Wimbledon wild cards: Two-time champion Petra Kvitova joined by British players
Two-time champion Petra Kvitová is the only non-British player awarded a main-draw wild card for this year's Wimbledon.
Wild cards are awarded to players who are not ranked high enough for automatic entry, and Kvitová, the 2011 and 2014 champion, is currently ranked No. 572 after returning to the WTA Tour this year following the birth of her first child.
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All the other singles wild cards in the men's and women's draws have gone to home players. Youngsters Hannah Klugman, Mingge Xu and Mika Stojsavljevic are the standout choices on the women's side: Klugman reached the junior Roland Garros final earlier this month, while the big-serving Stojsavljevic won the girls' singles title at last year's U.S. Open.
Xu, who is a year older than both at 17, beat American world No. 96 Katie Volynets at the Nottingham Open Tuesday, to record her first WTA Tour victory. Heather Watson, who a decade ago came within two points of defeating Serena Williams in the third round, is another recipient.
On the men's side, there is still one wild card to be awarded, but the seven so far include former world No. 21 Dan Evans, American college graduates Jack Pinnington Jones and Johannus Monday, and 19-year-old former junior champion Henry Searle.
Unlike the other Grand Slams, Wimbledon does not engage in reciprocal wild cards with its fellow majors. But as is tradition, the most recent junior champions, Nicolai Budkov Kjær of Norway, and Slovakia's Renáta Jamrichová, have been given wild cards for the men's and women's qualifying draws. There will also be a couple of qualifying spots in each draw for the winners of the Wimbledon wild card play-off, which is open to British players and takes place Thurs. June 19 and Fri. June 20.
Wimbledon qualifying starts on Monday June 23, with the main draw getting under away a week later on Monday June 30. Goran Ivanišević, the 2001 champion, is the sole wild card to have ever won a singles title.
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