Gasparyan is ranked 113th in the world and will be a huge underdog when she comes up against the top seed.
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Williams overcame illness to win her third consecutive Grand Slam at the French Open earlier this month and will hold all four of the game’s major women’s singles titles if she is able to claim a sixth Wimbledon crown.
The American is in the same half of the draw as 2004 winner Maria Sharapova and could face sister Venus — also a five-time Wimbledon singles champion — in the fourth round.
Sharapova starts the tournament against Britain’s Johanna Konta, who impressed in reaching the quarterfinals of this week’s Aegon International.
French Open finalist Lucie Safarova is a potential quarterfinal opponent for Sharapova.
Defending champion Petra Kvitova and Simona Halep are the leading seeds in the bottom half of the draw.
Two-time winner Kvitova faces Kiki Bertens first up, while Halep has been handed an opening match against Jana Cepelova.
The full list of first-round matches determined by the women’s Wimbledon draw:
Serena Williams (1) v Margarita Gasparyan Timea Babos v Petra Cetkovska Daniela Hantuchova v Dominika Cibulkova Heather Watson v Caroline Garcia (32) Sara Errani (19) v Francesca Schiavone Aleksandra Krunic v Roberta Vinci Marina Erakovic v Yulia Putintseva Madison Brengle v Venus Williams (16) Carla Suarez Navarro (9) v Jelena Ostapenko Alexandra Dulgheru v Kristina Mladenovic Kirsten Flipkens v Annika Beck Anett Kontaveit v Victoria Azarenka (23) Belinda Bencic (30) v Tsvetana Pironkova Vitalia Diatchenko v Anna-Lena Friedsam Alison van Uytvanck v Bethanie Mattek-Sands Xu Yi-Fan v Ana Ivanovic (7) Maria Sharapova (4) v Johanna Konta Richel Hogenkamp v Qiang Wang Nicole Gibbs v Lesia Tsurenko Daria Gavrilova v Irina-Camelia Begu (29) Flavia Pennetta (24) v Zarina Diyas Lin Zhu v Aliaksandra Sasnovich Mariana Duque Marino v Naomi Broady Shelby Rogers v Andrea Petkovic (14) Karolina Pliskova (11) v Irina Falconi Coco Vandeweghe v Anna Karolina Schmiedlova Edina Gallovits-Hall v Urszula Radwańska Danka Kovinic v Sam Stosur (22) Barbora Strycova (27) v Sloane Stephens Polona Hercog v Lauren Davis Hsieh Su-wei v Kaia Kanepi Alison Riske v Lucie Safarova (6) Caroline Wozniacki (5) v Zheng Saisai Katerina Siniakova v Denisa Allertova Lara Arruabarrena v Pauline Parmentier Teliana Pereira v Camila Giorgi (31) Garbine Muguruza (20) v Varvara Lepchenko Mirjana Lucic-Baroni v Yaroslava Shvedova Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova v Mona Barthel Carina Witthoft v Angelique Kerber Timea Bacsinszky (15) v Julia Gorges Sesil Karatantcheva v Sílvia Soler-Espinosa Johanna Larsson v Christina McHale Jarmila Gajdosova v Sabine Lisicki (18) Svetlana Kuznetsova (26) v Laura Siegemund Kristyna Pliskova v Tereza Smitkova Monica Puig v Monica Niculescu Jana Cepelova v Simona Halep (3) Ekaterina Makarova (8) v Sachia Vickery Karin Knapp v Magdalena Rybarikova Andreea Mitu v Olga Govortsova Ana Konjuh v Alize Cornet (25) Madison Keys (21) v Stefanie Vogele Yvonne Wickmayer v Elizaveta Kulichkova Tatjana Maria v Bojana Jovanovski Duan Ying-Ying v Eugenie Bouchard (12) Agnieszka Radwanska (13) v Lucie Hradecka Ajla Tomljanovic v Klara Koukalova Tamira Paszek v Casey Dellacqua Misaki Doi v Elina Svitolina (17) Jelena Jankovic (28) v Elena Vesnina Evgeniya Rodina v Laura Robson Magda Linette v Kurumi Nara Kiki Bertens v Petra Kvitova (2)
