Service with a sting

She's the most understated of Wimbledon champions (and all the more interesting and likeable for that). Between points, Elena Rybakina doesn't demand your attention, as others do.

In the moments after winning the Venus Rosewater Dish last summer, she barely showed any emotion. As Tracy Austin has observed of Rybakina: "She kinda has a low pulse."

But then the gentle-natured Rybakina steps forward to the baseline, tosses the ball into the air and Centre Court prepares for the most thrillingly violent shot in the women's game.

It was Billie Jean King who once said, "Tennis is a perfect combination of violent action taking place in an atmosphere of total tranquility.” You can't improve on that as a description for Centre Court.

It's particularly fitting when Rybakina is serving. It was Rybakina's serve that propelled her to the Wimbledon title last summer.

She served 53 aces, more than anyone else in the women's draw, and hit a top speed of 122mph, which was faster than every woman apart from Coco Gauff (124mph). If Rybakina - who opens against American Shelby Rogers - serves like that this Fortnight, she could win this again.

Quick thinking, quick feet

Carlos Alcaraz was born in El Palmar, Murcia on 5 May 2003. A couple of months later, Roger Federer won Wimbledon for the first time, the start of an astonishing period of dominance by four players.

In the 20 years Alcaraz has been alive, only four men have lifted the Wimbledon trophy: Federer, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray. If there is to be a new name engraved into tennis history this summer, it might just be Alcaraz.

While he is yet to progress beyond the fourth round at the All England Club, the world No.1 demonstrated at Queen's Club that he is a fast learner, with his mind as quick as his footwork.

Studying videos of Federer and Murray between his matches, the Spaniard became the king of Queen's and now he brings that momentum to his first round match with Frenchman Jeremy Chardy. If he wins Wimbledon, he would be the third youngest in the Open era after Boris Becker and Bjorn Borg.

Knight with fight

Remember those days when every second sentence written about Wimbledon included the words 'Fred Perry', '77 years of failure' and something along the lines of 'Andy Murray saying boo to the ghost of Britain's last men's singles champion'?

This summer it's 10 years since Murray became the first British male champion since Perry in 1936, and the nostalgia has been fun.

But you suspect that Murray, the gnarly knight with a metal hip and plenty of fight still left in him, is far more interested in the here and now and what he can accomplish this Fortnight.

Murray plays Ryan Peniston, a British wild card who "almost crashed" his car after hearing his draw. If you're watching Murray, also keep an eye on Stefanos Tsitsipas against Dominic Thiem as if the Scot gets though he plays one of those two.

Grass is great

After Venus Williams, who has five Wimbledon titles, Petra Kvitova is the most successful active grass court player in the women's game.

The Wimbledon champion in 2011 and 2014, Kvitova reminded everyone of her abilities on grass by winning the Berlin tournament last month without dropping a set. The Czech plays Italy's Jasmine Paolini in the opening round.

Business first

Qualifying for the main draw, and getting to look around the All England Club for the first time, won't have satisfied Mirra Andreeva's grass court ambitions. Far from it. She's not a tourist.

The 16-year-old will want to go on a run, just as she did as a qualifier at this year's Roland-Garros, where she was the youngest woman in almost 20 years to reach the third round and where she took Gauff, a former finalist, to three sets.

In her mind, she will be doubtless thinking: "I did it in Paris, why not in London, too?" Andreeva plays China's Xiyu Wang in the first round.

New this year:

See the draw like never before, with interactive Path to the Final view of the draw by clicking a player’s name on the draws page

See the projected Path to the Final of every player in the Gentlemen’s and Ladies’ singles draws with IBM Likely to Play

View how favourable or difficult a player's draw is, with IBM AI Draw Analysis