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The highly-anticipated Wimbledon is back as the world’s best tennis stars descend on the capital for the third Grand Slam of the year – with plenty of eyes on the Brits involved in their home tournament.
Wimbledon is one of four Grand Slam events in the tennis calendar – taking place after the Australian Open and Roland Garros, and before the US Open later in the year – and there’s a strong British contingent set to take part in SW19.
21 British singles players are set to take part in the men’s and women’s singles draw across the fortnight, while plenty more action in the doubles, including world number one Henry Patten, and wheelchair draw which includes world number two and Brit Alfie Hewett.
Lets not forget, Sir Andy Murray is also back at the scene of some of his greatest triumphs, albeit as a coach on Jack Draper’s coaching team.
The current main draw list boasts a number of British players in the women’s, men’s and wheelchair draws, and here are some key things to look out for.
Can we rely our hopes on Emma Raducanu and Jack Draper?
On the women’s side, British number one Emma Raducanu will lead the charge on home soil with her game suited nicely to the grass courts, as shown in her run to the Queen’s final earlier this month.
However, as prominent throughout most of her career to date, the only thing that could scupper a deep run for Raducanu is injury worries – and that has become a doubt in the days leading up to the start of the Grand Slam.
The 23-year-old missed a practice session on Thursday before being forced to cut short her session on Saturday because of a shin injury – raising concerns about whether the former US Open champion will be ready to compete in her first-round tie.
Raducanu begins her tournament against Croatia’s Antoina Ruzic on Court One on Monday and could face world number one Aryna Sabalenka in the third round – a repeat of last year’s meeting at the same stage.
Across on the men’s side, Draper would be seen as one of the British players to make an impact at the All England Club and to go the distance but, similar to Raducanu, fitness is a key concern for the former world number four and has lacked minutes on the court since the turn of the year.
Overcoming a number of injury setbacks since last year’s US Open, Draper made a comeback at Eastbourne this week for his first tournament in nearly two months and reached the semi-finals, showing promise of his old self the more games he played on the south coast.
However, the Brit has yet to play a rigorous five-set match in just under a year, so we don’t exactly know where his fitness will be once he steps on Centre Court on Tuesday to take on American and sixth seed Taylor Fritz.
Which other Brits to keep an eye on?
British number one Cameron Norrie has always put up a strong run of performances at Wimbledon, reaching the semi-finals in 2022 while also progressing to the quarter-finals last year before bowing out to two-time champion Carlos Alcaraz.
The 30-year-old kicks off his tournament against American Michael Zheng and could face third seed Felix Auger-Aliassime in the third round.
Six British men’s players received a wildcard for the main draw, including 23-year-old Toby Samuel, who enters his first-ever appearance at Wimbledon on the back of winning his first ATP tour-level win at Eastbourne before going on to reach his first ATP semi-final.
Samuel has a tough opening game in front of a home crowd as he is set to take on Roland Garros semi-finalist Jakub Mensik in the first round.
Arthur Fery is another name that has risen in British interest in the grass-court swing so far, where he achieved his maiden ATP quarter-final at Queen’s club, with the 23-year-old getting arguably the better of the first-round draw, managing to avoid a seeded player and instead will take on Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Damir Dzumhur.
Jacob Fearnley caught the eye at Wimbledon in 2024 when he took a set off 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic on Centre Court in the second round but, since then, the Brit has been affected by injuries and fallen out of the top-100 in the rankings.
But after reaching the final at the Lexus Ilkley Open this grass-court season, Fearnley would have gained confidence ahead of his clash with American Alex Michelsen in the first round on Tuesday.
In terms of the men’s side, we can also expect to see fellow wildcards Jack Pinnington Jones, Felix Gill and Henry Wendelken, plus our qualifiers Oliver Tarvet, Billy Harris and Max Basing – the latter competing in his maiden Grand Slam after progressing through the qualifying tournament last month.
