The 138th edition of the Wimbledon championships is one week away, set to begin on the 30th of June.
On the women’s side, the defending champion is Czech star Barbora Krejcikova, who held the trophy aloft on Centre Court last year after defeating Jasmine Paolini of Italy over three sets.
Since 2016, when Serena Williams won the title for the second season in a row, there has been a different champion at the All England Club every year.
The heavy favourites in 2025 include world number one Aryna Sabalenka and French Open champion Coco Gauff, both of whom would also be first-time winners should they emerge victorious at Wimbledon.
It won’t be easy for the top seeds, however, as there are a number of unseeded threats at the tournament this year who could make deep runs, including a former champion at the event.
Ons Jabeur
Ons Jabeur, currently ranked 59th in the world, has come agonisingly close to winning Wimbledon twice in recent years.
She made back-to-back finals in 2022 and 2023, falling at the last hurdle in both years, losing to Elena Rybakina and Marketa Vondrousova, respectively.
Jabeur crashed out of the tournament in the third round last year and announced two months later she would miss the rest of the season due to an ongoing shoulder injury.
The Tunisian is healthy again, though, and after recently kicking off her grass-court season with a quarter-final finish in Berlin, she’ll be ready to go far at Wimbledon again
Marketa Vondrousova
Jabeur’s 2023 Wimbledon final conqueror, Vondrousova, knows what it takes to go all the way at the championships.
Like her opponent that year, however, the 25-year-old has also dealt with shoulder injuries over the past year, and underwent surgery in August of 2024.
She is now back to her best on grass, however, having just won her first title in nearly two years at the Berlin Open.
En route to the title, she defeated Sabalenka in straight sets, proving she is more than capable of taking down the world’s best at Wimbledon.
Emma Raducanu
Andy Murray managed to end the 77-year-long British dry spell on the men’s side in 2013, but since Virginia Wade won in 1977, there hasn’t been a home winner at Wimbledon in the women’s tournament.
Having recently reclaimed British number one status for the first time since 2023, Emma Raducanu remains the most likely to end the drought.
Raducanu has had an up-and-down season and is yet to win a title since her historic US Open triumph, but the 22-year-old has shown in the past what she is capable of on the grandest stages.
Ranked 38th in the world currently, she’ll be unseeded again at Wimbledon, but will have the London crowd behind her every step of the way, and could present some big problems to the top players.
Tatjana Maria
Before the beginning of the grass season, nobody would have expected 37-year-old Tatjana Maria to be a dark horse for Wimbledon, but the last few weeks have changed everything.
At the first women’s edition of the Queen’s Club Championships in over 50 years, Maria did the unthinkable.
After advancing through the qualifying stages, the German earned victories over four top 15 players to win the title in London.
Having defeated Karolina Muchova, Rybakina, Madison Keys, and Amanda Anisimova in the last month, the world number 45 will be very confident heading into SW19.
Xinyu Wang
Xinyu Wang, ranked 33rd in the world, has missed out on seeding at Wimbledon by one position, but is more than capable of putting together a lengthy run in South West London.
Wang enjoyed an impressive campaign at the Berlin Open, where she picked up her third top-ten win against world number two Gauff in the second round.
She advanced to the final, having not dropped a set in the main draw of the tournament, but ultimately lost to Vondrousova in the final, despite forcing a third set.
The Chinese star has since pulled out of the Bad Homburg Open, meaning she’ll have some extra rest time ahead of Wimbledon, where she could cause some big upsets.
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