Wimbledon, the third tennis major of the year, gets underway this evening (AEST).
This year’s men’s and women’s singles draws will feature 17 Australians. It’s the highest number of Aussies in the draw since 1995.
You can watch Wimbledon on the Nine Network and Stan Sport. The opening round will begin at 8:00pm (AEST).
Here’s what you need to know ahead of the 2025 edition of the grass-court grand slam.
Aussie men
On the men’s side, there will be 10 Australians in action. The only two seeded players are 11th seed Alex de Minaur and 22nd seed Alexei Popyrin.
De Minaur will be hoping to better last year’s performance, which saw him withdraw from a quarter-final because of a hip injury. Popyrin produced his best-ever Wimbledon performance in 2024, losing to Novak Djokovic in the third round.
Qualifier Alex Bolt has the toughest opening round match of any Australian man, as he is set to come up against American 10th seed Ben Shelton.
Aussie women
In the women’s singles, there will be seven Australians competing.
16th seed Daria Kasatkina is the only seeded Australian in the women’s singles draw and will face Colombia’s Emiliana Arango in the first round.
Kasatkina’s best result at Wimbledon was in 2018 when she reached the quarter-final.
This year will be the first time the 28-year-old has represented Australia at Wimbledon after becoming a permanent resident in April.
19-year-old rising star Maya Joint will also be one to watch.
Over the weekend, Joint won the Eastbourne Open, a grass-court tournament on England’s south coast traditionally played in the lead-up to Wimbledon.
Joint claimed her second WTA singles title with a victory over the Philippines’ Alexandra Eala in the final.
She is set to play 19th seed Liudmila Samsonova in the opening round.
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Men's favourites
Carlos Alcaraz is the two-time defending champion at Wimbledon and will kick off his campaign for a third straight title against Italy’s Fabio Fognini.
After winning his second consecutive French Open title earlier this month, the 22-year-old Spaniard has maintained his strong form, winning the prestigious Queen’s Club title last week.
The candidate most likely to challenge Alcaraz is the world number one, Jannik Sinner.
The Italian will be looking to bounce back from losing the French Open final to win his first grand slam title outside of the hard-court majors (the U.S. and Australian Open).
Other strong contenders for the title include Britain’s number one player, Jack Draper, and 24-time slam winner Djokovic, who at 38 is looking to become the oldest ever to win a major.
Women's favourites
The world’s top two-ranked players, Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff, are the favourites for the women’s singles draw.
Neither player has won a Wimbledon title.
Gauff has the edge over Sabalenka after the American beat the Belarusian in the French Open Final earlier this month.
The women’s singles draw at Wimbledon hasn’t been easy to predict in recent years.
Last year, the Czech Republic’s Barbora Krejčíková began the tournament as the 31st seed before going on to win the title. This year, she is the 17th seed.
Krejčíková’s compatriot, Markéta Vondroušová, won the 2023 title as an unseeded player.
2022 champion Elena Rybakina is the 11th seed and will be looking to add a second major title to her resume.
This year’s women’s draw is also set to have a strong American contingent, which includes Australian Open champion Madison Keys and world number three Jessica Pegula.
The latter arrives having just beaten Iga Świątek in the final of the Bad Homburg Open — a grass-court tournament in Germany.
