EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsMost of the favorites are battling either funks or physical issues (or both). The marquee player in the field is 44 years old. We're coming off of maybe the most chaotic Grand Slam tournament in ages.The 2026 edition of The Wimbledon Championships has arrived at a very strange time. (Well, it arrived at the same time as always, but you get the idea.) With Carlos Alcaraz still out with an injury, Jannik Sinner is an overwhelming favorite in any men's tournament he enters, but his body betrayed him -- and not for the first time -- at the French Open, cracking open the door for a first-time Slam champ. And on the women's side, the best player by far has been bageled in deciding sets multiple times over the last month or so, the defending champion can't stay in fifth gear for very long, and the quickest-rising players haven't won a Slam before.And then there's Serena. Serena!This is a weird time in the tennis world, but it should make for a fascinating fortnight. Let's talk about 20 favorites (or simply fascinating figures) you'd be well-served to follow.The favoritesJannik SinnerTennis Abstract odds: 58.6%First potential top-10 opponent: No. 8 Daniil Medvedev (quarterfinals)The last time we saw Jannik Sinner, he was falling apart physically in a stunning collapse against Juan Manuel Cerundolo in the French Open. It ended a 30-match winning streak and served as a reminder of the fitness issues Sinner has suffered plenty of times in his career.But at this point, just about the only thing that can defeat the 24-year-old is his own body. Including the first two sets he took against Cerundolo, Sinner won 63 of 66 sets during that winning streak, and 25 of those sets had scores of 6-2 or worse for the opponent. He was untouchable on clay, and he's the defending Wimbledon champion. Any list of favorites starts with Sinner, even if fitness is a red flag.Aryna SabalenkaTennis Abstract odds: 23.7%First potential top-10 opponent: No. 5 Mirra Andreeva or No. 10 Karolina Muchova (quarterfinals)Like Sinner, Sabalenka is an obvious favorite with obvious question marks. The four-time Slam champion -- and three-time Wimbledon semifinalist -- is just 7-4 in her last 11 matches, and against both Diana Shnaider at the French Open and Jessica Pegula in Berlin, she got bageled, 6-0, in the deciding set. For all of her remarkable recent success, she's only won one of her last six Slams, and now doubts seem to be creeping into her game before the finals, too. She's the best player in the world when she's confident, but her confidence is waning.Novak DjokovicTennis Abstract odds: 10.2%First potential top-10 opponent: No. 3 Felix Auger-Aliassime (quarterfinals)When Sinner fell at the French Open, it began to look like there might never be a better chance for Novak Djokovic to win Slam No. 25. But instead, he failed to close out Joao Fonseca and fell in the third round, his earliest major exit since the 2024 US Open.That was a massive missed opportunity, but here comes another one. With its quicker points and milder conditions (on average) -- and his rampant success there (seven titles) -- Wimbledon might always represent the best place for Djokovic to try to put seven wins together over two weeks. Sinner's own form will be pretty decisive in that regard, but Djokovic is 102-13 all-time at this tournament. He's always a contender.Elena RybakinaTennis Abstract odds: 7.0%First potential top-10 opponent: No. 6 Amanda Anisimova or No. 9 Linda Noskova (quarterfinals)Rybakina keeps you guessing. The 2022 Wimbledon champion secured her second Slam title at this year's Australian Open and is an incredible 17-5 against top-10 opponents over the last year. But after starting 2026 with a sparkling 30-6 record, she enters Wimbledon having lost four of her last six matches. She was a French Open favorite but fell in the second round, and she's 1-2 on grass this year. Her peak form might be even better than Sabalenka's, but like Sabalenka she comes to the All England Club with more questions than answers.Mirra AndreevaTennis Abstract odds: 2.3%First potential top-10 opponent: No. 10 Muchova (fourth round)From the moment she burst onto the scene at age 15, Andreeva looked the part of a future Slam champion, and the 19-year-old broke through in Paris, romping to the French Open title by dropping just one set. In fact, she dropped just 19 games in her last nine sets.But grass does not appear to be her favorite surface. She did make the Wimbledon quarterfinals last year, but she's just 11-7 on grass for her career, and she's 0-1 in 2026, having lost her opening match to Ekaterina Alexandrova at Bad Homburg. She might be a contender in any tournament she enters for the next 10-15 years, but she still has some learning to do on this surface.Iga SwiatekTennis Abstract odds: 11.2%First potential top-10 opponent: No. 8 Elina Svitolina (quarterfinals)From 2022-24, Swiatek won 87% of her tour matches. In 2025, that percentage fell to 79%; in 2026, it's 68%. The tour usually adjusts to the best players, and Swiatek isn't finding nearly as many opportunities to tee off with her wicked forehand. But when she gets rolling, she can still dominate -- you know, like when she won a 6-0, 6-0 Wimbledon final (and 6-2, 6-0 