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CNN
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Wimbledon is widely regarded as the pinnacle of the tennis calendar, a tournament that many players have dreamed of winning since they first picked up a racket.

Last year, Carlos Alcaraz defeated Novak Djokovic in a five-set thriller in the men’s final, while Markéta Vondroušová became the first unseeded woman in history to win the Wimbledon title after defeating Ons Jabeur.

Alcaraz goes into the tournament together with Jannik Sinner as joint favorites for the men’s title.

The Spaniard will be rightly confident after winning a Masters 1000 title on the hard courts of Indian Wells this season and then taking his first French Open title on the clay courts of Roland Garros.

Alcaraz, seeded No. 3, dispelled any doubts about his grass-court adaptability last season by winning the title at Queen’s Club in only his third grass-court tournament, which served as the springboard for his success at Wimbledon just two weeks later.

This season, however, preparations for the All England Club were anything but optimal.

After beating Argentinian Francisco Cerúndolo in the first round of the Queen’s tournament, Alcaraz lost to young Briton Jack Draper in straight sets in the second round.

Draper, the world number 29 and a grass court specialist, will pose a real threat at Wimbledon this year after winning the first ATP title of his career at the Stuttgart Open two weeks ago.

Alcaraz will play against Mark Lajal in the opening round.

Vondroušová, on the other hand, was much less successful this season.

The Czech star has reached just one semifinal all year and was surprised by Ukrainian qualifier Dayana Yastremska in the first round of the Australian Open.

Reaching the quarterfinals of the French Open will have given me a huge confidence boost, despite the clear defeat against Iga Świątek.

Vondroušová’s Wimbledon preparations started solidly with a straight-set win over Rebeka Masarova in the first round of the German Open in Berlin.

However, she was forced to withdraw from the competition due to injury after slipping in her second-round match against Anna Kalinskaya. The 25-year-old subsequently decided to withdraw from the Bad Homburg Open this week to recover for Wimbledon.

Vondroušová will face Jessica Bouzas in the opening round.

Fans and organizers hope that Novak Djokovic will recover from his knee surgery in time for the start of the tournament.

The Serb wants to equal his long-time rival Roger Federer’s record of eight Wimbledon titles, but his participation remains uncertain.

Djokovic, the No. 2 seed, tore a meniscus in his right knee during his fourth-round match against Cerúndolo at the French Open and was forced to withdraw before undergoing knee surgery on June 5.

The 37-year-old has been playing on the Wimbledon practice courts this week but has not yet decided whether he will compete.

Djokovic was drawn against Czech Vít Kopřiva.

If Djokovic does not fully recover in time, world No. 1 Sinner will be the biggest challenger for Alcaraz’s crown in SW19.

The 22-year-old became the first Italian man or woman to reach the world number one ranking after reaching the semifinals of the French Open, where he lost to eventual winner Alcaraz in a five-set thriller.

The two young players are widely considered to be the next great rivalry in tennis and the mere thought of them meeting again in the semi-finals is already a tantalizing prospect.

Sinner has lost just three matches all year and has won four titles in a phenomenal first half of 2024, including his first Grand Slam at the Australian Open and a Masters 1000 title.

Sinner’s game, especially the new and improved serve he introduced at the end of last season, is perfectly suited to the fast grass courts and his preparations for Wimbledon got off to a promising start last week with his first grass title in Halle.

In the women’s competition, world number one Świątek is confident of reaching the semifinals of Wimbledon for the first time in her career.

The Pole has earned a reputation as the most dominant clay court player on the tour, winning four titles in her first six years at Roland Garros, but has so far been unable to replicate that form on grass.

Grass remains the only surface on which Świątek has not yet won a senior title, although she is slowly becoming more comfortable at Wimbledon.

Her career struggles on grass are strange, especially considering that she won the junior title at Wimbledon in 2018, the only Grand Slam title of her junior career.

Świątek withdrew from the German Open just days after winning her fourth French Open title and will therefore compete in Wimbledon without any official grass court matches on the surface she likes least.

The number 1 seed will play against American Sofia Kenin in the first round.

Behind her are numerous other names who are rightly confident of winning the title.

Two-time finalist and loser Ons Jabeur, currently seeded No. 10, is likely to be in the closing stages again, while 2022 champion Elena Rybakina won three WTA titles this year despite illness but had to withdraw from the German Open last week due to abdominal pain.

Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka, a two-time semi-finalist at SW19, will have to keep her hard hitting to the end, while new world number two Coco Gauff will be looking to improve on her previous best fourth-round performance from 2019 and 2021.