Taiwan's Chan Yung-jan was yesterday drawn to meet Russian star Maria Sharapova in the first round of the women's singles at the Wimbledon tennis championships which begin on Monday.
The two have met once before in a major tournament, earlier this year in Miami, where Sharapova ran out a comfortable 6-3, 6-2 winner.
The Russian won Wimbledon in 2004 and reached the semi-finals in 2005 and last year. Chan has only one Wimbledon appearance under her belt, a first round loss last year.
PHOTO: AFP
Nevertheless, the 17-year-old from Taipei has an impressive 21-9 record so far this year, having won three challenger tournaments.
France's defending women's champion Amelie Mauresmo was drawn to play Jamea Jackson of the US while Belgian top seed Justine Henin starts against qualifier Jorgelina Cravero of Argentina.
Serena Williams of the US was drawn against Lourdes Dominguez-Lino of Spain.
In the men's singles top-ranked Roger Federer will play Teimuraz Gabashvili of Russia to open his bid for a fifth consecutive title at the All England Club.
Federer, who defeated Rafael Nadal in last year's final, has never played Gabashvili, who is ranked 85th in the world.
Third-seeded Andy Roddick is in Federer's top half of the draw, and could meet the Swiss star in the semi-finals. Federer beat the American in the 2004 and 2005 finals.
Federer's other main rivals in his section of the draw are Marat Safin, James Blake and Dmitry Tursunov. Federer is trying to become the first player to win five straight Wimbledons since Bjorn Borg accomplished the feat from 1976 to 1980.
Second-seeded Nadal, coming off his third consecutive French Open title, faces Mardy Fish of the US in his opening round match.
Nadal could meet two-time Wimbledon semi-finalist Sebastien Grosjean of France in the third round. Tomas Berdych or Jonas Bjorkman could await in the quarter-finals.
Roddick faces Justin Gimelstob in an all-American first-round matchup and could meet No. 8 Andy Murray of Britain in the quarter-finals.
Fourth-seeded Novak Djokovic, 2002 champion Lleyton Hewitt, 2002 runner-up David Nalbandian and last year's semi-finalist Marcos Baghdatis are in Nadal's half.
Unseeded Briton Tim Henman was drawn to play fellow veteran Carlos Moya of Spain in the opening round. While Henman has reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon four times, his ranking has slumped to 78 amid poor form and injuries.
Henman last reached the semis in 2002 and has lost in the second round in the past two years. Moya has a 5-4 career lead over Henman, although the two have never met on grass.
With Henman's decline, British hopes have been pinned on Murray, who reached the fourth round at Wimbledon last year. However, he is has been troubled by a wrist injury that caused him to pull out of the French Open and Wimbledon warmup events.
Murray opens against Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador.
Taiwan's Lu Yen-hsun will face Max Mirnyi of Belarus in the opening round.
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