The third Grand Slam tournament for the women gets underway on Monday when the eyes of the world will be on London as Wimbledon takes place to round off the European grass court summer.
Barbara Krejcikova rounded off the grass court season in style a year ago when she surprised everyone to take the title and the Czech is back at SW19 looking to make a successful title defence in what is a wide open women’s competition as always.
Recent Winners
2024 – Barbora Krejcikova
2023 – Marketa Vondrousova
2022 – Elena Rybakina
2021 – Ash Barty
2019 – Simona Halep
2018 – Angelique Kerber
2017 – Garbine Muguruza
2016 – Serena Williams
2015 – Serena Williams
2014 – Petra Kvitova
The Format
We have the relatively new Grand Slam structure in place in this tournament which means that we have a tiebreak in the final set. Each match is the best of three sets and if it reaches 6-6 in the deciding set then the match will be settled with a first to 10 point tiebreak which we saw for the first time at the French Open in 2022. The 128 players have been inserted into the draw bracket and the tournament is a straight knockout with the champion being decided on the second Saturday.
Top Quarter
Aryna Sabalenka has been involved in both of the Grand Slam finals in 2025, coming up short in both of them so she will be hoping it is third time lucky for her here at Wimbledon. The world number one and top seed is in the first quarter of the draw where she is scheduled for an Australian Open final rematch with Madison Keys in the last eight. The six seeds out to stop that from happening are McCartney Kessler, who won the Nottingham title earlier in the month, Elise Mertens, Elina Svitolina, Paula Badosa, the semi-finalist of a year ago in Donna Vekic and former US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez.
We will see recognisable players throughout the draw who aren’t seeded and in the top quarter they include the 2023 champion Marketa Vondrousova, who is entitled to be a threat to anyone in this tournament, Peyton Stearns, Lulu Sun, whose career ignited here a year ago and Marie Bouzkova, while Aliaksandra Sasnovich came through qualifying. The two top British players are in this quarter too in Emma Raducanu and Katie Boulter while the young pair of Hannah Klugman and Mimi Xu will represent Britain too.
Second Quarter
The 2024 finalist Jasmine Paolini arrives back at Wimbledon as the number four seed this year and the Italian will look to go one better than she did a year ago from the second quarter, where she is scheduled to run into the Olympic champion Qinwen Zheng in the quarter final. As ever, six seeds will look to stop that from happening and they are Linda Noskova, Beatriz Haddad Maia, Amanda Anisimova, Diana Shnaider, Jelena Ostapenko and Ashlyn Krueger.
Some really big names are here in the unseeded section of the draw including the multiple Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka, former finalist here Ons Jabeur, Yulia Putintseva and the veteran Anastasija Sevastova who is back on the tour. Harriet Dart heads up the British challenge in this quarter and she is joined by Sonay Kartal and the young star in waiting Mika Stojsavljevic, the youngster who is doing good things on the junior circuit.
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Third Quarter
The Bad Homburg winner Jessica Pegula is the headline draw in the third quarter of the draw. The third seed has only once been past the third round of this tournament though so the next highest seed in Mirra Andreeva will certainly fancy her chances of going well in this section. In among the other six seeds in this part of the draw is the defending champion Barbora Krejcikova as well as Magdalena Frech, Emma Navarro, Karolina Muchova, Ekaterina Alexandrova and Magda Linette, so this is a fairly open section.
There are plenty of household names in this quarter who aren’t seeded headed up by the former champion Petra Kvitova for whom we now know this will be her final Wimbledon. The former Olympic champion Belinda Bencic is in this section too as is the Queens winner Tatjana Maria. Veronika Kudermetova, Anastasia Potapova and the Eastbourne finalist Alexandra Eala are others to watch. This is the only quarter in the draw which doesn’t carry a British interest.
Bottom Quarter
The French Open champion Coco Gauff is the second seed at Wimbledon this year and she will be the main draw in the bottom quarter of the bracket. The American star is scheduled to take on Iga Swiatek in the quarter final, although this is the worst of the Slams for the Polish ace which will offer encouragement to the other six seeds who are Marta Kostyuk, Clara Tauson, former champion Elena Rybakina, Daria Kasatkina, Liudmila Samsonova and Sofia Kenin.
There are some big names and some form players in this bottom quarter who aren’t seeded. The big names include Victoria Azarenka, Maria Sakkari, Anna Kalinskaya and Danielle Collins while the form players include Eastbourne champion Maya Joint and the Nottingham finalist Dayana Yastremska. There is also British interest in this quarter in the form of Jodie Burrage, Heather Watson and Francesca Jones.
Outright Betting
I really think Elena Rybakina is the one to beat this fortnight but the 6/1 price is putting me off. I’m not worried that she has a tough draw but it adds to making me think the price is tight. Nevertheless, my outright bets are staying well away from her for as long as possible. The first of them is the woman who won the Australian Open carrying my money in Madison Keys. Keys was going very well here a year ago and was giving the eventual finalist Jasmine Paolini as good as she was getting deep into a deciding set in a high quality encounter before injury struck and she couldn’t continue at 5-5 in that set. Since then she has won the Australian Open and with a game suited to grass and firm conditions to enhance that serve which is a huge weapon of hers I think Keys is value at 18/1. She beat Aryna Sabalenka in the Australian Open final and that aside the genuine challengers don’t come along until the final. I think Keys is the one to be on this week.
I will also have a go with Amanda Anisimova, the Queens finalist. She comes here with a 6-2 record on grass this season and is actually 14-6 on the surface dating back to the start of 2022 and with the power that the American possesses it isn’t a surprise that she is so effective on grass. It took the wily Tatjana Maria to stop Anisimova at Queens after the American had taken care of Emma Navarro and Qinwen Zheng on her way to the final. She also saw off Bianca Andreescu and Magdalena Frech in Berlin so she comes here with plenty of form on the grass with her and a draw which could open up in no time. I think there is value on her at 33/1.
Quarter Betting
As I explained above, I’m going nowhere near the Elena Rybakina part of the draw this fortnight which leaves the only quarter for a bet being the third one where the two main seeds are Jessica Pegula and Mirra Andreeva. Both of those could be popular, Pegula because she has just won Bad Homburg and beat Iga Swiatek in the final to win the title and Andreeva because she is the new star on the scene but I want value in this section because there are questions over both of those seeds.
I think it is worth taking a chance on the Queens champion Tatjana Maria. Clearly at the veteran stage of her career two weeks in this company might be tough going but it is only three years ago that the 37-year-old made the semi-final here and she spoke at Queens about how she wants to play long enough for her daughter to join her on tour so she isn’t giving up yet. Maria’s main draw run at Queens saw her run the gauntlet of Leylah Fernandez, Karolina Muchova, Elena Rybakina, Madison Keys and Amanda Anisimova, all Grand Slam finalists. Her route to the semi-final here is nothing like as tough so at 25/1 I’ll pay to see how well she goes here.
Tips
Back M.Keys to win Wimbledon (e/w) for a 1.5/10 stake at 19.00 with Betfred (1/2 1-2)
Back A.Anisimova to win Wimbledon (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with William Hill (1/2 1-2)
Back her here:
Back T.Maria to win 3rd Quarter for a 1/10 stake at 26.00 with Bet365
