Battle of the Brits at Wimbledon: Boulter clashes with Dart

The Battle of the Brits is underway at Wimbledon today as Katie Boulter and Harriet Dart go head-to-head on Court One, while tennis legend Andy Murray steps onto the double’s court as he begins his farewell to SW19.

Alongside his brother Jamie, in what will be the first time the siblings have paired up for a Grand Slam, Murray will take to Centre Court in what the veteran has vowed would be his last ever Wimbledon.

Meanwhile British wildcard Jacob Fearnley, who was ranked outside the world’s top 500 ahead of the tournament, goes face-to-face with seven-time world champion Novak Djokovic.

The 22-year-old Scot only qualified for the Nottingham Open at the start of last month, admitted that ‘it was getting in [his] head a little bit’ that he was going to have take on the Serbian legend. 

This afternoon, more British athletes will face each other on court, with 22-year-old Jack Draper will take on South African born Brit Cameron Norrie to battle it out to get a place in the third round. 

The Battle of the Brits is underway at Wimbledon today as Katie Boulter and Harriet Dart go head-to-head on Court One

Murray training before his doubles match this afternoon with his brother 

Andy Murray steps onto the double’s court as he begins his farewell to SW19

Katie Boulter leaving a training session ahead of her match against Harriet Dart on Court One

Andy Murray has said this will be his last Wimbledon and will play a doubles with his brother

Crowds at Wimbledon enjoying the sun as the players compete to make it to the third round

Harriet Dart following her victory against Zhuoxuan Bai on day two of the competition 

British youngster Jacob Fearnley will face off against Serbian Novak Djokovic this afternoon

Jack Draper celebrates winning the Men’s 1st round match against Elias Ymer of Sweden

Cameron Norrie celebrates winning his first round match against Argentina’s Facundo Diaz

Boulter who is Britain’s number one will take on Dart, ranked second in Britain, for fourth meeting between the pair in the last two years.  

Boulter won the previous three – two of them coming on grass in Nottingham.

Dart’s only victory over her rival came six years ago in Japan but Boulter expects Thursday’s clash to be a big challenge.

She said: ‘Playing a Brit in the UK on the grass is never an easy draw and I’m expecting an absolute battle. I think we both know each other’s games inside-out, back-to-front at this point. We’ve played so many matches.’

Following that match, it is the men’s turn as Jack Draper, the British number one, faces the man he replaced at the top of the country’s rankings last month – Cameron Norrie.

Draper has never reached the third round in his two previous appearances at his home grand slam while Norrie was a semi-finalist in 2022 but came into this year’s tournament out of form.

The pair get on well together but Draper says Norrie ‘won’t like the fact that I’m number one’, while the British number two – who has won both of the meetings between them – has piled the pressure on his younger opponent by labelling him the favourite.

Jacob Fearnley’s reward for his impressive win on his Wimbledon debut is a Centre Court date with 24-time grand-slam champion Novak Djokovic.

He will be the sixth British player to face Djokovic at the Championships, with Andy Murray the only one to beat him.

But he could take some inspiration from the fact Norrie, Draper and Kyle Edmund all took a set off the Serbian before losing.

Lily Miyazaki, who was scheduled to play on Wednesday, will hope to finally get her second-round clash with 14th seed Daria Kasatkina under way.