded players, which featured World No. 1 Iga Swiatek as the top seed, Aryna Sabalenka being seeded at No. 2, and defending champion Elena Rybakina seeded third.
Jessica Pegula and Caroline Garcia round out the top five. The other top 10 seeds include Ons Jabeur, Coco Gauff, Maria Sakkari, Petra Kvitova, and Barbora Krejcikova.
The women's draw revealed that last year's runner-up Ons Jabeur, two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, 2021 finalist Karolina Pliskova and in-form players Jelena Ostapenko and Tatjana Maria have all been placed in Rybakina's quarter. Aryna Sabalenka, too, features in the bottom half of the draw, setting up a potential semifinal clash with Rybakina.
Meanwhile, Swiatek has been drawn with Coco Gauff, whom the Pole leads 7-0 in their head-to-head, Petra Martic, Elina Svitolina, and Venus Williams among others. Tennis fans shared their opinions on the draw, with many claiming that the World No. 1 had received an easier draw as compared to the defending champion.
A fan claimed that the draw had been rigged in favor of Iga Swiatek.
"They have to be rigging this draw for Iga man like how does she always avoid the most dangerous players," the fan tweeted.
A user shared an image of an AI analysis of the draw which reported the Pole as having the easiest draw of the entire field.
"According to AI, Iga has the easiest draw out of the entire field," the user posted.
Another fan shared a breakdown of Elena Rybakina's path to the final and commented that the defending champion was faced with the "worst possible draw."
"Elena has worst possible draw I have ever see... Like wtf???" the fan commented.
Another user deemed the draw as "unbalanced as it gets."
"As unbalanced as it gets. Bottom of the draw is literally loaded. Rybakina, Sabalenka, Kvitova, Ostapenko, Alexandrova, Barbie, Pliskova, Muchova … hope for some great matches in this half as I expect nothing from the top half with Jess, Coco and Iga," the user posted.
Here are a few more fan reactions:
Wimbledon 2023: Iga Swiatek to take on Zhu Lin in the tournament opener, Elena Rybakina faces Shelby Rogers
Iga Swiatek will commence her Wimbledon 2023 campaign against Zhu Lin on Monday. The clash will mark the pair's first meeting on the tour, leaving their head-to-head at 0-0.
Meanwhile, Elena Rybakina will begin her title defense at SW19 against Shelby Rogers. Rybakina leads 3-2 in her head-to-head against Rogers. However, it was the American who came out on top at the 2022 Libema Open, winning in straight sets 6-2, 6-4.
Should Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina make their way through the draw unscathed, they will set up a blockbuster final clash at Wimbledon 2023.