The draw for the 139th Championships was conducted at the All England Club on Friday morning, and it delivered the scenario much of the sport had been bracing for: Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic landing in the same half, on a collision course for a semifinal showdown a fortnight from now.
Sinner, the world No. 1 and defending champion, heads Section 1 as the top seed and begins his title defence against Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanović, an opponent he has beaten in each of their previous meetings. On paper it is a forgiving opener for a player whose grass-court rhythm is the season’s open question after a bruising second-round exit at Roland Garros.
The Italian would face the winner of Nuno Borges and Tristan Boyer in the second round, is seeded to meet Ignacio Buse in the third, and could run into NextGen Spaniard Rafael Jodar or compatriot Luciano Darderi in the fourth. His projected quarter-final opponent is eighth seed Daniil Medvedev — a matchup Sinner has dominated, taking 10 of their past 11 meetings.
The complication for Sinner is the name lurking deeper in his half. Djokovic, seeded only seventh this year, anchors Section 4 and opens against China’s Wu Yibing. The path tightens quickly: a possible second-round meeting with Stefanos Tsitsipas, then Arthur Rinderknech projected in the third round, and a fourth-round landmine in Andrey Rublev or Brazilian teenager Joao Fonseca.
Third seed Felix Auger-Aliassime sits in Djokovic’s quarter as the projected last-eight obstacle. Navigate all of that, and the 39-year-old — chasing a record-extending 25th major and an eighth Wimbledon title to match Roger Federer — would meet Sinner in the last four rather than the final.
That places the heavyweight reckoning a round earlier than the seedings intended, and leaves the bottom half conspicuously open.
There, Roland Garros champion Alexander Zverev is the second seed and the man to beat. The German opens against 21-year-old Belgian Alexander Blockx and is seeded to face Matteo Arnaldi in the third round before a projected quarter-final against sixth seed Fritz — a worrying draw for Zverev, who has lost his past seven meetings with the American, including at Wimbledon in 2024 and on grass in Halle this month.
But Fritz must first survive the tie of the round. He has drawn Jack Draper, the former world No. 4 and British No. 1, in a first-round blockbuster that hands the American a road-game atmosphere on a Centre or No. 1 Court crowd firmly behind the home favourite. Draper only returned to competition this week in Eastbourne after an extended injury absence, adding a layer of uncertainty to a match that would be a feature attraction in any later round.
Completing the bottom half, fourth seed Ben Shelton — Zverev’s projected semi-final opponent — opens against qualifier Otto Virtanen, with fifth seed Alex de Minaur his likely quarter-final test.
Hanging over the entire bracket is an absence. Two-time champion Carlos Alcaraz, the 2023 and 2024 winner and last year’s runner-up, is out with a wrist injury, removing the one man capable of bending the draw around himself and throwing the bottom half wide open in particular. With Alcaraz sidelined and Djokovic stranded in Sinner’s half, the field’s two clearest title routes now run through the same four players.
Main-draw play begins Monday, 29 June, with the final scheduled for 12 July.