In the women’s singles draw, alongside Raducanu, Katie Boulter and Francesca Jones secured their spots in the main draw through their rankings.
Boulter, who reached the semi-finals at Queen’s earlier this month, will take on Italy’s qualifier Tyra Grant and Jones faces France’s Diane Perry as both Brits look to progress further than the third round for the first time in their career.
Six more wild cards were handed out to Brits on the women’s side, including two exciting teenagers, Mika Stojsavljevic and Hannah Klugman.
Stojsavljevic, 17, secured her first WTA 125 quarter-final at the Lexus Birmingham Open earlier this summer and will be her second appearance in the main draw, but has a tough first-round test against former Olympic Gold medalist Belinda Bencic.
Fellow 17-year-old Klugman arrives at All England Club after earning her first WTA tour-level win at the Lexus Nottingham Open a couple of weeks ago, but is tasked with overcoming 2024 Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova if she wants to claim a maiden victory in a Grand Slam.
Harriet Dart has former Roland Garros champion and Wimbledon semi-finalist Jelena Ostapenko in the first round, although the Latvian was forced to withdraw from her Eastbourne semi-final on Friday due to injury.
Wildcard Alicia Dudeney is a name that won’t be familiar to British tennis fans, well just yet.
Since completing her American college programme, the 23-year-old has won a number of W35 titles this year – in Nottingham and Estepona – and beat Yulia Putintseva in qualifying at Nottingham Open for her first win against a top-100 opponent.
The Brighton-born player takes on American Alycia Parks in her first game in a Grand Slam main draw.
Other notable mentions include Mimi Xu, who reached the first round in SW19 before bowing out to Raducanu, and Katie Swan.
Men’s singles
Felix Gill vs Rafael Jodar
Max Basing vs Shintaro Mochizuki
Jack Pinnington Jones vs Brandon Nakashima
Cameron Norrie vs Michael Zheng
Oliver Tarvet vs Arthur Rinderknech
Billy Harris vs Karen Khachanov
Toby Samuel vs Jakub Mensik
Arthur Fery vs Damir Dzumhur
Jack Draper vs Taylor Fritz
Jan Choinski vs Vit Kopriva
Jacob Fearnley vs Alex Michelsen
Harry Wendelken vs Valentin Royer
Women’s singles
Harriet Dart vs Jelena Ostapenko
Emma Raducanu vs Antonia Ruzic
Mimi Xu vs Daria Kasatkina
Alicia Dudeney vs Alycia Parks
Hannah Klugman vs Barbora Krejcikova
Mika Stojsavljevic vs Belinda Bencic
Francesca Jones vs Diane Parry
Katie Swan vs Irina Camelia Begu
Katie Boulter vs Tyra Grant
Success for Brits in the doubles and wheelchair?
Although we have yet to see much success for British players in the women’s and men’s singles draws in recent years, there has been plenty to celebrate in the doubles.
Number one seed Henry Patten and his partner Harri Heliovaara, who reached the Roland Garros final, take on French duo Terence Atmane and Luca Sanchez as they search for their second Wimbledon title – having previously won in 2024.
Neal Skupski and his partner, American Christian Harrison, claimed the title in the Australian Open earlier this year and will be keen to add to their tally at Wimbledon, having won in 2023.
They take on Argentine duo Tomas Martin Etcheverry and Mariano Kestlboim.
Third seed and all-Brit pairing Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool are another duo to keep your eye on for the men’s doubles as they have experience of going all the way in SW19, winning in last year’s final to become the first all-British men’s doubles champion at Wimbledon in 89 years.
On the wheelchair side, British number one and world number two Alfie Hewett has won all four Grand Slams – once at Wimbledon – and will be out to avenge last year’s disappointment of losing in the final.
2016 champion Gordon Reid will be competing in his ninth main draw appearance at the tournament while British number one Andy Lapthorne will hope to pick up his first Wimbledon singles title in the quad main draw – winning two titles at the US Open to date.