semifinal) last year?She's still won 21 sets at 6-0 or 6-1 this year, too, even as her match win percentage has fallen. The six-time Slam champion is always a force to be reckoned with.Serena!Serena WilliamsTennis Abstract odds: First potential top-10 opponent: No. 3 Swiatek (third round)She hasn't played a tour singles match since 2022, but the greatest women's player of all time just couldn't stay away. The 23-time Slam champion -- and 33-time finalist -- re-entered the drug-testing pool months ago, which pretty definitively revealed her intentions, and a couple of recent forays into doubles evidently convinced her she was ready. She still has the booming serve, but age usually takes your footwork first. It was her biggest issue over the final couple of years before her (first) retirement, and in her last three Slams in 2021-22, she won just two matches. But here she is at 44 years old and ready to give it a go.As a wild card, she could have ended up against either a top-seed or a qualifier, and all things considered, her draw against Maya Joint was about as good as she could have hoped for. The 20-year-old Joint has solid firepower but minimal confidence at the moment, having lost 13 of her last 14 tour matches going back to January. Going up against a seven-time Wimbledon champion on Centre Court with little recent success is quite a bit to ask, and if Williams' game is far enough along, she'll have an excellent chance of winning at least one match on her return. She'll be the main story of the tournament as long as she's in it.They love WimbledonAmanda AnisimovaTennis Abstract odds: 1.5%First potential top-10 opponent: No. 9 Noskova (fourth round)Despite the double bagel she suffered in last year's Wimbledon final, Anisimova will likely welcome a return to the All England club -- she needs as many reminders as possible of past success at the moment, as things just haven't clicked in 2026. She's just 14-8 for the year, and since returning from a spring wrist injury she's gone just 3-2 on the natural surfaces. Her serve and her ability to hit out-of-nowhere backhand winners make her a threat against anyone, but she returns to Wimbledon in desperate need of momentum.Taylor FritzTennis Abstract odds: 3.4%First potential top-10 opponent: No. 10 Alexander Bublik (fourth round)With his big serve, heavy groundstrokes and underrated movement, Fritz has always been at home on grass courts. He's reached three Wimbledon quarterfinals and was just two points away from forcing a fifth set against Alcaraz in last year's semis. And this year, after ongoing knee issues knocked him out for most of the clay-court season, he used the brief grass season to generate momentum, reaching the finals in both Stuttgart and Halle with wins over Ben Shelton, Alexander Zverev and Alexander Bublik. Sinner and Djokovic obviously top the favorites lists, but Fritz has a case to be No. 3. That said, his draw is rough: He'll have to get past a returning-from-injury Jack Draper in the first round and could face either Bublik or Frances Tiafoe, who just beat him in Halle, in the fourth.Daniil MedvedevTennis Abstract odds: 2.1%First potential top-10 opponent: No. 1 Sinner (quarterfinals)A hard-court maestro, Medvedev has reached the US Open and Australian Open finals six times. His relationship with the natural surfaces has always been a bit fraught, but he did reach back-to-back Wimbledon semifinals in 2023-24, and after a couple of years of slippage, his win percentage this year (73.2%) is the best it's been since 2023 (78.8%). He's 4-2 on grass this month as well. You can never quite trust Medvedev on this surface, but another semifinal run wouldn't be an incredible surprise.Matteo BerrettiniTennis Abstract odds: 0.2%First potential top-10 opponent: No. 4 Ben Shelton (fourth round)Injuries have constantly derailed Berrettini through the years; from the 2023 French Open through the 2026 Australian, he missed six of 12 Slams and won only seven matches in the ones he played. But the 2021 Wimbledon finalist is always a threat on grass, and he's coming off of a shocking run to the French Open quarterfinals. (Yes, the run ended with an injury retirement.) If he's healthy, he's a threat in London.Others: Belinda Bencic (2025 semifinalist), Marin Cilic (2017 finalist), Flavio Cobolli (2025 quarterfinalist), Grigor Dimitrov (2014 semifinalist), Hubert Hurkacz (2021 semifinalist), Karen Khachanov (2025 quarterfinalist), Barbora Krejcikova (2024 champion), Tatjana Maria (2022 semifinalist), Cameron Norrie (2022 semifinalist), Jelena Ostapenko (2018 semifinalist), Jasmine Paolini (2024 finalist), Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (2025 quarterfinalist), Karolina Pliskova (2021 finalist), Liudmila Samsonova (2025 quarterfinalist), Denis Shapovalov (2021 semifinalist), Laura Siegemund (2025 quarterfinalist), Elina Svitolina (2019, 2023 semifinalist), Donna Vekic (2024 semifinalist)It wouldn't be a surprise ...Alexander ZverevTennis Abstract odds: 8.2%First potential top-10 opponent: No. 6 Fritz or No. 10 Alexander Bublik (quarterfinals)The reigning French Open champion has never had success at Wimbledon, winning just 16 total matches in nine appearances. His spin and sufferball tendencies have never played quite as well on grass as on clay, but if