Former champ Kvitova, three British teenagers receive Wimbledon wild cards

Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, who returned from maternity leave this year, has received a wild card for this year's edition of The Championships.

The Czech left-hander's brand of ferocious power hitting saw her become the first player born in the 1990s to win a Grand Slam title when she defeated Maria Sharapova in the 2011 final. Kvitova went on to reclaim the Venus Rosewater Dish in 2014. The 35-year-old is currently ranked No. 572 and won the first match of her comeback in Rome last month over Irina-Camelia Begu.

As well as Kvitova, seven home hopes have received main-draw wild cards this year. They include three British teenagers who have all cracked the junior Top 10 over the past two years and who will all contest the main draw of a Grand Slam for the first time:

• Mingge Xu, 17, is ranked No. 350 and was victorious on her WTA main-draw debut in Nottingham this week over Katie Volynets. Xu has notched her first two Top 100 wins in the past three weeks, having also defeated Alycia Parks in the Birmingham WTA 125;
• Roland Garros junior finalist Hannah Klugman, 16, also made her tour-level debut this week in Nottingham, falling to Yulia Putintseva in the first round. Junior No. 3 Klugman reached the final round of Wimbledon qualifying last year with wins over Petra Marcinko and Linda Fruhvirtova, and is currently ranked No. 577;
• US Open junior champion Mika Stojsavljevic, 16, scored her first Top 100 win in Nottingham qualifying this week over Anastasia Zakharova. No. 919-ranked Stojsavljevic impressed on her WTA main-draw debut in Tokyo last October, stretching Moyuka Uchijima to a third-set tiebreak before falling.

The remaining wild cards have been awarded to four British players ranked outside the Top 100.

• No. 118 Harriet Dart, 28, is a five-time WTA quarterfinalist on grass, and reached the Wimbledon third round last year;
• No. 132 Francesca Jones, 24, was ranked No. 295 in May 2024, and improved to her career high of No. 113 last month. Jones has won two ITF W75 titles this year, in Vacaria and Prague, and defeated Dart in the first round of Nottingham this week;
• No. 147 Heather Watson, 33, will compete in her 15th Wimbledon main draw. The four-time WTA titlist and former No. 38's best run to date was a fourth-round showing in 2022. Last week, she made the second round of Queen's as a qualifier, upsetting Yulia Putintseva for her first Top 30 win since February 2024;
• No. 162 Jodie Burrage, 26, was the 2023 Nottingham runner-up and reached her career high of No. 85 in March 2024 -- but was sidelined for seven months due to wrist and ankle injuries, and was forced to miss last year's Wimbledon. Since returning, she has improved her ranking from No. 332 last October, including capturing her biggest title to date at December's Dubai ITF W100.

Earlier, Anhelina Kalinina withdrew from The Championships, moving Japan's Aoi Ito into her first Grand Slam main draw, and Mananchaya Sawangkaew withdrew from the qualifying due to a back injury. Dart, Jones, Watson and Burrage have all also been withdrawn from the qualifying list. The first six alternates to the qualifying list have now all gained entry: Stefanie Voegele, Andrea Lazaro Garcia, Kristina Dmitruk, Kayla Cross, Carlota Martinez Cirez and Leonie Kung.

The first five alternates to the main draw are now Erika Andreeva, Bianca Andreescu, Alizé Cornet, Leolia Jeanjean and Antonia Ruzic.

The first five alternates to the qualifying draw are now Justina Mikulskyte, Marina Bassols Ribera, Jazmin Ortenzi, Valentina Ryser and Haruka Kaji.

Seven out of nine qualifying wild cards have been allocated. Last year's junior champion Renata Jamrichova will contest her second Grand Slam qualifying event, having reached the second round as a wild card at this year's Australian Open. The 17-year-old Slovak is ranked No. 330.

The remaining six qualifying wild cards have gone to the six highest-ranked British players outside the qualifying cut-off (except main-draw wild card Xu): No. 242 Yuriko Lily Miyazaki, No. 264 Amarni Banks, No. 362 Ella McDonald, No. 392 Amelia Rajecki, No. 400 Emily Appleton and No. 472 Ranah Stoiber. The last two qualifying wild cards will be determined in a play-off to be held this week.