Wimbledon's 139th edition begins Monday June 29 on the All England Club's repainted lawns. Carlos Alcaraz opens Centre Court as defending champion. Jannik Sinner gets No. 1 Court. The bottom half of the men's draw plays its full first round, the top half of the women's draw is split across the show courts, and roughly fourteen Brits get the ovation that comes with a SW19 debut. Here is the Monday slate, the matches to actually watch, and how to follow along.
Centre Court order of play
Tradition is intact. The defending men's champion opens Centre Court at 1:30 p.m. local time. Carlos Alcaraz, the two-time defending champion after his 2024 and 2025 titles, walks out first against Italian qualifier Mattia Bellucci. The match is — to be blunt about it — a tune-up. Bellucci has a forehand that travels well on hard courts but his lone tour-level grass win came two seasons ago.
The Centre Court middle match brings out the reigning women's champion, Barbora Krejčíková, against American teenager Iva Jović. Jović reached the third round at Roland-Garros and arrives with the kind of flat, low-bouncing strikes that travel well on grass; this is the most interesting match on the show courts and the one tennis Twitter will watch ball by ball.
The day session closes with home favourite Jack Draper, freshly re-installed as British No. 1, against Argentine grinder Mariano Navone. Draper has reached at least the third round in each of his last three Slams. Navone has never won a tour-level match on grass. Expect a 6-3, 7-5, 6-2 line and a polite ovation.
No. 1 Court: Sinner opens his Slam season
Jannik Sinner did not play the French Open final — he lost in the semi to Alexander Zverev in five — and the grass swing is the surface where the gap between Sinner and Alcaraz is the smallest it has ever been. Sinner's first round on No. 1 Court is against German qualifier Daniel Altmaier. It will be quick.
Iga Świątek follows him. The seven-time Slam champion is still looking for her first Wimbledon final and has drawn a brutal opener in the form of Sofia Kenin, the former Australian Open winner who has rebuilt her game around a low slice and forward movement that translate well to grass. If there is a top-seed upset on day one, this is where it happens.
The five matches worth setting an alarm for
- Jović vs Krejčíková (Centre Court, 2nd up): the most live Day 1 women's match on paper. Jović is a Bronx-born 18-year-old with a serve that holds up on faster surfaces.
- Świątek vs Kenin (No. 1 Court, 2nd up): Kenin is the worst possible first-round draw for Iga on grass.
- Tiafoe vs Borges (Court 2): a third-meeting between two players who have split their previous two on hard courts. Borges has the better grass record.
- Pegula vs Bouzas Maneiro (Court 3): Pegula has reached the quarter-finals here twice; Bouzas Maneiro just reached the final in 's-Hertogenbosch and is a sneaky pick to take a set.
- Cobolli vs Müller (Court 14): the French Open finalist meets a Frenchman with a left-handed serve made for grass. This is the upset the bracket-makers will be tracking.
The British contingent
Fourteen British players are in the singles main draws, the highest single-day count in over a decade. Five play Monday. Draper headlines, Katie Boulter takes Court 2 against Marta Kostyuk in the day's hardest first-round draw on paper, Cameron Norrie plays late on Court 18, Jodie Burrage gets a No. 3 Court slot against Linda Nosková, and 19-year-old wildcard Henry Searle — the 2023 junior champion here — gets the late tucked-away assignment on Court 14 against Roberto Bautista Agut. Wimbledon will play the home-crowd swell at maximum volume for all five.
The weather, the grass and the seeding quirks
The Met Office has Monday at 22°C with scattered showers possible in the late afternoon. The roof on Centre and No. 1 Court has been used on Day 1 in three of the last four years; assume it gets pulled across at some point. The grass itself is in unusually good shape after a dry June. Players have spent the warm-up week complaining less than usual about footing, which is the tennis equivalent of weather.
The seeding quirk worth flagging: Alexander Zverev is seeded No. 3 despite arriving as the French Open champion. The committee weighed his lighter grass-court résumé heavily and slid him below Sinner on the points-based formula. Zverev's draw is the kindest of any top seed and his Round of 16 projects against Tommy Paul.
How to watch in the US, UK and elsewhere
In the United States, ESPN holds exclusive rights through the final — coverage begins on ESPN at 6 a.m. ET with the day's first matches, rolling to ESPN2 mid-morning. In the UK, the BBC continues its free-to-air broadcast across BBC One, BBC Two and iPlayer. In most of Europe, Eurosport (Discovery+) carries every court. The All England Club's own streaming app offers a free first-round daily highlights cut for fans outside major territories.
FAQ
When does Centre Court play start? 1:30 p.m. local (8:30 a.m. ET, 12:30 p.m. UTC). No. 1 Court starts at the same time. Outside courts start at 11:00 a.m. local.
Is there a Sunday middle weekend this year? No. Wimbledon has played through Middle Sunday since 2022. Day 7 is Sunday July 5.
Who is the favourite to win? Alcaraz at most books, Sinner second, then a clear drop to Zverev. The women's market has Świątek, Sabalenka and Krejčíková within a point of each other.
Where can I follow Monday live? Live scores from every court are on Scorelisto's live scores hub, and our full Wimbledon coverage runs on the blog through the men's final on July 12.