EMMA RADUCANU gets her Wimbledon campaign up and running after a two-year absence.
But the US Open champion has been hit by a late change of opponent.
Raducanu – who missed the 2023 Championships as she recovered from triple surgeries – was due to face Ekaterina Alexandrova.
But the 22nd seed Alexandrova pulled out with illness on Monday morning.
So Raducanu will now play Mexican Renata Zarazua second up on Centre Court.
Renata Zarazua is a 26-year-old Mexican tennis player who is currently ranked world No 98.
Zarazua was deemed a “lucky loser” after falling in the third round of qualifying to reach the tournament.
This year is the first time that Zarazua has qualified to play in the first round of Wimbledon.
Though she qualified to play in the first round of both the Australian Open and the French Open this year.
Zarazua heads into Wimbledon in good form, having picked up her first WTA Challenger title this year in February, wining the Puerto Vallarta Open in her home country of Mexico.
And she reached the semi-finals at the Nottingham Open two weeks ago, losing to British No1 Katie Boulter in a three-set clash.
Zarazua also featured for Mexico in Tokyo Olympics in 2021, losing in the first round to Japan’s Misaki Doi.
The winner will receive £93,000 for reaching the second round.
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Prize money for the 2024 Wimbledon Championships is a new record – and puts the grass-court Slam at the top of the tree.
The All England Club will dish out £50million across all the events – an increase of £5.3m and 11.9 per cent on last year, where singles champions Carlos Alcaraz and Marketa Vondrousova picked up £2.35m each.
However, the king and queen of grass this July will collect an extra £350,000 – taking the winner’s earnings to £2.7m.
Here is the breakdown for the 2024 Wimbledon singles prize money:
