ANDY Murray may have to defeat the other three members of tennis’s big four if he is to reclaim the Wimbledon title this year. The 2013 winner is in the lower half of the draw, which means he cannot meet Novak Djokovic, the No 1 seed and defending champion, until the final of this year’s Championships. But in order to get that far he might first need to battle past both Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.

The Scot, seeded third, will open his campaign on Tuesday against Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan, the world No 58. The pair have met twice before, in Australia, and Murray has won both times.

If he gets past that hurdle, he will then face either Robin Haase of the Netherlands or Alejandro Falla of Colombia, followed by a probable third-round meeting with Italy’s Andreas Seppi, the No 25 seed. Murray is then scheduled to meet Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the last 16, before a quarter-final against either Nadal or David Ferrer. Nadal is seeded tenth this year after a run of poor form, while Ferrer is eighth, and has an opening match against Britain’s James Ward.

Federer, the seven-time Wimbledon winner, has been handed a favourable draw and may not face a serious threat until a potential quarter-final against Tomas Berdych. If he and Murray meet in the semi-final it will be their first encounter at SW19 since the Olympic final, which Murray won just a month after losing to his Swiss opponent in the final of Wimbledon itself.

Djokovic will be happy to have been placed in the opposite half from his three biggest rivals, but he is in line for a semi-final against the man who beat him in the French Open final three weeks ago, Stan Wawrinka. The Serb also has a tricky couple of opening matches against experienced and dangerous grass-court competitors: Philipp Kohlschreiber is first up on Monday, and then Lleyton Hewitt or Jarkko Nieminen await in the second round.

In the women’s singles, Britain’s Johanna Konta showed good form to reach the quarter-finals in Eastbourne this week, but will still have to improve considerably to have a realistic chance of winning her first-round match against Maria Sharapova, the 2004 champion. Petra Kvitova, the champion, opens up against Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands, while Serena Williams, the No 1 seed, meets Russia’s Margarita Gasparyan.