nothing else, he has the confidence of a late-career Slam breakthrough, and his ultra-consistent serve will always be worth a few easy sets.Coco GauffTennis Abstract odds: 4.0%First potential top-10 opponent: No. 4 Jessica Pegula (quarterfinals)Grass is the last surface for Gauff to solve: While she's reached at least the semis of every other major (and won two), she has yet to make it past the fourth round at Wimbledon. And her only match on grass this summer was a (well-played) three-set loss to Paula Badosa. The 22-year-old's game remains a work in progress, and while she's double-faulting less this year, she's also getting broken more because the serves she's landing aren't doing enough damage. But when you can move and compete like Gauff can, you're always dangerous. Swiatek was only 11-5 all-time at Wimbledon before last year's run, right?Jessica PegulaTennis Abstract odds: 10.5%First potential top-10 opponent: No. 7 Gauff (quarterfinals)With her flat ball and her quick ground strokes, Pegula seems like a grass-court natural. In German grass-court tune-up events in Berlin and Bad Homburg, she's 14-4 all-time, and not including Wimbledon, she's 12-4 on grass over the last three years. But there's something about the All England grass that doesn't agree with her; she's only once made it past the third round and fell in the first in 2025. She elected to arrive in London early this year to get better used to the surface, and she's had a lovely 2026 overall. We'll see if that translates.Ben SheltonTennis Abstract odds: 3.8%First potential top-10 opponent: No. 5 Alex De Minaur (quarterfinals)The stereotype of a grass-court star is someone who serves big, charges the net, controls points and dictates play with offense. Shelton does most of those things. There's a movement component to grass that he has yet to completely master, but his results have improved with every trip to Wimbledon -- second round in 2023, fourth in 2024, quarters in 2025 -- and he went 6-1 on grass this month, beating Fritz to win the title in Stuttgart (and then losing to Fritz in Halle). A huge Wimbledon run feels like a logical next step in Shelton's development.Emma RaducanuTennis Abstract odds: 0.4%First potential top-10 opponent: No. 1 Sabalenka (third round)Okay, maybe a Raducanu run would be a bit of a surprise. But before winning the US Open in 2021, she first burst onto the scene with a fourth-round run in her home country slam; she's 20-10 on grass since that Wimbledon run, and she beat 2023 champion Marketa Vondrousova last year at Wimbledon before falling to Sabalenka. If she can ever avoid injuries long enough to build a rhythm, she still has a pretty big game.Others: Felix Auger Aliassime, Marie Bouzkova, Alexander Bublik, Alex De Minaur, Madison Keys, Marta Kostyuk, Karolina Muchova, Naomi Osaka, Tommy Paul, Diana Shnaider, Frances Tiafoe, Qinwen ZhengKeep an eye on the youngstersLinda NoskovaTennis Abstract odds: 7.4%First potential top-10 opponent: No. 6 Anisimova (fourth round)The Elo ratings at Tennis Abstract rank Sabalenka, Swiatek, Pegula and Rybakina as the four best grass-court players on the women's tour. Fifth-best? Noskova. The 21-year-old reached the Wimbledon fourth round last year, losing deep in the third set to Anisimova, the eventual finalist. She also dropped only one set while rolling to the Berlin title this year. She's up to 10th in the world, and while she's never made it to a Slam quarterfinal yet, this is probably the most obvious place for it to happen first.Jack DraperTennis Abstract odds: First potential top-10 opponent: No. 6 Fritz (first round)No one has been more snake-bitten over the last year than Draper, who made it to fourth in the world last summer but has played only 11 matches this year because of a variety of injuries, and missed the first two Slams of 2026. His ranking is now 160th. But he showed promise at Eastbourne this past week, and when he finds a rhythm again, we know what he's capable of: He's split his last four meetings with Alcaraz, and he's 1-1 against both Sinner and Djokovic. Drawing Fritz in the first round hurts his chances of making a run, but it also hurts Fritz's.Joao FonsecaTennis Abstract odds: First potential top-10 opponent: No. 7 Djokovic (fourth round)The sweet-swinging 19-year-old has been checking developmental boxes for the last year and a half, but his progression sped up at the French Open, where he beat Djokovic and Casper Ruud and charged to his first Slam quarterfinal. His grass acumen isn't where it needs to be -- he's 5-8 all-time on the surface and lost his only tune-up match this year by a 6-2, 6-2 margin to No. 59 Yannick Hanfmann -- but he did manage to win a couple of matches at Wimbledon last year, and his development really might be reaching mach speed.Rafael JodarTennis Abstract odds: 0.1%First potential top-10 opponent: No. 1 Sinner (fourth round)How good is Rafa Jodar on grass? We have no idea! He's never played a tour-level match on the stuff. But he's the 19-year-old breakout star of 2026: He went 19-4 on clay and reached the French Open quarterfinals, and he's leaped from 555th to 26th in the ATP rankings in the last year. He will be a player to watch at every Slam he enters for the foreseeable future.Others: Alexandra Eala, Iva Jovic, Jakub Mensik
