LONDON: The first round of Wimbledon begins on Monday with defending champion Carlos Alcaraz seeking a hat-trick of titles at the All England Club while women’s top seed Aryna Sabalenka resumes her quest for a first major this year after two runner-up finishes.
Spaniard Alcaraz could join an elite club of just four men — Bjorn Borg, Pete Sampras, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic — who have claimed three consecutive Wimbledon titles in the Open era.
Yet the 22-year-old Alcaraz, radiating confidence that belies his youth, says the only thing on his mind is the trophy itself and not its legacy.
“I’m coming here thinking that I really want to win the title, I really want to lift the trophy, not thinking about how many players have won three Wimbledons in a row,” Alcaraz told reporters the other day.
“I just want to be ready, to prepare myself in the best way possible to start the tournament with a lot of confidence. Obviously I feel a lot of confidence right now,” he added with a smile.
“Two weeks could be really long in a Grand Slam but right now I’m not thinking about who I could join if I win three Wimbledons in a row.”
Such confidence is not misplaced, after he cemented his status as the Prince of Clay when he won a five-and-a-half-hour epic to beat world number one Jannik Sinner in the French Open final earlier this month.
The world number two is now seeking to extend his reign on the grasscourts as well, warming up for Wimbledon by winning the Queen’s Club Championship for a second time.
Parting company with two of your team days before Wimbledon might not sound ideal but Sinner has played down any negative impact as he prepares for the grass-court Grand Slam.
The 23-year-old Italian surprisingly split with Marco Panichi and Ulises Badio, his trainer and physiotherapist respectively, after the Halle tournament and was asked about the situation.
“Nothing major happened. Nothing big happened. I parted ways not long ago but it’s not affecting me. I feel ready to compete. I feel free. I feel me and my team, we are ready to do the best we can,” Sinner, who is bidding to win his first Wimbledon title, told reporters.
While most top seeds fine-tuned their game on Wimbledon’s pristine practice courts this week, Taylor Fritz was busy collecting silverware on England’s south coast, a strategy the American hopes could finally unlock his Grand Slam potential.
The ninth seed arrives at the All England Club as the in-form player on grass having claimed two titles, beating Alexander Zverev on his home turf to lift the Stuttgart Open before he defended his Eastbourne Open title.
“One more title and I might have to buy a house here,” quipped Fritz after clinching his fourth Eastbourne crown in six editions on Saturday.
Fritz’s unconventional preparation, playing competitively right up to the start of Wimbledon while rivals opt for closed practice sessions, represents a calculated gamble for a player whose Grand Slam performances have failed to match his seeding.
In the women’s section, defending champion Barbora Krejcikova will step into the All England Club this week carrying both the weight of expectation and a lingering injury concern, yet the Czech appears utterly unfazed by either.
Days after withdrawing from the Eastbourne Open with a thigh injury, Krejcikova seemed calmly assured for someone who defied the odds at Wimbledon last year when she stunned Grand Slam champions en route to the title as the 31st seed.
Krejcikova has had limited preparation after a back injury sidelined her for six months, playing six matches since her return in May.
“It’s definitely not difficult [returning as defending champion]. It’s actually very, very nice to be here and very nice to play, even after all the time I was out,” Krejcikova told reporters on Sunday.
“So I’m enjoying it, I’m happy to be here. I find it tough, complicated, but I don’t find it difficult. I’m very much looking forward to play on Tuesday.”
“It’s basically a new tournament, even though I won it last year and I have great memories for this one. I want to come here and do well again. The preparation is the same, I’ve been working really hard to come back and to enjoy this position.”
World number one Sabalenka hopes an outburst after her French Open final defeat to Coco Gauff will prove a turning point in maintaining her emotional control in high-pressure clashes ahead of Wimbledon.
The three-time Grand Slam champion threw away a one-set lead to lose to the American in Paris earlier this month.
Afterwards, Sabalenka described her performance as the “the worst final I’ve ever played”.
The Belarusian later apologised to Gauff for her comments and the pair put their differences aside by performing a dance together on the Wimbledon lawns for social media.
“I was just completely, like, upset with myself, and emotions got over me. I just completely lost it,” said Sabalenka at a pre-Wimbledon press conference.
“I believe I get overemotional at the last stages of the tournaments because I have this desire of winning.
“Sometimes it [gets the better of] me and I can lose control over my emotions. So I would love to improve that at the last stages of the tournament.
“But honestly I’m kind of glad what happened to me at Paris because I was able to learn a lot.”
Emma Raducanu strides onto the grasscourts of Wimbledon on Monday as the British number one, a world away from the wide-eyed teenager who burst onto the scene at the All England Club four years ago.
“It does feel like a long time ago. A lot has happened in the last four years,” Raducanu told reporters, reflecting on her meteoric rise from obscurity to the fourth round in 2021, a run that preceded her astonishing US Open triumph later that year.
Raducanu faces 17-year-old British wildcard Mingge Xu, who will be making her own Grand Slam debut this year.“It’s good to see a new generation, it keeps us on our toes. It keeps us hungry to improve. It’s just healthy competition between all of us,” Raducanu added.
Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2025
