Lawn Tennis
Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships, London, England, Jun. 23-July 6, Grand Slam Wimbledon
June 23-July 6
London, England
Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships, London, England, Jun. 23-July 6, Grand Slam
Xavier Malisse Among Announced Wimbledon Wildcards
By Ken Miller, Lawn Tennis Correspondent, Posted: Wednesday, June 11, 2008 2:15pm CST USA
Xavier Malisse Among Announced Wimbledon Wildcards
Xavier Malisse of Belgium
LONDON, England (lawntennismag.com)—Wimbledon, which begins June 23rd, Tuesday announced 11 of 16 available maindraw wildcards for both the ladies' and gentlemen's singles draws.

Among the wildcards released are from Britian: Jamie Baker, Alex Bogdanovic, Elena, Baltacha, Naomi Cavaday, Katie O'Brien and Melanie South. Also receiving a wildcard was 2002 Wimbledon semifinalist Xavier Malisse of Belgium.

Receiving a wildcard was 2002 Wimbledon semifinalist Xavier Malisse of Belgium

Rounding out the eleven announced wildcards awarded are Frank Dancevic of Canada and Jeremy Chardy of France in the gentlemen's draw. In the ladies' draw Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro and Urszula Radwanska of Poland finish the list of wildcards.

17 year old Radwanska is a former world number one junior player and is currently ranked 190 on the WTA Tour. She is the younger sister of Agnieszka Radwanska. Urszula also won the junior Wimbledon girls singles title in 2007.

Malisse played a limited ATP Tour schedule last year due to an injured right wrist and this year is only 6-9 in competition.

Today at the Artois Championships in London, England in second round play, the 27 year old Malisse lost to 11th seeded Lleyton Hewitt of Australia 6-3, 6-2. Today's loss is not a bad loss if you consider Hewitt is the last ATP Tour player to win Wimbledon other than world number one Roger Federer of Switzerland. Federer took the title 2003-2007. Hewitt won in 2002.

Malisse turned professional in 1998 and reached his highest singles ranking of number 19 in 2002. The Belgian has won three career singles and four doubles ATP Tour titles. He is known for his strong baseline game including an overpowering forehand.

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