Roger Federer and Ashleigh Barty will return to Centre Court at Wimbledon on Thursday hoping to produce more assured performances than they did in their first round matches.

Sandwiched in between their two matches is Coco Gauff’s first appearance on Centre Court since aged 15 when she won the hearts and minds of the spectators in 2019.

Eight-time champion Federer will play a familiar face, fellow veteran Frenchman Richard Gasquet who the Swiss legend beat in the 2007 semi-finals.

Gasquet, 35, is not the force of old though his strokeplay can be blissful but Federer too has looked shaky since returning after two knee operations in the past year.

The 39-year-old had enough problems against another experienced Frenchman Adrian Mannarino in the first round.

They were tied at two sets all when the Frenchman had to retire with a knee injury suffered in a fall towards the end of the fourth set.

Federer who arrived on the back of a surprise second round exit at the tournament he has made his own Halle, which he has won 10 times, put a rusty performance down to it being the first round.

Barty, motivated by this being the 50th anniversary of her fellow indigenous Australian Evonne Goolagong Cawley’s first title, plays Russian Anna Blinkova.

Blinkova like Barty was a talented junior reaching the 2015 girls final at Wimbledon – Barty was junior champion in 2011.

Gauff, now 17, eased through against British wildcard Francesca Jones but a sterner test awaits her in the form of 2016 semi-finalist Elena Vesnina.

Gauff confessed that returning to the grounds where she was arguably the star of the show in 2019, beating Venus Williams along the way to the last 16, had been intimidating.

Court One spectators will have the pleasure of men’s second seed Daniil Medvedev playing promising 18-year-old Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz.

Medvedev sounds confident he can at last produce a decent run at a tournament where his best performance is two third round showings.

Here’s the order of play for day four at Wimbledon 2021 (all timings mentioned are local London times):

CENTRE COURT (1.30PM)

Asheligh Barty (Aus) 1 v Anna Blinkova (Rus)
Elina Vesnina (Rus) v Coco Gauff (USA) 20
Roger Federer (Sui) 6 v Richard Gasquet (Fra)

COURT 1 - (1.00PM)

Alex Bolt (Aus) v Cameron Norrie (Gbr) 29
Carlos Alcaraz (Esp) v Daniil Medvedev (Rus) 2
Victoria Azarenka (Blr) 12 v Sorana Cirstea (Rou)

COURT 2 - (11.00AM)

Tennys Sandgren (USA) v Alexander Zverev (Ger) 4
Elina Svitolina (Ukr) 3 v Magda Linette (Pol)
Angelique Kerber (Ger) 25 v Sara Sorribes Tormo
Felix Auger-Aliassime (Can) 16 v Mikael Ymer (Swe)

COURT 3 - (11.00AM)

Andrea Petkovic (Ger) v Barbora Krejcikova (Cze) 14
Matteo Berrettini (Ita) 7 v Botic Van de Zandschulp (Ned)
Daria Kasatkina (Rus) 31 v Jelena Ostapenko (Lat)
Gianluca Mager (Ita) v Nick Kyrgios (Aus)

COURT 4 - (11.00AM)

Harriet Dart (Gbr) & Heather Watson (Gbr) v Kaia Kanepi (Est) & Shuai Zhang (Chn),
Marta Kostyuk (Ukr) v Anastasija Sevastova (Lat)
Tara Moore (Gbr) & Eden Silva (Gbr) v Laura Siegemund (Ger) & Vera Zvonareva (Rus) 11
Kenneth Skupski (Gbr) & Neal Skupski (Gbr) v Liam Broady (Gbr) & Ryan Peniston (Gbr)
Jay Clarke (Gbr) & Marius Copil (Rom) v Marcus Daniell (Nzl) & Philipp Oswald (Aut) 15

COURT 5 - (11.00AM)

Nikola Mektic (Cro) & Mate Pavic (Cro) 1 v Jonathan Erlich (Isr) & Andrei Vasilevski (Blr)
Maria Sakkari (Gre) 15 v Shelby Rogers (USA)
Raven Klaasen (Rsa) & Ben McLachlan (Jpn) 14 v Andres Molteni (Arg) & Andrea Vavassori (Ita)
Leylah Annie Fernandez (Can) & Anastasia Potapova (Rus) v Nadiia Kichenok (Ukr) & Raluca Olaru (Rom) 13
Darija Jurak (Cro) & Andreja Klepac (Slo) 10 v Petra Martic (Cro) & Shelby Rogers (USA)

COURT 6 - (11.00AM)

Shuko Aoyama (Jpn) & Ena Shibahara (Jpn) 5 v Gabriela Dabrowski (Can) & Caroline Garcia (Fra)
Naomi Broady (Gbr) & Jodie Anna Burrage (Gbr) v Viktoria Kuzmova (Svk) & Arantxa Rus (Ned) 15
Kiki Bertens (Ned) & Lesley Kerkhove (Ned) v Elixane Lechemia (Fra) & Ingrid Neel (USA)
Madison Brengle (USA) & Lin Zhu (Chn) v Anna Blinkova (Rus) & Anna-Lena Friedsam (Ger)

COURT 7 - (11.00AM)

