Elena Baltacha

IPSWICH-based Elena Baltacha will face Italian Karin Knapp in the first round of the Wimbledon All England Championships, which begins on Monday.

Knapp is the current world 94 and lost her only ever game at Wimbledon, while Baltacha, currently ranked 101st in the world, will be looking to better her third round best which came a decade ago.

Scotland’s Andy Murray, who will represent Great Britain at this summer’s Olympics, will play Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko in the first round at SW19, while James Ward faces Andy Roddick.

Elsewhere, Novak Djokovic faces Juan Carlos Ferrero and Rafel Nadal takes on Thomaz Belluci, while in the women’s draw, French Open winner and world number one Maria Sharapova faces Anastasia Rodionova.

Baltacha said: “I have never played her before and I actually don’t know very much about her, which is quite strange really because we’ve both been around a while.

“I will ask around the other players and get some info on her and there are probably some clips on YouTube as well, which can be quite useful just to see how someone plays.

“For me it’s about making sure that I play the kind of tennis that I know I can and if I do that I’m confident I can win.

“It’s not a bad draw at all but, you know, everyone can play and everyone badly wants to win every match at Wimbledon, so I’ll need to be ready.

“My neck has been getting better slowly since I pulled out of Eastbourne and there has been a big improvement in the last day or so, which is great.

“I’m having lots of physio on it and I’m very optimistic that I’ll be fine for Tuesday.”