Jannik Sinner is set to start Wimbledon with a slight advantage over defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in the race to be crowned 2024 winner.
That is the view of former Wimbledon runner-up Mark Philippoussis, who says the two young stars deserve to be seen as clear frontrunners, particularly with doubts over Novak Djokovic's fitness.
Sinner is the world number one and earned his first grand slam title at the Australian Open this year, while Alcaraz comes into the tournament on a high after claiming his third major at the French Open.
Alcaraz's grand slam titles have come on three different surfaces, but Philippoussis – who lost the 2003 final at Wimbledon to Roger Federer – feels Sinner, who will start his campaign against Yannick Hanfmann, still deserves to start as the marginal favourite.
With the Italian being top seed, following on from Alcaraz having that status last year, this is the first time players aged under 23 have held the top seed in consecutive editions of the men’s singles at Wimbledon since Lleyton Hewitt (2003) and Federer (2004).
"In my eyes, Sinner is the favourite," Philippoussis said to Stats Perform at the Giorgio Armani Tennis Classic at the Hurlingham Club.
"I'm not going to say he is a clear favourite, but he definitely is the favourite. And then I'd say Alcaraz.
"For me, there's a question mark around Djokovic. I'm very surprised to see him here. Apparently he's supposed to be playing a match [on Friday], which is a great idea for him. I think he is definitely going to get a gauge of where he is physically.
"But Sinner and then Alcaraz, like I said, they are the favourites."
With eight-time Wimbledon champion Federer retired and Djokovic now 37 as the likes of Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray near the end of their careers, Philippoussis is relieved to see tennis in safe hands with Sinner and Alcaraz, whose rivalry looks likely to dominate the sport for the rest of the decade.
The Australian added: "You have got Alcaraz and Sinner and we are lucky to have them.
"They are incredible for the game, not just because they are the champions they are at such a young age and what they bring to the table as far as their professionalism, but it is also the ambassadors they are for the sport.
"I see the way they are around kids, around fans – they are incredible. They give their time. They make sure they wait around after practice no matter how tired they are. They literally sign as many as they can, if not everyone.
"They are incredible ambassadors for the game. We were worried, especially with Federer and Nadal, Federer gone, Nadal almost there. Who's going to be taking over?
"But I think we are in very, very good hands and they are amazing to have for the game and I'm excited.
"Dominating is a tough thing, there are going to be other guys stepping up as well, but they are the ones who will be spearheading the game in years to come."
Alcaraz, who was drawn against Mark Lajal in round one, could become the youngest player in the Open Era to win at Roland Garros and Wimbledon in a calendar year, but there is always the prospect of a surprise at Wimbledon.
Asked for some of the threats to upset the leading players and go all the way at Wimbledon, Philippoussis named Grigor Dimitrov and Matteo Berrettini.
Dimitrov reached the last eight at the French Open this month – his first major quarter-final since 2021 – while Berrettini recently made the Stuttgart Open final, three years on from reaching the Wimbledon final, which he lost in four sets to Djokovic.
"Dark horses for me, I'm going to say Dimitrov," added Philippoussis, with the Bulgarian 10th seed set to take on Dusan Lajovic in the first round.
"He has been impressing me. He is hitting the ball as well as I have seen for a very long time.
"His hands and his slice backhand, the way he chips the ball back and moves on the grass and his volleys, he is definitely someone that I wouldn't want to see in my part of the draw.
"And I'm going to also say Berrettini. He lost just over a week ago in the last grass court tournament before Halle in the finals.
"He is healthy now and he has got a huge game. He lost in the finals at Wimbledon years ago and he is a dark horse as well."
Among players with 10 or more matches on grass since 2020, Berrettini (84.8%) is one of only three to hold a match win percentage above 80, with the other two being last year's finalists Djokovic (95.2%) and Alcaraz (85%).
Murray wants 'closure' but faces race to be fit for Wimbledon
Andy Murray says he wants "a bit of closure" at Wimbledon as he continues a fight to be fit in time for his opening match.
The Brit is due to retire later this year but has previously said either Wimbledon or the Olympics would be a fitting stage to end his career.
However, Murray was forced to retire injured during the Queen's Club Championships in the second round due to a back injury earlier this month, for which he later underwent surgery.
