Almost four years ago, Mimi Xu sat among a group of hopeful players, watching Emma Raducanu light up the tennis world with her US Open fairytale. Back then, she was just 13. Now at 17, Xu is about to live out a dream of her own, stepping onto the big stage at Wimbledon with a wildcard in hand. And in a twist worthy of a movie, her first-ever Grand Slam opponent will be none other than Raducanu herself.

This moment didn’t come out of nowhere. Xu, currently ranked just outside the world’s top 300, has been making quiet but steady progress this season. She reached the quarterfinals at both the W50 Kyoto and W35 Nottingham events, and even bagged her first W35 title in Aldershot. Not just that, she’s already claimed two wins over top-100 players on British grass courts this summer.

That’s the kind of momentum you want when you’re about to step into the lion’s den for your Grand Slam debut. But when the Wimbledon draw dropped last Friday, the 17-year-old Welsh player was in the middle of a move, jumping between rented homes, unaware of the news.

Talking to Sky Sports, she said, “Everyone was texting my mum, saying, ‘Oh, that’s such a good draw for her,’ and like, ‘Such a good experience for her.’ And I’m like, ‘Who am I playing? What’s going on?’ So then I’m scrolling through, trying to find out who I am playing, and eventually I get to know that it’s Emma Raducanu.”

The nerves? Apparently not a problem. Xu sounds as ready as ever. “I am really confident in my game at the moment, and really confident in myself, so I’m ready to go out and just embrace every moment. It doesn’t come around very often. This won’t happen a lot in my lifetime. So I’m just ready to go out and enjoy every moment. I’ll probably get 10 years of Wimbledon experience in one day! I’m fully ready for it,” she said.

Raducanu and Xu aren’t complete strangers either. They sometimes chat in Mandarin, thanks to their shared Chinese roots — Xu’s parents are Chinese, and so is Raducanu’s mother. Their bond became stronger when Xu served as a hitting partner for the British squad at the Billie Jean King Cup Finals in Malaga last November.

But this won’t be just a heartwarming reunion. Both players will be out to win, and Emma Raducanu’s own draw offers no room to breathe.

Emma Raducanu’s tough path at Wimbledon

Emma Raducanu’s played two tournaments on grass this season before heading to Wimbledon. One of those ended in a quarterfinal finish at Queen’s. She also teamed up with Katie Boulter for doubles under the fun nickname “Boultercanu” but lost in the round of 16. In Eastbourne, she fell in the same round to 19-year-old Maya Joint.

Still, Wimbledon offers home comfort for the British No.1. It’s where she made her name, with that surprise fourth-round run in 2021, months before conquering New York. She repeated that fourth-round feat at last year’s edition, making it her second-best Grand Slam performance.

This time, however, the path is full of thorns. If she beats Xu in the first round, she’ll go on to face either 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova or 32nd seed McCartney Kessler in the second. Things don’t ease up from there. A potential third-round clash looms with world number one Aryna Sabalenka. It’s hard to imagine a trickier opening stretch with two Grand Slam champions looming in the draw, and if Raducanu wants to go deep this year, she’ll have to battle through the gauntlet.

The first stop? Mimi Xu. And that alone makes Monday’s match unmissable. Who will you be rooting for? Let us know in the comments below!