LONDON — The 2026 Wimbledon Championships opened Monday, with all eyes on defending men’s champion Jannik Sinner as he pursues a fifth Grand Slam title, while women’s top seed Aryna Sabalenka looks to get her season back on track with her first major win of the year.
SINNER OPENS AGAINST KECMANOVIC
With rival and two-time Wimbledon winner Carlos Alcaraz absent from this year’s draw, Sinner enters as the clear favorite. However, the 24-year-old Italian faces questions about his readiness after skipping all warm-up tournaments leading into Wimbledon. That decision came after he suffered painful cramping in hot conditions during a second-round loss at the French Open, where he had been close to advancing.
Sinner told reporters Saturday that sitting out the pre-Wimbledon tournaments might actually give him a mental edge heading into his opening match against Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic.
“If you play a tournament before here, maybe it’s not going the way you would like to, you come here with some doubts,” he said. “If you don’t play any tournament, you don’t have these doubts, you just go and play.”
SABALENKA SEEKS REDEMPTION ON GRASS
Aryna Sabalenka has held the top spot in the WTA rankings since late 2024, but the Belarusian has captured only one Grand Slam title over the past 18 months despite making it to four finals. Her French Open campaign ended in stunning fashion last month when she dropped 10 consecutive games against Diana Shnaider in the quarterfinals.
Following that collapse, Sabalenka admitted she wanted to “quit tennis,” but she has since worked with a psychologist. She said a semifinal loss to Jessica Pegula at this month’s Berlin Open didn’t hit her as hard emotionally, calling it a sign of progress.
“I felt really good throughout the tournament there. I struggled a little bit here and there, (but) overall I feel like things are clicking back together,” she said ahead of her first-round match against Teodora Kostovic.
A four-time Grand Slam champion, Sabalenka has never won Wimbledon, though she has reached the semifinals in each of her last three appearances at the All England Club.
DJOKOVIC CHASING HISTORY
Novak Djokovic has spent the last two and a half years in pursuit of a 25th Grand Slam title, which would move him past Margaret Court for the all-time record. The 39-year-old Serb, who holds seven Wimbledon titles with his most recent coming in 2022, has reached two finals and a semifinal at the tournament since then.
Djokovic’s most recent match was a five-set defeat to Brazil’s Joao Fonseca at the French Open. He told reporters he feels better prepared for Wimbledon than he was at Roland Garros, pointing to the physical demands of grass versus clay.
“Playing on grass, comparing to clay, you don’t need to exert as much physical effort. So that’s better for me,” he said. “I always loved playing on grass. I have a very good score here, history, in Wimbledon. That gives me a higher dose of confidence coming into the tournament.”
MONDAY ORDER OF PLAY
On Centre Court, play begins at 12:30 p.m. GMT with Jannik Sinner facing Miomir Kecmanovic, followed by Aryna Sabalenka against Teodora Kostovic, and then Wu Yibing of China taking on seventh-seeded Novak Djokovic.
Court Number One action starts at noon GMT, featuring Emma Raducanu against Antonia Ruzic, Daniil Medvedev against Marin Cilic, and Mirra Andreeva against Magda Linette.
Court Number Two opens at 10:00 a.m. GMT with fourth-seeded Jessica Pegula, third-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime, and seventh-seeded Coco Gauff all in action.
