Blake gets Wimbledon draw

Wimbledon - James Blake of the United States is one of three players to be given entries to the men's draw at Wimbledon after a trio of withdrawals.

Blake, who was once ranked No 4 but has slipped out of the top 100, replaced Paul-Henri Mathieu after the French player pulled out on Wednesday with a knee injury.

France's Florent Serra came in for the injured Richard Berankis and Germany's Denis Gremelmayr replaced Thiemo de Bakker, who withdrew because of illness.

Former No 1 Dinara Safina was one of six women to pull out of the grass-court tournament, which starts on June 20.

Pauline Parmentier replaced Safina, with Vesna Dolonts, Anastasiya Yakimova, Olga Govortsova, Patricia Mayr-Achleitner and Kateryna Bondarenko also handed late entries.