Murray's Wimbledon campaign is due to start on Tuesday against Tomas Machac, but he is still yet to decide whether he will actually be competing in the men's singles event at the All England Club.
"I don't think there's one thing that I'm hoping for. When it comes to the end, I don't know, maybe a bit of closure," the two-time Wimbledon winner, Murray, said.
"I just want the opportunity to play one more time out there, hopefully on Centre Court, and feel that buzz.
"Last year, I wasn't planning on it being my last year on the tour. I wanted to come back and play again, whereas this year I have no plans to do that."
Murray is also due to play in the doubles alongside older brother Jamie, though his chances of competing in both are slim.
He managed to get on the Wimbledon practice courts for the first time on Saturday and, after more training on Sunday, Murray admitted he would wait until the last possible moment to decide on his participation.
"It went pretty well," Murray said after training on Sunday, "but I still don’t have 100% feeling and sensation in my leg.
"It's getting better every single day. I want to give it every single chance that I can to get there.
"I'm going to play another set again [on Monday]. I'm doing some physical testing in the morning to see how far off I am from a physical perspective. Then I will probably make a decision after that."
Alcaraz, Gauff and Raducanu headline Centre Court openers at Wimbledon
Carlos Alcaraz will be the Centre Court star at Wimbledon when the Spaniard opens his title defence on Monday.
Alcaraz will be hoping to add to this year's French Open glory when he opens his All England Club campaign against world number 269 Mark Lajal.
The 21-year-old will play in the Centre Court opener as the grass-court major starts, with Alcaraz aiming to become the youngest player in the Open Era to win at Roland Garros and Wimbledon in a calendar year.
World number one Jannik Sinner meets Yannick Hanfmann in his first-round clash on the same day.
Sinner won his maiden grand slam title at the Australian Open in January, and heads to SW19 having won a further three Tour-level titles this year.
Daniil Medvedev reached the semi-final last year for his personal-best performance at Wimbledon before losing to Alcaraz, and the fifth seed faces American Aleksandar Kovacevic in his opener.
As for the women's draw, Emma Raducanu will follow Alcaraz onto Centre Court as one of the home favourites at Wimbledon.
Raducanu reached the last four at the Nottingham Open before claiming her first top-10 victory against Jessica Pegula at Eastbourne, with Ekaterina Alexandrova awaiting in the first round for the Briton.
Aryna Sabalenka has won the opening round in her last 15 grand slam appearances and the third seed will be seeking to extend that impressive record when she clashes with world number 107 Emina Bektas.
Coco Gauff will be another to keep an eye on when she wraps up Monday's Centre Court action with an all-American showdown against Caroline Dolehide.
Reigning US Open champion Gauff will be the youngest player to feature in the women's singles at Wimbledon seeded in the top two since Maria Sharapova in 2007.
Wimbledon: Can Swiatek end All England Club wait? Are Gauff and Raducanu ready to shine?
Iga Swiatek's stunning rise to stardom continues at a momentous pace, and she is enjoying a wonderfully successful campaign.
Her clay-court swing was superb, with Swiatek reeling off victories in Madrid and Rome before claiming her third successive French Open title, and fourth overall.
Yet for all her joy in Paris over the past four years, the 23-year-old is yet to taste victory at Wimbledon, with her run to the quarters in last year's event the best she has managed at the All England Club.
But will that run end this year, and what of the other contenders in the women's singles draw?
Swiatek's missing piece of the puzzle
Wimbledon is not the only grand slam title missing from Swiatek's growing collection, but it is the only one she has so far failed to reach at least the semi-finals in.
Swiatek has won 72 grand slam matches since the start of 2020, with Aryna Sabalenka (62) and Ons Jabeur (51) the only other players to surpass 50 in that time.
She is one of three players, along with Elena Rybakina and Danielle Collins, aiming to become just the third player since the start of 2020 to win a Tour-level title on grass, clay and hard court in a calendar year, after Ashleigh Barty (2021) and Caroline Garcia (2022).
The Pole is also out to match a couple of Serena Williams feats.
Should she win, she will be the youngest player since Williams in 2002 to triumph at both Roland Garros and Wimbledon in the same season, while that would make Swiatek the first player to win successive singles titles at grand slams since Williams won the French Open and Wimbledon in 2015.
Swiatek has been handed a tough start, however. She will face Sofia Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open champion, in the first round.
