Wimbledon withdrawal list grows as Lloyd warns ‘it’s going to get worse’

Wimbledon’s pre-tournament withdrawal list has swelled into double figures with eight days to go before the main draw, prompting former Grand Slam finalist John Lloyd to warn that tennis is heading for a player-injury reckoning that “is going to get worse.”

By the latest count, at least 11 players have pulled out across the men’s and women’s singles entry lists, with some reports putting the figure as high as 13 after Holger Rune joined the absentees. It is an unusually heavy toll for a tournament that has not yet begun, and it has stripped the 139th Championships of several marquee names before a ball is struck.

Two-time champion Carlos Alcaraz is the headline casualty. The world No. 2, who won the title in 2023 and 2024 and was runner-up last year, has been sidelined since April with a right wrist problem and is missing a second consecutive major after also skipping Roland Garros. He is replaced in the draw by Britain’s Jan Choinski.

The men’s exits have come in a steady stream. Lorenzo Musetti, last year’s semi-finalist, withdrew with a thigh injury, handing 2021 finalist Matteo Berrettini a direct main-draw place. Shanghai Masters champion Valentin Vacherot, American Sebastian Korda — out since Miami with a back issue — and the rising Czech Tomas Machac have all followed. Machac said the tear in his left foot had not healed enough to risk grass, and that he was targeting the North American hard-court swing instead. Rune, still working back from a ruptured Achilles, opted to protect his recovery rather than test it on Wimbledon’s notoriously slippery early-tournament turf.

The women’s draw has been hit just as hard. The biggest blow was Victoria Mboko, the teenage Canadian and WTA top-10 player, who suffered a knee injury in a heavy fall at Queen’s. Forced to retire mid-match, she told physios on court that her knee had no stability, and later confirmed an MCL injury that ends her grass season — also scuppering a much-anticipated doubles partnership with the returning Serena Williams. Hailey Baptiste (knee), Britain’s Sonay Kartal, Veronika Kudermetova and Varvara Gracheva have also withdrawn, opening direct entries for the likes of Paula Badosa and Francesca Jones.

The picture was no better at the warm-up events. The ATP and WTA 500 tournaments at Queen’s were significantly thinned, with 17 players pulling out across both singles entry lists, among them Alcaraz, Jack Draper, Jessica Pegula, Marta Kostyuk and Belinda Bencic.

Lloyd argued that the men’s best-of-five-set Grand Slam format, combined with a relentless calendar, is at the root of the problem. He pointed out that the off-season offers only around six weeks, much of which is spent recovering rather than truly resting, before players are expected to ramp up from near-dormancy to the extreme demands of major tennis.

Going from that standing start to the prospect of seven four-hour matches, he suggested, puts bodies through a punishing surge with no gradual build-up — a pattern repeated through the back-to-back grind of Indian Wells and Miami, then the clay swing into the French Open and Wimbledon.

His comments tap into a debate that has simmered all season, with player-welfare and scheduling complaints growing louder across both tours. The frequency of mid-match retirements and pre-tournament pull-outs in 2026 has lent weight to calls for mandatory rest periods, reduced playing commitments and stronger medical safeguards.

For Wimbledon, the immediate consequence is a reshaped field. Alternates and lower-ranked names have been handed life-changing main-draw places, and the absence of Alcaraz in particular reshuffles the men’s title picture, clearing a path for defending champion Jannik Sinner and seven-time winner Novak Djokovic. But the broader story — and the one Lloyd is pressing — is whether the sport can keep asking this much of its players without paying a recurring price in injuries.

The main draw begins on Monday 29 June, with the withdrawal list still subject to change right up to the deadline.