(Reuters) – Iga Swiatek will be the top seed when Wimbledon begins on July 3 but the Pole’s unease on grass means defending champion Elena Rybakina will be the one to beat at the Grand Slam while big-hitting Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka will also fancy her chances.
Swiatek inherited the world number one ranking when Ash Barty retired in April 2022 and while she has proved a worthy successor to the Australian the majority of her success has come on hardcourts and clay.
The 22-year-old has won three French Open titles, a U.S. Open crown and reached the Australian Open semi-finals but has failed to progress beyond the fourth round at Wimbledon.
World number two Sabalenka, a 2021 semi-finalist, returns to the All England Club after organisers lifted a ban on Russian and Belarusian players.
Wimbledon banned players from the two countries last year over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a “special military operation”.
Moscow-born Kazakh Rybakina, who won at Indian Wells and reached the Australian Open and Miami finals, missed out on ranking points from her Wimbledon win last year after the Grand Slam was penalised for its ban on Russian and Belarusian players.
The trio, dubbed the new ‘Big Three’, will have to fight off a challenge from Tunisian trailblazer Ons Jabeur, who will bid to become the first African woman and Arab player to win a Grand Slam singles title after reaching last year’s Wimbledon and U.S. Open finals.
Another contender is twice champion Petra Kvitova, who stunned Rybakina to win the Miami Open and warmed up for the grasscourt Slam by winning her second title of the season at the German Open.
Katie Boulter will carry home hopes in the absence of former U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu, who is recovering from surgery.
Seedings for the singles tournament at Wimbledon are based on world rankings, which are as follows:
1 – Iga Swiatek (Poland)
2 – Aryna Sabalenka (Belarus)
3 – Elena Rybakina (Kazakhstan)
4 – Jessica Pegula (U.S.)
5 – Caroline Garcia (France)
6 – Ons Jabeur (Tunisia)
7 – Coco Gauff (U.S.)
8 – Maria Sakkari (Greece)
9 – Petra Kvitova (Czech Republic)
10 – Barbora Krejcikova (Czech Republic)
11 – Daria Kasatkina (Russia)
12 – Veronika Kudermetova (Russia)
13 – Beatriz Haddad Maia (Brazil)
14 – Belinda Bencic (Switzerland)
15 – Liudmila Samsonova (Russia)
16 – Karolina Muchova (Czech Republic)
17 – Jelena Ostapenko (Latvia)
18 – Karolina Pliskova (Czech Republic)
19 – Victoria Azarenka (Belarus)
20 – Donna Vekic (Croatia)
21 – Ekaterina Alexandrova (Russia)
22 – Anastasia Potapova (Russia)
23 – Magda Linette (Poland)
24 – Zheng Qinwen (China)
25 – Madison Keys (U.S.)
26 – Anhelina Kalinina (Ukraine)
27 – Bernarda Pera (U.S.)
28 – Elise Mertens (Belgium)
29 – Irina-Camelia Begu (Romania)
30 – Petra Martic (Croatia)
31 – Mayar Sherif (Egypt)
32 – Marie Bouzkova (Czech Republic)
(Compiled by Pearl Josephine Nazare in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
