Tennis: Roddick handed tough early draw

LONDON -  Top seed Roger Federer will play France's Paul-Henri Matthieu in the first round at Wimbledon following the draw yesterday.

Second seed Andy Roddick was given a straightforward opening match against Jiri Vanek but in the second round could play giant Croatian Ivo Karlovic.

Roddick narrowly beat the towering Karlovic 7-6 7-6 in the final of the Queen's warm-up event at the weekend.

Third seed and former champion Lleyton Hewitt plays Belgian Christophe Rochus in round one. Hewitt was drawn in the top half of the draw so could meet Federer in the semis.

French Open champion and fourth seed Rafael Nadal faces American Vince Spadea.

British hope Tim Henman, seeded sixth in the bottom half of the draw, faces Finn Jarkko Nieminen in the opening round.

Wimbledon Men's singles draw

1-Roger Federer (Switzerland) vs Paul-Henri Mathieu (France)

Ivo Minar (Czech Republic) vs Michal Tabara (Czech Republic)

Joshua Goodall (Britain) vs Alessio Di Mauro (Italy)

Julien Benneteau (France) vs 25-Nicolas Kiefer (Germany)

23-Juan Carlos Ferrero (Spain) vs qualifier

Thomas Enqvist (Sweden) vs Hyung-Taik Lee (South Korea)

Florian Mayer (Germany) vs Santiago Ventura (Spain)

Fernando Verdasco (Spain) vs 13-Tommy Robredo (Spain)

11-Joachim Johansson (Sweden) vs Albert Montanes (Spain)

Alberto Martin (Spain) vs Greg Rusedski (Britain)

Jose Acasuso (Argentina) vs Tomas Zib (Czech Republic)

Alan Mackin (Britain) vs 21-Fernando Gonzalez (Chile)

31-Mikhail Youzhny (Russia) vs Marcos Baghdatis (Cyprus)

Oscar Hernandez (Spain) vs Jean-Rene Lisnard (France)

Jonas Bjorkman (Sweden) vs qualifier

Scott Draper (Australia) vs 8-Nikolay Davydenko (Russia)

3-Lleyton Hewitt (Australia) vs Christophe Rochus (Belgium)

Jan Hernych (Czech Republic) vs James Blake (United States)

qualifier vs qualifier

Sargis Sargsian (Armenia) vs 29-Nicolas Massu (Chile)

24-Taylor Dent (United States) vs qualifier

Kevin Kim (United States) vs Alex Bogdanovic (Britain)

qualifier vs Tomas Berdych (Czech Republic)

Lars Burgsmueller (Germany) vs 16-Mariano Puerta (Argentina)

10-Mario Ancic (Croatia) vs qualifier

qualifier vs Stefan Koubek (Austria)

Gael Monfils (France) vs Olivier Rochus (Belgium)

Cyril Saulnier (France) vs 22-Dominik Hrbaty (Slovakia)

26-Feliciano Lopez (Spain) vs Bjoern Phau (Germany)

David Sherwood (Britain) vs Ricardo Mello (Brazil)

Karol Beck (Slovakia) vs Mark Philippoussis (Australia)

Paradorn Srichaphan (Thailand) vs 5-Marat Safin (Russia)

7-Guillermo Canas (Argentina) vs qualifier

Max Mirnyi (Belarus) vs Rainer Schuettler (Germany)

Stanislas Wawrinka (Switzerland) vs Fabrice Santoro (France)

Peter Wessels (Netherlands) vs 28-Jiri Novak (Czech Republic)

19-Tommy Haas (Germany) vs Janko Tipsarevic (Serbia and Montenegro)

qualifier vs qualifier

Andrei Pavel (Romania) vs qualifier

Bohdan Ulihrach (Czech Republic) vs 12-Thomas Johansson (Sweden)

14-Radek Stepanek (Czech Republic) vs Robby Ginepri (United States)

Andrew Murray (Britain) vs qualifier

Karol Kucera (Slovakia) vs Luis Horna (Peru)

Raemon Sluiter (Netherlands) vs 18-David Nalbandian (Argentina)

27-Richard Gasquet (France) vs Philipp Kohlschreiber (Germany)

Sjeng Schalken (Netherlands) vs Potito Starace (Italy)

Felix Mantilla (Spain) vs Gilles Muller (Luxembourg)

Vince Spadea (United States) vs 4-Rafael Nadal (Spain)

6-Tim Henman (Britain) vs Jarkko Nieminen (Finland)

Nicolas Almagro (Spain) vs Dmitry Tursunov (Russia)

Alexander Popp (Germany) vs Jerome Haehnel (France)

Wayne Arthurs (Australia) vs 32-Filippo Volandri (Italy)

17-David Ferrer (Spain) vs Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (Spain)

Juan Monaco (Argentina) vs qualifier

Victor Hanescu (Romania) vs Kenneth Carlsen (Denmark)

Michael Llodra (France) vs 9-Sebastien Grosjean (France)

15-Guillermo Coria (Argentina) vs Tomas Behrend (Germany)

Jonathan Marray (Britain) vs Xavier Malisse (Belgium)

Alex Calatrava (Spain) vs qualifier

Juergen Melzer (Austria) vs 20-Ivan Ljubicic (Croatia)

30-Robin Soederling (Sweden) vs Igor Andreev (Russia)

Davide Sanguinetti (Italy) vs qualifier

qualifier vs Ivo Karlovic (Croatia)

Jiri Vanek (Czech Republic) vs 2-Andy Roddick (United States)

- REUTERS