WIMBLEDON/WASHINGTON, June 28, 2026 (by Michael Dickens)
When World No. 1 Jannik Sinner walks out on Centre Court at 1:30 p.m. London time Monday afternoon, the defending Wimbledon champion will be playing his first grass-court match in nearly a year, after defeating two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in four sets to win the 2025 Wimbledon Championships gentlemen’s singles final.
While Sinner will be bidding to become the 10th man in the Open Era to retain the Wimbledon title, it will be his first match since he unceremoniously lost in the second round of Roland-Garros, wilting in the heat against Juan Manuel Cerundolo of Argentina.
The 24-year-old top seed from Italy was just one game away from winning the French Open match on clay, up two sets to love and leading Cerundolo in the third set 5-1. Sinner ultimately suffered a spectacular physical collapse and heat-related illness, losing 18 consecutive points, and eventually fell in five sets, 3-6, 2-6, 7-5, 6-1, 6-1.
Since then, Sinner has stepped back to recover and to gear up for another successful run at Wimbledon. He skipped playing in any of the ATP Tour grass-court tune-ups the past few weeks held in the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and Great Britain. It’s the first time in his seven trips to The Championships that Sinner has bypassed playing in a warm-up event.
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Top-seeded at this year’s Wimbledon Championships, Sinner will open against No. 51 Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia on Centre Court. By tradition, the defending men’s champion always plays the first match on Centre Court on Opening Day each year. Sinner is 4-0 lifetime against Kecmanovic, 8-2 in his last 10 matches on grass and 20-4 lifetime in main-draw matches played at The Championships. This will be his seventh time competing at the All England Club.
“I feel good. I think grass is very different surface obviously,” Sinner said during his Wimbledon pre-tournament news conference on Saturday. “You come here trying to do your best. In the same time if you play a tournament before here, maybe it’s not going the way you would like to, you come here with some doubts. If you don’t play any tournament, you don’t have these doubts, you just go and play.
“Look, last year I lost second round in Halle. I came here and I played very well. Every year is different. I try to have as much confidence as possible in my shots and in my abilities. First rounds, they’re always going to be very tough. I know that mentally.
“We are preparing ourself in the best possible way.”
He’s back 🇮🇹
Jannik Sinner returns to Centre Court as the Gentlemen’s Singles Champion 🏆
#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/TGp1ndIuSN— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 14, 2025
Sinner (37-3 in 2026) will bid for more Italian Grand Slam history, in his opening match against Kecmanovic (17-17 in all competitions, 11-16 in tour-level matches this season). Should he defeat the 26-year-old Serbian on Monday, he will record his 94th Grand Slam match-win and equal Nicola Pietrangeli‘s all-time record for most Grand Slam men’s singles match-wins by an Italian player.
After capturing five titles this season, all of them at the ATP Masters 1000 level, Sinner was asked what kind of changes, if any, he’s made since Roland-Garros to better deal with the heat and hot weather.
“Yeah, of course you cannot simulate 100 percent what you feel in a match because of tension-wise everything going around before and after match,” Sinner admitted.
“We did some changes. I don’t say big, big changes. But I always believe in small details and small changes.
“We are happy at the moment with what we are doing. The result we’re not going to see here. It’s a long process. There’s no magic behind.
“But yeah, we are doing as much as we can. I’m very happy with the work we did in the last two and a half weeks. Very long days. I feel well-prepared.”
Regardless of his results at this year’s Wimbledon, Sinner will remain as World No. 1 when the new rankings published on July 13 following the completion of the year’s third Grand Slam event.
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Monday’s Wimbledon order of play
Around the All England Club
Women’s top seed Aryna Sabalenka, who held her pre-tournament news conference on Saturday, said she is coming into this year’s Wimbledon feeling really good game wise. The World No. 1, who is in search of winning her first Wimbledon title, opens Monday afternoon on Centre Court against 184th-ranked Serbian qualifier Teodora Kostovic. Her match will be second on Centre Court following Jannik Sinner.
“I was working on a couple of things ahead of Wimbledon,” she said. “Things really clicked in Berlin, especially in that second set against Jess (Jessica Pegula of the United States). In the third set, she played unbelievable. I was trying to do my best. I felt like she just found that rhythm that I couldn’t break. Yeah, it didn’t work well. Honestly, I had a laughter after that third set. I was just like, ‘Okay, this is what we’re dealing with right now.’
“I just don’t want to stay too much in those sets, in those numbers,” she admitted, after losing to Pegula, 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-0 in the Berlin semifinals last week, which dropped her 2026 win-loss record to 33-5. “I just try to work on myself, work on my game. I felt really good throughout the tournament there. I struggle a little bit there. Overall, I feel like things are clicking back together.
“Now I’m here, I’m happy, and I can’t wait to start playing.”
By the numbers
If Jannik Sinner is successful in winning his fifth Grand Slam title at Wimbledon in two weeks, he will equal Rod Laver and John Newcombe in 14th place on the Open Era list for most Grand Slam men’s singles titles.
“Quotable …”
“I don’t know how far. I’m super excited to see her play. That’s incredible. I heard she said she’s doing that for her kids to see her play. They really get excited about that.
“It’s amazing what she’s doing. Also it’s Serena Williams, everyone was talking about that. She’s bringing more eyes on tennis. It’s a good thing for tennis. I’m really excited to see her play.”
– World No. 1 and top seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, during her pre-tournament news conference Saturday, on being asked about the return of 44-year-old Serena Williams to the WTA Tour and how far she thought the 23-time major champion could go during the Wimbledon Championships.
