First Batch of Wimbledon Wild Cards Announced, with 2017 Junior Champions Davidovich and Liu Receiving Qualifying Spots; Jachuck, Mandlik Advance to Third Round at ITF Grade 1 in Germany; Noel Reaches $15K Quarterfinal

Wimbledon announced many of its wild cards today, although many more are still available, especially in the men's singles. The release I received gave "later this week" as the time frame for the naming of the remaining wild cards.  The LTA is holding a men's and a women's wild card tournament beginning tomorrow, with each of the two finalists awarded qualifying wild cards. The draws for those two events are available here.

Wimbledon main draw wild cards:

Men's singles:
1 Liam BROADY (GBR)
2 Jay CLARKE (GBR)
3 Alex DE MINAUR (AUS)
4 TBA
5 TBA
6 TBA
7 TBA
8 TBA

Women's singles:
1 Katie BOULTER (GBR)
2 Naomi BROADY (GBR)
3 Harriet DART (GBR)
4 Katy DUNNE (GBR)
5 Ons JABEUR (TUN)
6 Katie SWAN (GBR)
7 Gabriella TAYLOR (GBR)
8 TBA


Most slams do not offer the previous year's junior champions qualifying wild cards, but Wimbledon usually does, and this year Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain and Claire Liu of the United States have been invited to participate.

Wimbledon qualifying wild cards:
Men's singles:
1 Alejandro DAVIDOVICH FOKINA (ESP)
2 Jack DRAPER (GBR)
3 George LOFFHAGEN (GBR)
4 Anton MATUSEVICH (GBR)
5 Aidan MCHUGH (GBR)
6 Alexander WARD (GBR)
7 James WARD (GBR)
8 Wild Card Play-off place
9 Wild Card Play-off place

Women's singles:
1 Holly FISCHER (GBR)
2 Francesca JONES (GBR)
3 Claire LIU (USA)
4 Maia LUMSDEN (GBR)
5 Emma RADUCANU (GBR)
6 TBA
7 Wild Card Play-off place
8 Wild Card Play-off place

The current wild card list, which includes main draw men's and women's doubles recipients, can be found here, although, many of those are also still to be determined.

Americans who received direct entry into the main draw this year include nine men and 15 women.

The men:
John Isner
Sam Querrey
Jack Sock
Steve Johnson
Tennys Sandgren
Ryan Harrison
Jared Donaldson
Frances Tiafoe
Taylor Fritz

The women:
Serena Williams
Venus Williams
Sloane Stephens
Madison Keys
CoCo Vandeweghe
Danielle Collins
Taylor Townsend
Bernarda Pera
Sachia Vickery
Jennifer Brady
Christina McHale
Varvara Lepchenko
Sonya Kenin
Madison Brengle
Alison Riske

Cici Bellis was in the main draw, but has withdrawn due to a persistent injury.

The current list of Americans in qualifying:

The men:
Mackenzie McDonald
Bjorn Fratangelo
Denis Kudla
Michael Mmoh
Donald Young
Reilly Opelka
Bradley Klahn
Kevin King
Noah Rubin
Ernesto Escobedo
Stefan Kozlov
Dennis Novikov
Tommy Paul
Christopher Eubanks
Evan King
Christian Harrison
Mitchell Kreuger

The women:
Nicole Gibbs
Caroline Dolehide
Kristie Ahn
Irina Falconi
Jamie Loeb
Lauren Davis
Francesca Di Lorenzo
Grace Min

Complete main draw entry lists are here.

With so many men's main draw wild cards remaining,  Kudla, who has reached the quarterfinals this week at the ATP 500 in Halle Germany as a qualifier, has a good chance to be given one.  Although Querrey and Tiafoe are already in the Wimbledon main draw, they have also shown good form on grass this week, with both reaching the Queens ATP 500 quarterfinals in London.  Mmoh and Rubin are still in the €127,000 Challenger on grass in Ilkley, with the champion there also a possible Wimbledon wild card recipient.

Qualifiers Kenin and Riske are still alive at the WTA International this week in Mallorca, with Kenin reaching the quarterfinals and Riske beating No. 2 seed Angelique Kerber of Germany in the first round today. Again, they both received direct entry into Wimbledon, so their results have no impact on that, just their form and ranking.

The ITF Junior Circuit's Grade 1 tournament this week in Germany is again on clay, with Elli Mandlik, last week's Grade 1 finalist, the only US girl to advance to the third round.  Mandlik, the No. 11 seed, will face No. 5 seed Marta Custic of Spain in Thursday's third round.  Unseeded Ronan Jachuck, who lost in the first round last week in Offenbach, is the only US boy to reach the third round. The Harvard recruit will play No. 7 seed Savriyan Danilov of Russia on Thursday.

Alexa Noel opted to play in a $15,000 ITF Women's Pro Circuit event this week in Italy, using her junior exemption, and has reached the quarterfinals. The 15-year-old, who has played sparingly on the Pro Circuit and had won just one main draw match before this week, will face top seed Angelica Moratelli of Italy next.