Wimbledon unveils record prize money as Serena Williams returns

Wimbledon will open with a record £64.2 million prize fund and Serena Williams back in the women’s singles draw on a wild card, giving the fortnight an immediate headline before the first ball is struck.

The Championships 2026 will run from 29 June to 12 July at the All England Lawn Tennis Club in Wimbledon, London, with qualifying staged one week earlier in Roehampton to decide the final main-draw places. The total purse is up 20% from £53.5 million in 2025, and the men’s and women’s singles champions will each collect £3.6 million. Even first-round losers will take home £80,000, a figure that underscores how much the sport’s oldest major has swollen in financial reach.

The women’s draw is built around Iga Swiatek, the defending champion, but Williams is the most unpredictable name in the field. At 44, she is making her first major singles appearance since the 2022 US Open, and Wimbledon lists her as one of four former women’s champions in the 2026 field. The possibility of a third-round meeting between Swiatek and Williams gives the opening rounds real stakes: if both players hold serve through the first week, the bracket delivers a straight-line collision between the reigning champion and one of the sport’s most recognizable returnees. A surprise run on the women’s side would mean a lower seed or former champion pushing deep enough to force that matchup; an early upset would be one of the top names falling before that third round arrives.

The men’s field is anchored by Jannik Sinner, the No. 1 seed and defending champion, with Alexander Zverev seeded No. 2 and Novak Djokovic among the top eight. That top-end structure makes the opening week unforgiving, because a single lapse on grass can unravel a title defense before Centre Court’s second weekend. Wimbledon’s history reaches back to 1877, when 22 men competed at the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club and Spencer Gore became the first champion. Nearly 150 years later, the Queue, debenture seating and the grass-court swing still define the setting, but the decisive story lines sit in the draw: whether the defending champions hold, whether Williams can turn a wild card into a deep run, and whether the bracket breaks early enough to produce a true shock before the final weekend.