Hayley Carter (USA) & Luisa Stefani (Bra) 8 v Aleksandra Krunic (Ser) & Nina Stojanovic (Ser)
Tim Puetz (Ger) & Michael Venus (Nzl) 12 v Matthew Ebden (Aus) & John-Patrick Smith (Aus)
Radu Albot (Mol) & Nikoloz Basilashvili (Geo) v Marton Fucsovics (Hun) & Stefano Travaglia (Ita)
Wesley Koolhof (Ned) & Jean-Julien Rojer (Ned) 10 v Lloyd Glasspool (Gbr) & Harri Heliovaara (Fin)
Varvara Gracheva (Rus) & Oksana Kalashnikova (Geo) v Naiktha Bains (Gbr) & Samantha Murray (Gbr)

COURT 8 - (11.00AM)

Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA) & Sania Mirza (Ind) v Alexa Guarachi (Chi) & Desirae Krawczyk (USA) 6
Rohan Bopanna (Ind) & Divij Sharan (Ind) v Henri Kontinen (Fin) & Edouard Roger-Vasselin (Fra) 11
Dusan Lajovic (Ser) & Ivan Sabanov (Cro) v Marcel Granollers (Spa) & Horacio Zeballos (Arg) 4
Sander Arends (Ned) & Matwe Middelkoop (Ned) v Andre Begemann (Ger) & Jurgen Melzer (Aut)
Filip Krajinovic (Ser) & Matej Sabanov (Cro) v Simone Bolelli (Ita) & Maximo Gonzalez (Arg)

COURT 9 - (11.00AM)

Vivian Heisen (Ger) & Kveta Peschke (Cze) v Sharon Fichman (Can) & Giuliana Olmos (Mex) 9
Andrey Golubev (Kaz) & Robin Haase (Ned) v Marcelo Demoliner (Bra) & Santiago Gonzalez (Mex)
Vitalia Diatchenko (Rus) & Galina Voskoboeva (Kaz) v Su-Wei Hsieh (Tpe) & Elise Mertens (Bel) 3
Greet Minnen (Bel) & Alison Van Uytvanck (Bel) v Amanda Anisimova (USA) & Sloane Stephens (USA)

COURT 10 - (11.00AM)

Alex De Minaur (Aus) & Matt Reid (Aus) v Luke Johnson (Gbr) & Anton Matusevich (Gbr)
Andre Goransson (Swe) & Casper Ruud (Nor) v Feliciano Lopez (Spa) & Marc Lopez (Spa)
Misaki Doi (Jpn) & Viktorija Golubic (Swi) v Ekaterina Alexandrova (Rus) & Yafan Wang (Chn)
Romain Arneodo (Mon) & Igor Zelenay (Svk) v Ricardas Berankis (Lit) & Dominik Koepfer (Ger)
Salvatore Caruso (Ita) & Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (Spa) v Kevin Krawietz (Ger) & Horia Tecau (Rom) 9

COURT 11 - (11.00AM)

Sander Gille (Bel) & Joran Vliegen (Bel) 13 v Oliver Marach (Aut) & Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (Pak)
Ariel Behar (Uru) & Gonzalo Escobar (Ecu) v Hugo Nys (Mon) & Jonny O’Mara (Gbr)
Nathaniel Lammons (USA) & Jack Withrow (USA) v Lukasz Kubot (Pol) & Marcelo Melo (Bra) 8
Sabrina Santamaria (USA) & Tamara Zidansek (Slo) v Lara Arruabarrena (Spa) & Nadia Podoroska (Arg)
Asia Muhammad (USA) & Jessica Pegula (USA) 14 v Lauren Davis (USA) & Ankita Raina (Ind)

COURT 12 - (11.00AM)

Kristyna Pliskova (Cze) v Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Rus) 16
James Duckworth (Aus) v Sam Querrey (USA)
Alexander Bublik (Kaz) v Grigor Dimitrov (Bul) 18

COURT 14 - (11.00AM)

Aljaz Bedene (Slo) v Yoshihito Nishioka (Jpn)
Pedro Martinez Portero (Spa) v Gael Monfils (Fra) 13
Ajla Tomljanovic (Aus) v Alize Cornet (Fra)
Stuart Parker (Gbr) & James Ward (Gbr) v Luke Bambridge (Gbr) & Dominic Inglot (Gbr)

COURT 16 - (11.00AM)

Christian Garin (Chi) 17 v Marc Polmans (Aus)
Lorenzo Sonego (Ita) 23 v Daniel Elahi Galan (Col)
Kaja Juvan (Slo) v Clara Burel (Fra)

COURT 17 - (11.00AM)

Yulia Putintseva (Kaz) v Paula Badosa Gibert (Spa) 30
Coco Vandeweghe (USA) v Katerina Siniakova (Cze)
Taylor Harry Fritz (USA) 31 v Steve Johnson (USA)
Nao Hibino (Jpn) v Aliaksandra Sasnovich (Blr)

COURT 18 - (11.00AM)

Karolina Muchova (Cze) 19 v Camila Giorgi (Ita)
Kei Nishikori (Jpn) v Jordan Thompson (Aus)
Marin Cilic (Cro) 32 v Benjamin Bonzi (Fra)
Emma Raducanu (Gbr) v Marketa Vondrousova (Cze)

(With inputs from AFP)