Can Swiatek finish at the All England Club? Are Gauff and Raducanu ready to shine?

Iga Swiatek’s breathtaking rise to stardom continues at a rapid pace and she can look back on an extremely successful campaign.

On the clay court, Swiatek made an excellent breakthrough, taking victories in Madrid and Rome before claiming her third consecutive French Open title and her fourth overall.

But despite all her joy in Paris over the past four years, the 23-year-old has yet to record a win at Wimbledon; her quarter-final appearance last year was her best result to date at the All England Club.

But will this run end this year, and what about the other contenders in the women’s singles?

Swiatek’s missing puzzle piece

Wimbledon is not the only Grand Slam title missing from Swiatek’s growing collection, but it is the only one where she has not yet made it to at least the semifinals.

Swiatek has won 72 Grand Slam matches since the start of 2020, with Aryna Sabalenka (62) and Ons Jabeur (51) being the only other players to surpass the 50 mark during that time.

She is one of three players, along with Elena Rybakina and Danielle Collins, who are aiming to become only the third player since the beginning of 2020 to win a tour-level title on grass, clay and hard courts in a calendar year, after Ashleigh Barty (2021) and Caroline Garcia (2022).

The Pole also wants to achieve some of Serena Williams’ successes.

If she wins, she would become the youngest player since Williams in 2002 to win both Roland Garros and Wimbledon in the same season, while Swiatek would become the first player to win two consecutive Grand Slam singles titles since Williams’ victories at the French Open and Wimbledon in 2015.

However, Swiatek had a difficult start. In the first round she will face Sofia Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open winner.

However, Swiatek won her two previous encounters with Kenin (Roland Garros 2020 and this year’s Australian Open) in straight sets.

History also speaks for her. The player, who is ranked number one in the world, has won the first round of each of the last 19 women’s singles tournaments at Grand Slams – the last time a number one lost in the first round of a major was at the 2018 US Open, when Kaia Kanepi defeated Simona Halep.

Swiatek is also the only woman to have competed in all Grand Slam events since 2020 without ever losing in the first round during that period (17-0).

Sabalenka in a race against time – Gauff’s chance to shine?

Sabalenka’s battle with Swiatek was a highlight of her clay-court tour, but the Belarusian has admitted she may not be fit enough to appear at Wimbledon due to shoulder problems.

She has hit 309 winners in Grand Slam matches this year, more than any other player. If she plays to the end, Sabalenka would become only the third player to win the Australian Open and Wimbledon in the same calendar year, after Williams (2003, 2009-10 and ’15) and Amelie Mauresmo (2006).

Sabalenka is seeking to become the first player since Williams to reach the quarterfinals of eight consecutive Grand Slam tournaments (10 of them between the 2014 US Open and the 2017 Australian Open). The 26-year-old has won the first round in each of her last 15 Grand Slam appearances.

If the third-ranked player in the world rankings does not make it, second-seeded Coco Gauff is likely to become Swiatek’s biggest competitor.

It has been five years since Gauff appeared on the scene as a 15-year-old alongside Venus Williams.

However, she never made it past the round of 16 and was eliminated in the first round last year against her compatriot Kenin.

Reigning US Open champion Gauff will face Caroline Dolehide in the first round. Their only other meeting at tour level came at the Australia Open this year.

Gauff will be the youngest player to compete among the top two seeds in the women’s singles at Wimbledon since Maria Sharapova in 2007, while she and Swiatek are the youngest combined seeded first and second (43 years and 141 days) since 2003 (Williams and Kim Clijsters).

Gauff’s biggest struggle may be to gain the upper hand on the surface. She has won 66.7% of her WTA main draw matches on grass (18-9); that’s her lowest winning percentage on a single surface (72.3% on clay and 68.8% on hard).

Home hopes

Emma Raducanu experienced a remarkable rise to stardom in 2021, impressing at Wimbledon and then winning her first Grand Slam title at Flushing Meadows.

But this stormy success gave way to difficult seasons in 2022 and 2023, marked by injuries and poor form.

However, the 21-year-old has hit her stride this grass-court season, reaching the last four at the Nottingham Open before claiming her first victory over a top-10 opponent with a win over Jessica Pegula in Eastbourne.

She also reached the quarterfinals in Stuttgart in April, where she lost to Swiatek, and was unlucky to face Sabalenka in Indian Wells. Raducanu is ranked 135th in the world and therefore certainly doesn’t have much of a chance, but she will have the support of the home crowd, as will Katie Boulter.

Boulter, who just won the Nottingham Open, will face Tatjana Maria in the first round.

Boulter is the only seeded British player in the women’s singles – after Johanna Konta (2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019) and Raducanu (2022), she is only the third British woman to be seeded at Wimbledon this century.

In the last three years, only Ons Jabeur (22) has won more grass court matches than Boulter (21, tied with Ekaterina Alexandrova), who has also won more matches (six) at Wimbledon than at all other major tournaments combined.

The 27-year-old is also the leader on grass so far with 256 winners, so she is one to keep an eye on.

The wildcards

Marketa Vondrousova is the only unseeded player to win the women’s singles title at Wimbledon in the Open Era after her dream run last year.

Vondrousova (42 at the time of last year’s tournament) is the lowest-ranked winner of the title in the last four decades. She is one of only two players ranked outside the WTA top 25 to win the tournament in that time period, along with Venus Williams in 2007.

Vondrousova is currently ranked number six in the world and will be a big target this year, but will other unseeded players or wildcards fancy their chances?

Four former Grand Slam winners (Angelique Kerber, Raducanu, Caroline Wozniacki and Naomi Osaka) will compete in the main draw of a major women’s singles for the first time in the Open Era thanks to wildcards.

Osaka has won just four matches at Wimbledon, making this Grand Slam tournament her least popular. However, only Caroline Garcia (10.5) has averaged more aces per match at the majors this season than the Japanese star.

Kerber is the player with the most main draw victories at Wimbledon (38) among all participants in the 2024 tournament and is taking part in a major for the first time in her career thanks to a wildcard.

Of the players competing in this year’s edition of Wimbledon, only Victoria Azarenka (16, including 2024) has more main draw appearances than Kerber (15).

Thanks to a wildcard, Wozniacki will compete in the main draw of Wimbledon for the second time in her career after 2007. She has never reached the quarterfinals of this tournament.