Wimbledon Predictions 2026

In less than a fortnight, the best players in the world descend on the All England Club for the 2026 Wimbledon Championships. We’ve had a brief taste of grass already – Halle, Queen’s and Berlin have given us our first proper read on who’s moving well on the surface.

So it’s time for my Wimbledon predictions. Who will lift the men’s and women’s trophies? Who’s going to surprise, and who’s going to crash out? Read on for all my predictions for the 2026 event.

The men’s draw lost its most intriguing storyline before a ball was struck. Two-time champion Carlos Alcaraz, the one man with a proven edge over the favorite on grass, is out with a wrist injury.

That leaves world No 1 and defending champion Jannik Sinner as an enormous favorite – but with such a gap between him and the rest, is this tournament a foregone conclusion already? We saw in Paris that’s far from the case. Here are my men’s tennis Wimbledon predictions, a fortnight out.

Backing Alexander Bublik is a bold call right now, given his patchy form. But I’m still high on the Kazakh coming into Wimbledon, as he’s got a game built for grass – a big, booming first serve, slick slices, and the netcraft to finish points early. He’s one of the few men on tour whose best surface is the lawn.

Bublik has the numbers to back up the eye test. He won Halle last year, beating world No 1 Sinner along the way, and sits at 38-20 (66%) on grass for his career. He’s been picking up wins already this grass season, and is on track for a top-10 seeding in London.

The con is that Bublik’s best Wimbledon result is a single round of 16. Last year he followed that Halle title by losing in the first round at SW19 to Jaume Munar. His 2026 form has cooled too – 18-12 heading into the grass season, with back-to-back losses including a first-round exit in Paris.

So this is a leap. He’s never made the last eight here, and the current form is patchy at best.

But his serve travels on grass like few others, the draw outside the top names is thin, and all he needs is one hot week. Get it firing for four matches and he can reach a maiden Wimbledon quarter-final.

With Alcaraz sidelined, the most credible threat in the bottom half of the draw is gone. That opens a path for a fresh face to reach a maiden Grand Slam final.

Run through the grass-capable names still chasing a first major final. Ben Shelton has the biggest lefty serve in the game and the firepower to bully a draw on a fast court. Felix Auger-Aliassime and Alex de Minaur have both gone deep at Slams without breaking through to a final, and both move well enough to do damage here.

Grass is the great leveler. Big serving travels, the points stay short, and the gap between the elite and the chasing pack shrinks. One break a set is often the whole match.

The risk in this prediction is Novak Djokovic. He’s got seven titles at the place and an 86% career grass win rate, and still knows how to win here better than anyone left in the field. Daniil Medvedev, a two-time Wimbledon semi-finalist who climbs to 71% at SW19 alone, is another proven hand who could shut the door on a first-time finalist.

But Djokovic is seeded outside the top four, 39 years old, and just lost early in Paris. Give me one of the maiden men to break through and play for the title.

Grass is the most volatile surface in the sport. The points are short, the rallies are few, and there’s almost no time for a favorite to settle once the serve starts misfiring. 

Recent history screams this. Last year alone, Zverev went out in the first round to Arthur Rinderknech in five sets, and Medvedev – fresh off a Halle final – crashed in his opening match too. Top seeds tumble here every single year.

Behind Sinner, the likely top-four seeds – Zverev, Auger-Aliassime and Shelton – are all beatable early on a fast court. None of them owns this surface the way the top seeds own clay or hard.

Timing doesn’t help. Several arrive light on grass match play, having played just one or two tournaments. Rust shows fastest in the opening rounds, when a player is still finding the low bounce.

Then there’s the floater problem. The early rounds are littered with big servers and grass veterans with nothing to lose – a Marin Cilic type, the man who knocked Jack Draper out in the second round last year. Get one of those on a hot serving day, and seeding counts for nothing.

I’ve got at least one of the top four packing their bags before the fourth round.

