Britain's Heather Watson and Paul Jubb are among the first raft of players given Wimbledon singles wildcards.

Watson, an ever present in the main draw since 2010, is ranked 122nd in the world, but showed good grass-court form in making the last eight in Surbiton.

Teenager Jubb became the first Briton to win the prestigious NCAA college title in the United States in May.

Fellow Britons Jay Clarke, James Ward, Harriet Dart and Katie Swan have also been given a place in the 28 June draw.

Jubb will be unable to accept any prize money, which would have been a minimum of £45,000, because he is remaining an amateur and continuing his studies at the University of South Carolina.

"Beyond happy to play my first Wimbledon and be given this amazing opportunity," Jubb, 19, tweeted. "As a young lad growing up in Hull it was a big dream to get to SW19."

Gordon Reid, who won the title in 2016, has been awarded a wildcard for the wheelchair singles.

Four-time wheelchair doubles champion Jordanne Whiley, who missed last year's tournament after giving birth to her son, Jackson, in January 2018, is given a place the singles draw.

Andrew Lapthorne is rewarded for his good form in making the final in Amiens earlier this month with a place in the quad wheelchair draw.

World number 18 Johanna Konta is the only female British player assured of entry into the singles draw on the basis of her world ranking.

Kyle Edmund, Cameron Norrie and Daniel Evans will all have a place in the men's singles.

Andy Murray, the two-time champion, will return to Wimbledon after five months out with a career-threatening hip injury in the doubles tournament via either a wildcard or by using his protected singles ranking.

Another four wildcards will be announced for both the men's and women's singles before the tournament starts on 1 July.

Analysis

BBC tennis correspondent Russell Fuller

If you are American, winning the NCAA title earns you a place in the US Open - and the All England Club clearly feels this huge achievement merits a place in the main draw at Wimbledon, too.

Jubb may be 579th in the world rankings, but timing is everything, and on Tuesday the 19-year-old had the best win of his fledgling tour career as he beat the world number 104 Thiago Monteiro in the Challenger event in Ilkley.

One name that does not appear on the list is that of Katie Boulter, who has not played since April because of a back injury.

The British number three has returned to the practice courts, but is not playing in Eastbourne next week, and has not yet reached the fitness required to enable the All England Club to offer her a place in the draw.

Wimbledon wildcards

Men's singles

1. Marcos Baghdatis (Cyp)

2. Jay Clarke (GB)

3. Paul Jubb (GB)

4. James Ward (GB)

Women's singles

1. Harriet Dart (Gbr)

2. Katie Swan (GB)

3. Iga Swiatek (Pol)

4. Heather Watson (GB)

Men's doubles

1. Liam Broady (GB) & Scott Clayton (GB)

2. Jay Clarke (GB) & James Ward (GB)

3. Dan Evans (GB) & Lloyd Glasspool (GB)

4. Lleyton Hewitt (Aus) & Jordan Thompson (Aus)

5. Ken Skupski (GB) & John-Patrick Smith (Aus)

Women's doubles

1. Naiktha Bains (GB) & Naomi Broady (GB)

2. Freya Christie (GB) & Katie Swan (GB)

3. Harriet Dart (GB) & Katie Dunne (GB)

4. Sarah Beth Grey (GB) & Eden Silva (GB)

Men's wheelchair singles

1. Gordon Reid (GB)

Women's wheelchair singles

1. Jordanne Whiley (GB)

Quad wheelchair singles

1. Andy Lapthorne (GB)

Former British number one Andy Murray is set to take another step in his comeback from hip surgery by playing with Brazilian Marcelo Melo at Eastbourne next week.

Murray will make his competitive return alongside Spain's Feliciano Lopez in the doubles at Queen's this week.

Their match has been pushed back to Thursday after rain washed out play in London on Tuesday.

The 32-year-old Scot had a hip resurfacing operation in January.

The three-time Grand Slam singles champion has linked up with 37-year-old Lopez in a short-term arrangement at Queen's, playing again just five months after being seemingly resigned to retirement because of the "constant pain" in his hip.

Now he will play with 35-year-old Melo on the south coast, while it has not been confirmed who Murray is set to partner if he plays at Wimbledon next month.

Former world number one doubles player Melo is a two-time Grand Slam men's doubles champion, having won the 2015 French Open and 2017 Wimbledon titles, and is currently fourth in the doubles rankings.

Murray, whose last match was a five-set defeat by Roberto Bautista Agut in the opening round of the Australian Open in January, has said he still has "quite a lot of work to do" before he can play in singles again.

No player has ever resumed a singles career after a hip resurfacing operation, although American doubles player Bob Bryan returned five months after the surgery in 2018.

The Nature Valley International starts in Eastbourne on Monday, with live coverage across the BBC on television, radio and online.

Briton Johanna Konta's Wimbledon preparations were damaged by a second-round loss to Jelena Ostapenko in the second round in Birmingham.

