The 2023 Wimbledon is here and the draw has been one of the most discussed topics since it came out.
As every year, fans love to discuss the draw and the possible pathways to the final, that almost never come true due to an unpredictable nature of the tournament. The WTA draw promises a lot of interesting matchups, and fans quickly started analyzing it.
Every time there is a discussion who are the losers and who are the winners of the draw, but this year, Wimbledon ended those discussions. The tournament organizers are using IBM AI to analyze the draws and determine the difficulty of matchups for every player.
So you ask yourself, who has the easiest draw this year? Well according to the tool it's the first-seeded Iga Swiatek, who will start her tournament against Lin Zhu from China, with a possible second-round match against Martina Trevisan or Sara Sorribes Tormo.
Co-favourites, Elena Rybakina and Aryna Sabalenka were also handed quite favourable draws, even though the defending champion has a bit more difficult one than the second-seeded Belarusian, who will start against Panna Udvardy from Hungary, and has the second most favourable draw according to Wimbledon.
On the other hand, Elena Rybakina, who was fighting an illness recently, has the fourth-easiest draw. But that's still not as bad as the draw of the fourth-seeded Jessica Pegula, who has only the 12th most favourable draw, despite being the fourth seed.
Yet, her compatriot and five-time Wimbledon winner, Venus Williams faces an even more difficult challenge. The American, who has been handed a wild card, will start against Elina Svitolina, and in the second round, she can meet the 28th-seeded Elise Mertens.
Moreover, in the third round, the 43-year-old can play against either the seventh-seeded Coco Gauff or the 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin and her fourth round could see her play against the eleventh-seeded Daria Kasatkina. It only gets harder from there, so it's not a surprise that the legendary player faces the 22nd most difficult draw.
And who has the most difficult draw you ask? It's Jacqueline Cristian from Romania. She will start against Lucia Bronzetti, who is the finalist in Bad Homburg, and if she wins, the Romanian can play against the 13th-seeded Beatriz Haddad Maia and then the 2017 Roland Garros champion Jelena Ostapenko, before taking on the defending champion Elena Rybakina.
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