Zverev arrives as the freshly crowned French Open champion, the No 2 seed. On grass, though, he’s vulnerable.

In nine appearances at Wimbledon, Zverev has never been past the fourth round. Grass is by far his worst surface. His career grass record of 45-23 (66%) is respectable enough, but the deep runs simply haven’t come at SW19.

The reasons aren’t hard to see. His return game and his movement both take a hit when the ball skids low and fast, and his game is built on grinding from deep behind the baseline – the opposite of what wins on grass. Best-of-five against big servers drags him into tie-break shootouts where his edge in long rallies barely matters.

Last year made this point in brutal fashion: he went out in the first round to Rinderknech, losing a five-set epic to a player ranked well below him.

He’s in the form of his life – 35-9 heading into the grass swing, with that maiden major finally in the bag – so I wouldn’t rule out a run to the second week. But the quarters and beyond? All signs point towards no.

This is far from an exciting pick, but I expect Jannik Sinner to lift the trophy again and defend his Wimbledon crown.

The Italian is an overwhelming favorite, and for once I’m happy to side with the bookies here. Heading into the grass season he was 37-3, a record built on a 30-match winning streak through the spring, and even a rare early stumble in Paris does nothing to dent the bigger picture.

His grass credentials are watertight. He’s 29-10 (74%) on the surface with two titles, and last year he tore through the draw at SW19 – beating Djokovic and Alcaraz back-to-back to take the title. His only grass loss in all of 2025 came to Bublik in a Halle warm-up, and he answered it by going unbeaten at the Championships.

The game is tailor-made for the surface too. Flat, penetrating groundstrokes that stay low, and a serve – once a weakness, now a weapon – that’s lethal with extra pace off the court. Grass rewards exactly what he does best.

And the one man with a genuine surface edge over him, two-time champion Alcaraz, is watching from home with a wrist injury. Strip him out and the field thins dramatically.

He’s cut from a different cloth, and just keeps racking up records. Over seven best-of-five matches, I don’t see anyone in this field finding a way past him.

There’s plenty more to chew over on the women’s side. The numbers actually make Elena Rybakina and defending champion Iga Swiatek the strongest grass players in the field – but world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka heads the market off the back of a monster season, and the draw looks wide open behind them. Read on for my 2026 women’s Wimbledon predictions.

Swiatek finally cracked the grass riddle last year, blowing away Amanda Anisimova 6-0, 6-0 in the final to complete her set of surfaces. Defending that title is a very different task though, and I’m tipping she won’t.

Firstly, there’s her form. She came into the grass swing at 21-10 with no titles, lost her Roland-Garros crown to Mirra Andreeva, and has looked short of the consistency that has defined her for five seasons. For a six-time major champion, it’s been a rough stretch.

Until last year, grass was long the obvious weak link in her game. She’s all about that heavy topspin, which doesn’t get nearly as much pay on the slick surface. One brilliant fortnight doesn’t erase the years before it, especially with her game out of sorts.

Her preparation hasn’t helped either. She skipped Berlin, the main WTA grass tune-up on the calendar, so she lands at SW19 with fewer competitive reps than her main rivals and 2,000 points to defend.

I’m not writing her off – talent and big-match know-how don’t vanish, and her 76% career grass win rate is elite. I have her competing, maybe deep into the second week, dangerous in patches.

But going all the way again, off this build-up and this form? Not this year. I have her falling short of the final.

Anisimova has unfinished business here. She was the runner-up last year, beating Yulia Putintseva, Linda Noskova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova before running into Swiatek in the final. Her grass ability is not in doubt.

In fact, her 2025 grass season was the best on the entire WTA Tour – 12-3, with a run to the Queen’s final backed up by that Wimbledon final. She hits flat, takes the ball early, and moves cleanly on the low bounce. Her game works on this surface as well as anyone’s.

She’s arriving sharp, too. She reached the Queen’s quarter-finals again during this year’s grass swing, losing a three-setter to the in-form Iva Jovic.

