Wimbledon 2014: Who will Andy Murray play en route to the final?
The defending champion has an easy first round clash with David Goffin but could face a tough quarter-final rubber against Grigor Dimitrov or David Ferrer
The Wimbledon draw is out and, for Andy Murray, it's a deep sigh of relief. The defence of his 2013 title will begin with a little-known Belgian ranked 104th in the world. 23-year-old David Goffin may have shown impressive form on the clay but in three Wimbledon tournaments he's never made it past the third round.
Should the British number one overcome his opponent – ranked 99 places below him – he will face a second round clash against either Pablo Andujar (number 79 in the world) or Blaz Rola (91). Andujar has never made it past the first round of Wimbledon in four attempts, while Rola is playing at SW19 for the very first time. Neither should cause Murray much bother.
The third round would present the Scotsman with his first seeded player, baseliner Roberto Bautista Agut (27), although the Spaniard will have to overcome the in-form German Tobias Kamke first. Provided Murray overcomes that test, the fourth round will see a clash with big-serving South African Kevin Anderson – a potentially dangerous grass court match-up for the defending champion.
The quarter-finals could see the Dunblane native put to the test again against either last Sunday's Queens champion Grigor Dimitrov or resilient Spaniard David Ferrer who is seeded seventh and gave Murray a nail-biting test en route to his 2012 final against Roger Federer.
Lying in wait in the semi-finals is Novak Djokovic, the 2011 Wimbledon champion and last month's French Open finalist, who pulled out of an exhibition match last Thursday to rest his wrist. A clash between these two will be mouthwatering and impossible to call, although Murray did overcome the Serb on Centre Court to claim last year's title. He will no doubt be relieved not to have to face his two-time semi-final nemesis Rafael Nadal before the final where it is likely either the Spaniard or Roger Federer will await him.
The Swiss seven-time Wimbledon champion will play Italian Paolo Lorenzi in his opener before a tougher second round against either Julian Benneteau or Giles Muller. Djokovic will begin his campaign against Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan while Nadal faces Slovakian Martin Klizan before a potentially tricky round two clash with Lukas Rosol – the player who knocked him out of the 2012 tournament in dramatic fashion.
The Wimbledon Championships begin on Monday 23 June with coverage starting from 11:30am on BBC2
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