The seventh seed, who reached the French Open semi-finals, was beaten 6-3 6-4 by the Latvian world number 37.

Konta missed last week's Nottingham event and will now hope to gather more match time on grass at Eastbourne next week before Wimbledon starts on 1 July.

French Open champion Ashleigh Barty and Venus Williams advanced to round two.

Czech identical twins Karolina and Kristyna Pliskova meet in the second round later on Wednesday.

Konta stalls on grass after clay success

Konta had been the only Briton left in a strong field at the Edgbaston Priory Club after first-round defeats for Harriet Dart and Heather Watson.

And after a strong clay-court season, where she reached two WTA finals on the surface as well as the last four at Roland Garros, she had hoped to continue her good form on to the grass.

But the 2017 Wimbledon semi-finalist failed to make it past the second round in Birmingham for the seventh successive year.

Ostapenko, the 2017 French Open champion and also a semi-finalist at Wimbledon last year, won the first three games of the match to stamp her authority early on.

The devastating serve that the Briton had used to such great effect at the French Open let her down as she won 59% of her first-serve points.

She showed fighting spirit when she faced set point on her serve in the eighth game of the first set, saving it to force the Latvian to serve it out.

She also overturned an early break in the second set but then immediately lost her next service game to give Ostapenko sight of the finishing line.

Konta finally succumbed when she hit a fairly routine baseline shot long after an hour and 19 minutes.

"Of course I'm trying to play aggressively. She is a such a great server so I had no choice and I had to serve well. Johanna is such a fighter and you always have to play until the last point - I've tried to be very focused," said Ostapenko.

"I'm more hungry now as I've not had many wins this year."

The 22-year-old will now play either Russia's Margarita Gasparyan or Croatia's Petra Martic in the last eight.

Barty and Williams reach round two

French Open champion Barty got her grass-court season off to a winning start with victory over Donna Vekic.

The 23-year-old Australian recovered from an early break in the first set to beat the Croat 6-3 6-4.

She is joined in the second round by seven-time Grand Slam champion Williams, who beat Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-3 6-4.

Barty and Williams' matches were among several to be postponed when play was suspended because of rain on Tuesday.

After a wobbly start against Vekic, Barty won five games in a row from the seventh game in the first set to set up a meeting with American Jennifer Brady, who beat Lesia Tsurenko 6-3 6-3.

Vekic, runner-up at the Nottingham grass event on Sunday, staged a mini fightback when she broke Barty during the Australian's first opportunity to serve for the match, but Barty sealed victory in her next service game.

Barty said that playing as a Grand Slam champion had freed her up, rather than putting pressure on her shoulders.

"I can just go out and enjoy it, enjoy every single match. It is an opportunity to try and be better and really go out there and just have fun," she said.

"It was really nice to come out now and kind of get back into a normal routine of playing matches again."

Meanwhile, 39-year-old Williams - who accepted a wildcard to make her first appearance at the Edgbaston Priory Club - put in a solid performance against world number 36 Sasnovich with less than two weeks to go until the start of Wimbledon.

It is only the fourth time Williams has played in a grass-court event before Wimbledon. She appeared in the doubles here earlier in the week but her surprise partnership with Briton Harriet Dart ended in a first-round defeat.

The American will face China's Wang Qiang in the second round of the singles.

England winger Jack Nowell should be fit in time for the World Cup after having successful ankle surgery.

The 26-year-old picked up the injury while playing for Exeter Chiefs in the Premiership final earlier this month.

Nowell underwent scans on his knee and ankle following the loss to Saracens and had an operation on Tuesday.

Exeter have not said how long he is out for, but said they saw "no reason why it should jeopardise him being involved with England at the World Cup".

Eddie Jones names his full World Cup training squad on 4 July, with England's first game of the tournament against Tonga on 22 September.

The final in Japan takes place on 2 November.

Nowell has won 33 caps since making his debut in 2014 and played two games for the British and Irish Lions in 2017.

MARIBEL, Wis. — Justin Ritchie held off Brett Swedberg and Brad Mueller to win The Diamond 41, the crown jewel of the DiscountShopTowels.comDirt Kings Late Model Tour, Tuesday night at 141 Speedway.

Ritchie made his first visit to the Mueller’s Sales & Service Victory Lane being crowned King and sitting in the King’s throne. Justin Reed took the early lead and led the first 14 laps until Swedberg charged Reed on the inside.

Swedberg continued to lead until the caution came out on lap 22.
On the restart, Swedberg pulled out to a straightaway wide margin over Ritchie, Reed, Mueller and Nick Anvelink. Caution slowed the field with just six laps remaining and Swedberg led the field to the green.

Reed regained the lead on the restart going into turn two, followed by Ritchie, Swedberg and Mueller.