That said, her 2026 had been patchy heading into the grass season. She came in at 13-7, well down on the level that took her to a career high – and she’s got a mountain of ranking points to defend from last year’s final. A flat day against a big server is always a danger on grass.

But her ability on this surface gives me confidence that Anisimova will make the quarter-finals at a minimum, and perhaps a good deal further if she rekindles last season’s form.

This one’s close to a lock. Mirra Andreeva is 19, the reigning French Open champion, and the youngest Grand Slam winner in over a decade. She came into the grass season at 36-9 – the most wins of anyone in the field – and made the Wimbledon quarter-finals last year. A player like that reaching the last 32 is barely news.

But it isn’t only her. The women’s game is loaded with young talent right now. Victoria Mboko has climbed fast at 24-9 for the year, the junior-circuit graduates are starting to land in main draws, and there’s no shortage of teenagers capable of stringing two wins together.

It’s worth remembering this is the event where the next wave announces itself. Mia Pohankova took the girls’ title here last year and is already testing herself at tour level. Names like that don’t need a deep run to clear my bar – two matches and a kind draw will do it.

I’m setting it at the third round on purpose. Modest, I know, and with Andreeva in the field it might feel too safe. But Wimbledon match predictions are no good if they all miss, and I want this one banked regardless of how the draw shakes out.

Home soil, home crowd, familiar grass. Every year the British contingent gets a lift at SW19, and I think one of them rides it into the round of 16 in 2026.

Katie Boulter is the most credible candidate on the numbers. She has a grass title, a 40-24 (63%) career record on the surface, and has reached the third round at Wimbledon twice. Her serve and flat hitting can trouble seeds on a quick court.

Emma Raducanu is a wildcard. Her grass results are thinner, but a former Grand Slam champion with the home crowd behind her is always capable of a run when her forehand is flowing.

British depth on the women’s side is thin, Boulter’s best here is a third round, and the leading names have had patchy, injury-interrupted seasons. This doesn’t scream second week for any of them.

But intangibles are big at Wimbledon. A partisan crowd and a familiar venue are worth a round or two once the nerves settle. It only takes one of them landing a kind section. One Brit reaching the round of 16 is my prediction.

Same as the men, I’ll finish with the favorite. I predict Sabalenka wins her maiden Wimbledon title.

No one has been better on the WTA Tour this year. She came into the grass season at 31-4 with a stack of titles and an Australian Open final – the best record of anyone in the field, and a clear world No 1. Her heavy serve and brutal power off both wings are made for a surface that rewards first-strike tennis.

Technically, grass is her weakest surface. She’s reached three Wimbledon semi-finals – 2021, 2023 and 2025 – and lost the lot, with last year’s defeat coming to Anisimova in the last four. A 67% career grass win rate is the lowest of the top contenders. Her firepower has never quite been matched by the touch needed for tight late-round matches here.

So why back her to finally do it? Form, and a thinning field. She’s playing the best tennis of her career, the Swiatek who blitzed last year’s draw is out of sorts, and Anisimova’s level is a question mark. The chief grass-pedigree threat is Rybakina, the 2022 champion, but even she has been a notch below Sabalenka in recent months.

If Sabalenka is ever going to break the SW19 ceiling, this is the year. I’ve got her doing it.

With the 2026 Wimbledon Championships approaching, we can expect exciting matches in both the men’s and women’s draws. Jannik Sinner is the favorite in the men’s draw, while Aryna Sabalenka is the favorite to win the trophy in the women’s draw.

Notable young talents, such as Alexander Bublik and Mirra Andreeva, are also expected to stand out from the field. The fast grass courts make matches unpredictable, so surprises are also on the cards.

For betting enthusiasts, it’s worth following the tournament’s events and Wimbledon predictions – whether it’s winners, players, or live betting – on the sites of the best bookmakers, which offer the best odds and a wide range of markets.