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The women’s Wimbledon singles draw is out.

And we are looking forward to a TIME over the next fortnight or so.

No. 1 seed Iga Swiatek, who was a junior champion at the All-England Club but has not, as yet, been a huge favorite in the ladies’ division, has 2022 champion Elena Rybakina in her half.

In the other half, No. 2 Coco Gauff and No. 3 Aryna Sabalenka will try to get through to meet in the other semifinal.

But plenty of road before that happens.

Wimbledon 2024 – Notes from the men’s draw

A plethora of unseeded spoilers

With champions returning from maternity leave, breaks or injuries, there are far too many wild cards in the women’s draw – unseeded players with plenty of experience at the majors who can cause damage. And that’s with or without grass-court gravitas. And talented grass-courters as well.

Here’s who they’ll face.

Naomi Osaka: Diane Parry (with No. 19 Emma Navarro looking in the second round)

Bianca Andreescu: Jaqueline Cristian (with Linda Noskova next)

Emma Raducanu: (Ekaterina Alexandrova, with Taylor Townsend potentially next)

Angelique Kerber: the former champion gets Yulia Putintseva

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Leylah Fernandez, who was beating Madison Keys in the Eastbourne semifinal as the draw was coming out, squeezed in as a seed – No. 30.

She has Lucia Bronzetti of Italy in the first round, but then it gets complicated. If she wins she would face the winner of Caroline Wozniacki and Alycia Parks – Parks, whose huge serve helped her get through qualifying, and who defeated Fernandez early in this year’s Australian Open. Elena Rybakina is her potential third-round opponent.

***Fernandez is into her first grass-court final Saturday, before opening at WImbledon Tuesday.***

As for Bianca Andreescu, in on a protected ranking, she gets Romania’s Jaqueline Cristian in the first round. After that? Potentially Linda Noskova. And then it gets interesting with No. 7 Jasmine Paolini, hardly a bear on the grass. The fourth-round bracket includes No. 12 Keys and No. 18 Marta Kostyuk. It’s a good draw.

For Wimbledon newbie Marina Stakusic, so impressive in qualifying, her debut will be a challenge against No. 27 seed Katerina Siniakova. It’s a killer of a section with Wozniacki/Putintseva in the second round and then, potentially, Swiatek.

So she should soak up all the atmosphere she can, early on.

First-round matches to watch – a BUFFET!

How many can there possibly be? SOOO many.

–[WC] Angelique Kerber (GER) v Yulia Putintseva (KAZ): One is a former champion; the other unexpectedly won her first grass-court title in Birmingham last week.

–[13] Jelena Ostapenko (LAT) vs. [WC] Ajla Tomljanovic (AUS): Ostapenko is never a sure bat and the returning Tomljanovic, who got to the Birmingham final last week, loves everything about the grass. Also: these two have HISTORY.

–[WC] Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) vs. [Q] Alycia Parks (USA): Once the big-serving American qualified, no one wanted to see her early in the draw. And so the task has fallen to Wozniacki, who had a tumble this past week and who is playing Wimbledon for the first time in years without having any notable gravitas on the surface. The winner could play Fernandez.

***Swiatek hasn’t played since winning Roland Garros three weeks ago.***

– [1] Iga Swiatek (POL) vs. Sofia Kenin (USA): The two were drawn to meet in the first round of this year’s Australian Open as well. While Kenin’s career seems to be treading water at the moment, she can be dangerous on her day. And Swiatek hasn’t played any grass-court tuneups.

– Karolina Muchova (CZE) vs. [PR] Paula Badosa (ESP): It was great to see Muchova finally return this week at Eastbourne, after being out since last year’s US Open with wrist surgery. But after a retirement in her first round, and a rather routine second round, Muchova withdrew from the tournament because of that wrist. Hopefully it’s just precautionary, because this one could be great.

–[25] Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) vs. Taylor Townsend (USA): The Russian has been very … low-profile lately. And Townsend, if healed from an ankle injury earlier this spring, can be great on grass.

–[22] Ekaterina Alexandrova vs. [WC] Emma Raducanu: Raducanu showed off some solid tennis at Eastbourne last week. But the suffered a course correction at the hands of Daria Kasatkina. Alexandrova can be unplayable on the day or … extremely playable.

–[16] Victoria Azarenka (BLR) vs. Sloane Stephens (USA): If Stephens is on – and that’s been increasingly rare of late – this one could be amazing. No breaks for Stephens, who drew Raducanu in the first round this week at Eastbourne.

***Two precocious 17-year-olds will meet in the first round***

–[24] Mirra Andreeva (RUS) vs. Brenda Fruhvirtova (CZE): It’s a battle of the younger sisters in two up-and-coming Russian sister acts. And it’s likely one of the youngest matches – age-wise – we’ve seen in awhile. Andreeva turned 17 at the end of April; Fruhvirtova turned 17 at the beginning of April. She’s actually nearly a month older, which tells you just how precocious Andreeva has been. As it happens, both of their older sisters fell in the qualifying.

There are more, but isn’t that already enough to guarantee an off-the charts first few days on the women’s side?

We say yes.