The 26-year-old’s current form and grass-court experience should see him through to a minor upset over a struggling opponent. McDonald’s last trip to the All-England Club resulted in a fourth-round run in 2018. The 108th-ranked American already has eight grass-court matches under his belt this summer, with a semifinal showing at the Nottingham Challenger and successful qualification for Wimbledon. McDonald will be happy to get a shot at revenge on grass. The 29th-ranked Russian is just 15-13 and his only grass-court appearance resulted in a first-round Halle loss to Rublev. It has mostly been a disappointing 2021 for Khachanov, though. Their only previous encounter came a few months ago on the indoor hard courts of Marseille, where Khachanov prevailed 7-6(4), 6-4. Khachanov and McDonald will be going head-to-head for the second time in their careers and for the second time this season when they meet again on Monday. Pick: Basilashvili in 4 Mackenzie McDonald aims to upset Karen Khachanov at Wimbledon EPA-EFE/CAROLINE BLUMBERG He obviously isn’t the same player now, and it’s hard to see him surviving a best-of-five test against an opponent of Basilashvili’s quality. Although Murray’s Wimbledon record is sparking, you can pretty much throw all of that out the window. He just reached the semifinals on the grass of Halle before falling to Andrey Rublev in three sets. Basilashvili’s impressive bounce-back from a disastrous 2202 season includes 19 total match wins. The 28th-ranked Georgian defeated Roger Federer in Dubai and went on to take the title, which has propelled him to surprising success in 2021. 119 on Monday is Basilashvili, who is no stranger to facing future Hall of Fame opponents making comebacks.
Murray’s first-round draw at Queen’s Club was favorable (beat Benoit Paire 6-3, 6-2) but then it turned sour (lost to eventual champion Matteo Berrettini 6-3, 6-3). The 34-year-old Scot has competed in only four singles tournaments this season, including just one since February. Since then he has played sparingly due to hip problems, with fleeting success in both singles and doubles but mostly just struggling.
Murray is playing singles at Wimbledon for the first time since an injury-plagued run to the quarterfinals in 2017. But there should be some good ones, and Ricky previews those and makes his picks here. Needless to say, Djokovic-Draper is not expected to be one of the marquee matchups of Day 1. Novak Djokovic gets the tradition of kicking off play on Centre Court as the defending champion, and he is facing a different British wild card in Jack Draper. Wimbledon gets underway on Monday, when Andy Murray will be among those in action. Two-time Wimbledon champion Andy Murray faces a tough first-round test vs.
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