Preview, looking ahead to 29 June. With the grass-court warm-ups now in full flow, the shape of Wimbledon 2026 is coming into focus. The Championships begin on 29 June, and the headline framing is continuity at the top: Jannik Sinner returns as defending men’s champion and Iga Świątek defends the women’s title she won last year.
What the warm-ups are telling us. The fortnight’s early form lines are starting to matter. At Queen’s, Katie Boulter’s upset of world No.2 Elena Rybakina and 18-year-old Iva Jovic’s run to the semifinals have injected fresh names into the conversation, while on the men’s side the ‘s-Hertogenbosch and Stuttgart 250s have offered both reassurance for the seeds — Alex de Minaur and defending Stuttgart champion Taylor Fritz among the semifinalists — and a warning shot from outsiders such as Kamil Majchrzak, who toppled top seed Felix Auger-Aliassime. Grass remains the surface where serve, return and footwork can compress the gap between the ranked and the in-form.
The attrition factor. The entry lists are already shifting. World No.9 Victoria Mboko withdrew after a knee injury at Queen’s; Veronika Kudermetova pulled out citing illness; and earlier withdrawals including Sonay Kartal have reshuffled the women’s draw, moving alternates and direct entries up the order. Each change nudges the seeding math and opens sections that looked closed a fortnight ago.
The backdrop. Off court, the tournament arrives carrying its record £64.2 million prize fund and an unresolved revenue conversation with the leading players — a reminder that the sport’s commercial and competitive stories now run in parallel. The draw and final seedings are still to come in the days before play begins, at which point the contender picture will harden considerably.
For now, the through-line is that the grass swing is doing its job: separating the players who travel well from clay to lawn from those still finding the surface, and handing Wimbledon a field with both familiar favourites and fresh subplots.