That being said, Swiatek won in straight sets in both of her previous meetings with Kenin (Roland Garros 2020 and this year's Australian Open).
History is also on her side. The player ranked at world number one has won their first-round tie in each of the last 19 women's singles at grand slams – the last time a number one lost in the opening round of a major was at the US Open 2018, with Kaia Kanepi defeating Simona Halep.
Swiatek is also the only woman to appear in all the grand slam events since 2020 without ever losing in the first round in that span (17-0).
Sabalenka racing against time, Gauff's chance to shine?
Sabalenka's tussle with Swiatek was a highlight of the clay-court swing, though the Belarusian has acknowledged she may not be fit enough to feature at Wimbledon as she deals with a shoulder issue.
She has hit 309 winners in grand slam matches this year, the most of any player. Should she play and go all the way, Sabalenka would be just 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 looking to become the first player to make the quarter-finals in eight consecutive grand slams since Williams (10 between the US Open 2014 and the Australian Open 2017), while the 26-year-old has won the opening round in her last 15 grand slam appearances.
Should the world number three not make it, then second seed Coco Gauff seems set to be Swiatek's main rival.
It is five years ago since Gauff burst onto the scene as a 15-year-old by stunning Venus Williams.
However, she has never made it further than the last 16 and was knocked out by compatriot Kenin in the first round last year.
Reigning US Open champion Gauff will face Caroline Dolehide in the first round. Their only other Tour-level meeting came at this year's Australia Open.
Gauff will be the youngest player to feature in the women's singles at Wimbledon seeded in the top two since Maria Sharapova in 2007, while she and Swiatek combine to be the youngest seeded number one and two (43 years and 141 days) at the tournament in women's singles since 2003 (Williams and Kim Clijsters).
The main battle for Gauff may well be getting on top of the surface. She has won 66.7% of her WTA main draw matches on grass (18-9); this is her lowest winning percentage on a single surface (72.3% on clay and 68.8% on hard court).
Home hopes
Emma Raducanu enjoyed a remarkable rise to stardom in 2021, impressing at Wimbledon before going on to claim her maiden grand slam title at Flushing Meadows.
But that whirlwind success made way for difficult campaigns in 2022 and 2023, blighted by injuries and poor form.
However, the 21-year-old has hit her stride this grass-court season and reached the last four at the Nottingham Open before claiming her first victory over a top-10 opponent when she beat Jessica Pegula at Eastbourne.
She also reached the quarters in Stuttgart in April, losing to Swiatek, and was unfortunate to be drawn against Sabalenka at Indian Wells before that. Ranked at 135 in the world, Raducanu is certainly a long shot, but she will have the backing of the home crowd, as will Katie Boulter.
Fresh from winning the Nottingham Open, world number 29 Boulter will go up against Tatjana Maria in the first round.
Boulter is the only seeded British player in the women's singles – she is just the third Briton to be seeded at Wimbledon this century after Johanna Konta (2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019) and Raducanu (2022).
In the last three years, only Ons Jabeur (22) has won more grass-court matches than Boulter (21, level with Ekaterina Alexandrova), who has also won more matches at Wimbledon (six) than any of the other majors combined.
The 27-year-old also leads the way for winners struck in the grass-court swing so far, with 256, so she is one to watch.
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 past four decades. She is one of only two players ranked outside the WTA's top 25 to win the event over that span, along with Venus Williams in 2007.
Now ranked at world number six, Vondrousova will have a target on her back this year, but will some other unseeded players or wildcards fancy their chances?
Four former grand slam champions (Angelique Kerber, Raducanu, Caroline Wozniacki and Naomi Osaka) will appear in a women's singles major main draw thanks to wild cards for the first time in the Open Era.
Osaka has only won four matches at Wimbledon, making this her least favourite grand slam, though only Caroline Garcia (10.5) has averaged more aces per match in the majors this season than the Japanese star.
Kerber is the player with the most main draw wins in Wimbledon (38) among those featuring in the tournament in 2024 and is featuring at a major thanks to a wildcard for the first time in her career.
Only Victoria Azarenka (16, including 2024) has more main-draw appearances at Wimbledon than Kerber (15) among those featuring at this year's edition.
Wozniacki will appear in Wimbledon's main draw thanks to a wildcard for the second time in her career, after 2007. She has never reached the quarters at the event.
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