Ritchie took the lead with just two laps to go after battling to the inside of Reed. Ritchie also had to survived a green-white-checkered finish to pick up his first DiscountShopTowels.com Dirt Kings Late Model Tour win.

Swedberg finished second, followed by Mueller, Troy Springborn, Reed and Nick Anvelink.

Ten-time World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series champion Donny Schatz finished 20th.

The finish:

Justin Ritchie, Brett Swedberg, Brad Mueller, Troy Springborn, Justin Reed, Nick Anvelink, Mitch McGrath, Kyle Raddant, Tim Buhler, Justin Schmidt, Chris Engels, Paul Parker, David Jaeger, Tom Naeyaert, Joe Reuter, Joe Bongiorno, Ron Stroika, Taylor Scheffler, Jim Letizia, Donny Schatz, Ron Berna, Derek Janke.

JACKSONVILLE, Ill. — Brandon Sheppard scored his first DIRTcar Summer Nationals victory of the season in round two of the series Tuesday night at Jacksonville Speedway.

The Morton Buildings World of Outlaws Late Model Series point leader won his second consecutive Hell Tour feature at the quarter-mile dirt track with a late-race pass of former tour champion Bobby Pierce.

Starting on the pole and leading the first 37 laps of the $5,000-to-win feature, Pierce finished second.

Defending Summer Nationals champion Brian Shirley raced from sixth to finish third. Frank Heckenast and Tanner English completed the top five.

Allen Weisser won the modified feature.

The finish:

Feature (40 Laps) – 1. B5-Brandon Sheppard [3]; 2. 32-Bobby Pierce [1]; 3. 3S-Brian Shirley [6]; 4. 99JR-Frank Heckenast, [9]; 5. 96-Tanner English [8]; 6. 18-Shannon Babb [5]; 7. 25-Jason Feger [12]; 8. 25W-Allen Weisser [7]; 9. 16-Rusty Griiffaw [15]; 10. 33-Rodney Melvin [11]; 11. CJ1-Rusty Schlenk [4]; 12. 15V-Kolby Vandenbergh [10]; 13. 30-Mark Voigt [18]; 14. 31AUS-Paul Stubber [14]; 15. 27-Greg Kimmons [21]; 16. 87-Walker Arthur [13]; 17. 16H-Mike Hammerle [20]; 18. 32M-Cody Maguire [17]; 19. 4-Jason Suhre [22]; 20. 21-Billy Moyer [2]; 21. 25H-Chuck Hummer [19]; 22. 55-Matt Bailey [16]; 23. 6-Cliff Powell [23]; Hard Charger:16-Rusty Griiffaw[+6]

NORWALK, Ohio – As citizens of Ohio know all too well, it’s been a soggy spring this year across the Buckeye State.

However, if history can provide any sort of lesson, it’s that the NHRA’s annual pilgrimage to Northwest Ohio always seems to be the true start of the summer months.

That’s certainly the hope of five-time NHRA Pro Stock champion Jeg Coughlin Jr., who brings his JEGS.com Chevrolet Camaro home for what he hopes will be a memorable weekend at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Summit Motorsports Park.

The Norwalk event marks the 12th of 24 events on the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season, the halfway point of the year and a home game for Ohio native Coughlin.

“I think we’re all anxious for summer to finally get here, and normally the conditions at the Norwalk race are more conducive to eating ice cream than anything else,” Coughlin said. “It’s been very rainy and cooler this spring though, even lately, which is unusual this far into June, so if the NHRA visiting our state can turn the tide, I’m all for it.”

With a legion of friends, family and JEGS associates expected to be on hand, Coughlin also is hoping a return to his home state results in a return to his early-season form, highlighted by his 61st career Pro Stock win at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park in February.

“The Norwalk weekend would be a perfect place to see this yellow and black JEGS Camaro back on top,” he said. “The car’s been running pretty well all along, but of late, we really haven’t quite been on the pace we set in the first five races of the year. The team at Elite has been working very hard to fix the little performance issues bugging us and they definitely feel like we’re back on track.

“We’re looking to qualify well and contend once again for the No. 1 starting spot, and we’re very anxious to see some win lights come Sunday so we can put ourselves in position to win again.”

Based in the Columbus suburb of Delaware, Ohio, JEGS High Performance employs more than 400 associates, many of whom plan to make the trek to Norwalk to root on the JEGS-branded hot rods of Jeg Jr. and his nephew Troy Jr., who races the JEGS.com “Save on Garage Gear” Top Alcohol Dragster out of the McPhillips Racing camp.

“Whenever we race Norwalk or back home at National Trail Raceway, we always have a huge fan base rooting for us,” Jeg Jr. said. “That makes it so special for everyone that proudly supports our brand. It also makes it extra satisfying to perform well in front of them because these are people we see every day in the hallways at work.

“We’re proud to be from Ohio and represent our state all around the country, but nothing beats doing well at home.”