Can Rybakina enter the elite club?

Defending women's champion Elena Rybakina will face American Shelby Rogers in the opening round at Wimbledon while top seed Iga Swiatek faces a tough test against China's Zhu Lin.

While much of the focus is understandably on top seed Iga Swiatek and number two Aryna Sabalenka, as well as the likes of Coco Gauff and Jabeur, Rybakina will quietly go about her business when she opens play on Centre Court on Tuesday.

World number one Iga Swiatek is on a mission to improve her modest record on grasscourts and said on Saturday that she had gone back to basics in the buildup to Wimbledon, which starts on Monday.

Swiatek won the U.S. Open in 2022 and last month secured her second consecutive French Open crown. But while the 22-year-old has had success on hardcourts and clay, she is yet to win a tournament on grass and has yet to get past the round of 16 at Wimbledon.

Aryna Sabalenka will aim to keep the focus on tennis and not politics on her return to Wimbledon, with the "super emotional" Belarusian saying on Saturday she was relishing the chance to compete in the Grand Slam again.

The grasscourt major starting on Monday will welcome back players from Russia and Belarus this year after reversing a 2022 ban on them due to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, during which Belarus was used as a staging area.

"She's [Elena Rybakina] got the perfect game for grass when everything is working, but everything has to be working," three-time Wimbledon champion Chris Evert said when previewing the tournament for broadcaster ESPN this week.

"It's always tough to defend your title. I just feel like she's shown a little vulnerability this year. She played a great, great match when she won the tournament, but at the same time I don't know if she's at that top form right now.

"You definitely have to be 100 percent physically to play seven matches and to do things with your body that you're not accustomed to doing versus a hard court or a clay court."

As Evert rightly points out, successfully defending a Wimbledon women's title is no easy task. Only Serena and Venus Williams and Steffi Graf have managed it in the last 30 years.

But anyone dismissing Rybakina's chances of joining that elite club would do well to remember the way she calmly picked her way through the draw last year with the minimum of fuss.