The clay is cleared and the calendar has tilted decisively toward grass, with the sport’s oldest and most storied fortnight now firmly in view. The 2026 Wimbledon Championships begin on Monday, 29 June, running through 12 July at the All England Club — and the three weeks between now and then are where the contenders are made.
This week. The opening salvo is already under way. At the Queen’s Club, the women’s HSBC Championships (a WTA 500) is into its quarterfinals, led by top seed Elena Rybakina and 2025 runner-up Amanda Anisimova. In Germany, the BOSS Open in Stuttgart has drawn a strong ATP 250 field headed by Ben Shelton and defending champion Taylor Fritz, with the returning Nick Kyrgios adding box-office intrigue. And in the Netherlands, the Libéma Open in Rosmalen has Alex de Minaur, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Daniil Medvedev testing their footing on the lawns.
The new landscape. This grass swing arrives in the wake of a Roland Garros that rewrote a little history. Alexander Zverev finally broke through for a maiden Grand Slam title in Paris, while Mirra Andreeva claimed her first major on the women’s side — two breakthroughs that reshape the conversation heading into Wimbledon and add fresh names to the list of genuine contenders on grass.
What’s next. The schedule only intensifies. The week of 15 June brings the men’s draw at Queen’s alongside the WTA 500 in Berlin — where the headline entrants include Aryna Sabalenka, Coco Gauff and Andreeva — and the ATP 500 in Halle, traditionally a magnet for the very top of the men’s game. By the time the Wimbledon seedings are confirmed in the days before the draw, the form lines drawn on these courts will tell much of the story.
The defending champions. Looming over all of it are the names on last year’s honour boards: Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek, the reigning Wimbledon champions, who will arrive in SW19 with targets on their backs and a fortnight’s worth of ranking points to protect. The grass season is short, unforgiving and quick to separate the adapters from the strugglers — and the next three weeks will set the table for the third major of the year.
