Tennis news

Alexander Zverev arrives at Wimbledon as the French Open champion, creating buzz around a potential Clay-to-Grass Grand Slam double.

Zverev is seeded No. 3 at Wimbledon, behind defending champion Sinner and absent Alcaraz.

The 'Channel Slam' — winning the French Open and Wimbledon in the same year — is among the rarest feats in tennis.

Zverev has never previously reached the Wimbledon final, making the grass his least proven major surface.

His run at Roland-Garros was boosted by the early exits of Sinner, Djokovic, and Alcaraz's withdrawal.

Venus Williams, 46, and Serena Williams, 44, accepted a wild card into the Wimbledon women's doubles draw.

The sisters hold a combined 14-0 record in Grand Slam doubles finals, including six titles at Wimbledon.

Serena's knee injury from her singles loss raised concerns over whether the doubles appearance would go ahead.

Their doubles reunion came after Serena also returned to singles competition, her first since the 2022 US Open.

Serena had previously played doubles at the Queen's Club Championships and Berlin Open ahead of Wimbledon.

The All England Club announced a record £64.2 million ($88m USD) prize fund, a 20% increase over 2025 and the biggest single-year rise in the tournament's history.

Singles champions each receive £3.6 million — up from £3 million — with equal pay maintained across men's and women's draws.

For the first time in Wimbledon's 149-year history, video review technology (VRT) was introduced, available on Centre Court, No. 1 Court, and four other show courts.

VRT allows players to challenge specific chair-umpire rulings such as double bounces, not line calls — those remain decided by electronic line calling.

Some top players continued a prize-money protest started at Roland Garros by limiting media commitments during the opening week.

Two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz is absent with a wrist injury (tenosynovitis) sustained at the Barcelona Open in April, also causing him to miss the French Open.

Britain's Jack Draper withdrew due to a recurrence of an arm injury; he had played only 15 matches since Wimbledon 2025.

A total of 18 players — 10 men and eight women — pulled out of the singles main draws, with Emma Raducanu and Lorenzo Musetti among other notable absentees.

Draper publicly warned tennis authorities that injury levels in the men's game are 'pretty worrying' and urged governing bodies to review the tour schedule.

Alcaraz remains world No. 2 despite not competing since mid-April, and has posted social-media updates showing him gradually returning to hitting.

For the first time in Wimbledon's nearly 150-year history, players can request video review of chair-umpire judgment calls such as 'not-up', 'foul shot' and 'touch'.

Unlike the old Hawk-Eye challenge system, there is no limit on the number of video review requests a player may make per match.

Video review is available on Centre Court and No. 1 Court for all matches, plus four other show courts during singles matches.

The system complements the Electronic Line Calling (ELC) introduced in 2025, which already removed human line judges from all courts after 147 years.

Wimbledon is now the third Grand Slam to adopt video review, following the US Open (2023) and the Australian Open; Roland-Garros retains human line judges.

Main-draw action at Wimbledon runs from 29 June to 12 July at the All England Club.

Top seed and defending champion Jannik Sinner and seven-time winner Novak Djokovic (seeded 7th) are drawn in the same half.

Alexander Zverev is the second seed and anchors the bottom half of the men's draw.

Defending women's champion Iga Swiatek and returning Serena Williams are in the same quarter of the women's draw.

World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka leads the top quarter of the women's singles draw.

Carlos Alcaraz, the 2023 and 2024 Wimbledon champion and world No. 2, is absent from Wimbledon 2026 due to a right wrist injury (tenosynovitis) sustained at the Barcelona Open in April.

The injury also forced him to withdraw from the French Open, where he was the two-time defending champion.

On 28 June — the day before Wimbledon began — Alcaraz posted a video of himself gently hitting forehands, accompanied by a holding-back-tears emoji.

His absence means Sinner enters Wimbledon as the dominant favourite without facing his top rival in the draw.

Alcaraz completed the career Grand Slam by winning the 2026 Australian Open but has not competed since 14 April.

Madison Keys defeated Tatjana Maria 7–5, 6–4 to claim the Lexus Eastbourne Open women's singles title for a third time in her career.

The win places her alongside Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova as the only players to win the Eastbourne title at least three times.

Heavy rain on Saturday 27 June forced postponement of the men's singles final between Ugo Humbert and Zizou Bergs to Sunday 28 June.

Humbert and Bergs reached the final after defeating Jack Draper (7–5, 6–3) and Toby Samuel respectively in the semifinals.

The rain disruption required LTA to issue ticket refunds for affected finals-day ticketholders.

Raducanu confirmed on 28 June she had sustained a stress fracture and was medically advised to stop competing.

She had been managing the ankle niggle after reaching the Queen's Club final but a final scan revealed the full extent of the injury.

Jack Draper also withdrew from Wimbledon, dealing a major blow to British hopes at the tournament.

Both withdrawals left Britain with a significantly thinned singles contingent heading into the Championships.

Ten British players across the singles draws then exited on Day One, compounding a difficult start for home fans.

Main draw action starts 29 June at the All England Club, running through 12 July.

Defending champion Jannik Sinner is top seed; Carlos Alcaraz is absent with a right wrist injury.

Serena Williams, 44, accepted a singles wild card — her first Grand Slam singles appearance since the 2022 US Open.

Williams and sister Venus also received a doubles wild card; Novak Djokovic is seeded seventh alongside Alexander Zverev at two.

Total prize money stands at £64.2 million, with the singles winner receiving £3.6 million.