Five wildcards for the Women’s singles draw at Wimbledon have been announced, with four home players all receiving entry for the draw.
Naomi Broady and Heather Watson, who were previously entered into the qualifying draw, have both been handed wildcards, as have former top-30 player Laura Robson, who is now back in the top-200 after coming back from several wrist injuries, as has young star, Katie Boulter.
The only other player receiving a wildcard at the moment is Zarina Diyas, a former top-40 player who won the Manchester Challenger just last weekend.
Brits looking for success on home turf
With Johanna Konta the only British woman to have automatically made the main draw, the All England Club have unsurprisingly handed wildcards to four Brits in the hope that they will do well in front of their home crowd.
Both Watson and Broady have had fairly disappointing seasons so far, though both have shown some encouraging form in the grass court season so far. Broady, who will be making her sixth appearance at Wimbledon, reached the semifinals of the Aegon Manchester Trophy last week and beat Alize Cornet in the opening round of the Aegon Classic, whilst Watson, who has played at the tournament for every year since 2010, reached the final in Surbiton two weeks ago. Both will be hoping to improve on first round losses from last year.
Robson will be making her eighth appearance at Wimbledon, reaching the fourth round in 2013, and will be hoping to gain some confidence as she attempts to rebuild her ranking after the injury issues that have affected her wrist in the past couple of years. Meanwhile, Boulter will be making her Grand Slam debut after losing in the second round of qualifying last year.
Diyas looks to rebuild her ranking
It has been a rough 12 months for Diyas, who suffered a wrist injury in the opening round of Wimbledon last year and was forced to miss the rest of the year after surgery, though the Kazakh has the opportunity to play at SW19 again after some recent promising form.
Though she was unseeded at the Aegon Manchester Trophy, Diyas suffered little trouble as she eased to the biggest title of her career without dropping a set and has been rewarded with a wildcard for her impressive run.
Furthermore, the Kazakh has played well at Wimbledon in the past, reaching the second week on her tournament debut in 2014 and matching that result the following year, and will undoubtedly be dangerous on the grass.