Emma Raducanu and Andy Murray handed nightmare Wimbledon draw | Tennis | Sport

Emma Raducanu and Andy Murray has been handed a daunting opening mixed doubles match at Wimbledon. The British dream team will face Marcelo Arevalo and Zhang Shuai.

Salvadorian star Arevalo won the men’s French Open doubles title in 2022 and 2024, meaning he is in top form at SW19.

His partner, Chinese ace Zhang, is also an accomplished doubles player, winning the Australian Open in 2019 and US Open two years later.

Raducanu and Murray have also been placed in the same quarter as top seeds Mathew Ebden and Ellen Perez, of Australia.

The Wimbledon schedule has not yet been announced but the first round of the mixed doubles is due to be played Friday and Saturday.

It is highly likely that the British stars will play the first match on Centre Court on Saturday, which would make for a bumper day of sport with England set to face Switzerland in the Euro 2024 quarter-finals at 5pm.

Raducanu is in the singles draw so will be due to play a third-round match on Friday, should she beat Elise Mertens on Court 1 this evening.

Murray is set to feature in the men’s doubles alongside brother Jamie. They will either compete on Thursday or Friday.

The three-time Grand Slam winner withdrew from the singles draw hours before his first-round match on Tuesday because he failed to recover from back surgery in time.

Explaining his withdrawal, Murray said: “Unfortunately, despite working incredibly hard on his recovery since his operation just over a week ago, Andy has taken the very difficult decision not to play the singles this year.

“As you can imagine, he is extremely disappointed but has confirmed that he will be playing in the doubles with Jamie and looks forward to competing at Wimbledon for the last time.”