Sinner, Sabalenka and Djokovic headline Wimbledon title chase

Wimbledon opened with the sport’s heaviest expectations already fixed on three players: defending champion Jannik Sinner, women’s top seed Aryna Sabalenka and Novak Djokovic, who kept chasing a record 25th Grand Slam title. The first day of the fortnight was less about pageantry than about pressure, with Sinner carrying the burden of a title defense, Sabalenka trying to turn top-ranking status into a defining major and Djokovic leaning on grass as his clearest route to history.

Sinner entered as the clear favorite after Carlos Alcaraz, the two-time Wimbledon champion, was absent from the draw. The Italian began against Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic, with the memory of his French Open collapse still hanging over his grass-court campaign after he cramped in hot conditions while in a winning position. He skipped the warm-up events on grass, but said that leaving out the preparation had its own advantage: “If you don’t play any tournament, you don’t have these doubts, you just go and play.”

Sabalenka arrived in a different kind of tension. She had been world No. 1 since late 2024, but had won only one Grand Slam in the past 18 months despite reaching multiple finals. Her French Open ended in a painful quarter-final collapse against Diana Shnaider, when she lost the last 10 games, and afterward she said she wanted to “quit tennis.” She later worked with a psychologist and said she felt more settled again, but her Wimbledon run still carried the question of whether her dominance in ranking and results could finally be converted into a major that matched it.

Djokovic remained the third pillar of the draw and the one still chasing tennis’s most stubborn milestone. Wimbledon offered him perhaps his best chance at No. 25 because the grass traditionally suited him better than many other surfaces, and the early-summer heat in London added another layer of uncertainty for players already under strain. For Sinner, Sabalenka and Djokovic alike, the opening rounds were about more than simply advancing. They were a first test of who handled expectation cleanly and who already looked vulnerable.