Wimbledon 2025: Top seeds tumble in shock first-round upsets

The latest edition of the third Grand Slam of the season marked a record-breaking start across the ATP and WTA singles events. Wimbledon 2025, which took off on June 30, witnessed eight out of the Top 10 seeds across the Men's and Women's singles events getting ousted in shock upsets. In the men's event, 13 of the top seeds have been eliminated in the opening round, the most in the history of Wimbledon. Earlier, the highest tally of seeded players being ousted in the first round was 11, noted in 2001, 2003, 2018, and 2021. However, 2025 has already topped the list, with the No.3 seed Alexander Zverev emerging as the highest seed to be eliminated in the first round itself.

Three out of the top 5 WTA seeds exit Wimbledon 2025 after first-round defeats

The women's singles event at Wimbledon 2025 saw three of the Top 5 seeds being eliminated in the first round. The No.2 seed, Coco Gauff, coming from her title-winning Roland Garros campaign, fell 7-6, 6-1 to the No.42-ranked Dayana Yastremska. The 21-year-old American is yet to breach past the fourth-round mark in the major. However, coming to the All England Club with her French Open title-winning performance, Gauff was touted as one of the favorites for the Wimbledon 2025 victory.

However, losing in straight sets at the No.1 Court, Gauff expressed that the expectations imposed on her following the recent victory in Paris overwhelmed her in Wimbledon. The much lower-ranked Yastremska maintained her aggressive streak against Gauff as the higher-seeded was cornered with irredeemable unforced errors. While Gauff managed to come back from being down 5-2 in the opening set to force a tiebreak, the rhythm went awry in the decider.

The American seed accounted for 9 double faults and 21 unforced errors as Yastremska advanced over one of the championship favourites. The 42nd-ranked player, a semi-finalist at the 2024 Australian Open, will now face Anastasia Zakharova in the next round.

Gauff's exit, meanwhile, has made the quarter a bit easier for the other top seeds like Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina. Swiatek, still on the lookout for her maiden Wimbledon title, beat Polina Kudermetova, while Rybakina cruised 6-2, 6-2 against Elina Avanesyan. However, the fifth-seeded Qinwen Zheng joined Coco Gauff as another Top 5 seed to drop out of the first round. Zheng met the No.81 Katerina Siniakova in her bid to improve her record on grass. However, Siniakova held strong to ensure that 2025 marked Zheng's third consecutive first-round exit at Wimbledon.

The third upset from WTA's Top 5 seeds took away the third-seeded Jessica Pegula. No.118, Elisabetta Cocciaretto, avenged her Wimbledon 2023 defeat, the pair's only meeting on the tour until the latest face-off at the All England Club. The 2-6, 3-6 defeat against the much-lower-ranked Cocciaretto brought an end to Pegula's streak of avoiding a first-round exit at a Grand Slam since 2020.

Moving beyond the Top 5, the ninth-seeded Paula Badosa emerged as the fourth of the Top 10 ranked WTA prospects to crash out from the opening round of Wimbledon 2025. Badosa fell to the home seed, Katie Boulter, 2-6, 6-3, 4-6 at Centre Court. Elsewhere, Aryna Sabalenka cruised 6-1, 7-5 past Carson Branstine, while the defending champion, Barbora Krejcikova, overcame Alexandra Eala.

Alexander Zverev, Daniil Medvedev suffer first-round exits from Wimbledon 2025

On the men's side, Alexander Zverev, still looking to win his first major, bowed out against the 72nd-ranked Arthur Rinderknech. Zverev has never made it past the fourth round of the grass major, and Wimbledon 2025 would not be the season to undo the underwhelming run. In a match that started on Monday but concluded on Tuesday due to the curfew, Rinderknech held to pick up 44 points as Zverev faced the ouster.

Other ATP seeds to suffer a first-round exit from Wimbledon 2025 included the 7th seed Lorenzo Musetti and the 8th-seeded Holger Rune. Musetti, still tending to a leg injury that he picked up in Paris during the previous slam, put up a 2-6, 6-4, 5-7, 1-6 fight before the 126th-ranked Nikoloz Basilashvili advanced ahead. Meanwhile, Holger Rune was challenged by the qualifier Nicolas Jarry in a five-setter at Court 3 which ended 4-6, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-3 in favor of the 143rd-ranked Jarry.

The ninth-seeded Daniil Medvedev lost 7-6 (2), 3-6, 7-6 (3), 6-2 to Benjamin Bonzi, curbing his streak of reaching the Wimbledon semi-finals in the previous two seasons. Other top seeds that managed to dash the upset curse saw Carlos Alcaraz surviving a five-setter against the 38-year-old Fabio Fognini.

The draw, however, was easy for Jannik Sinner, who beat Luca Nardi 6-4, 6-3, 6-0. Taylor Fritz, meanwhile, held against a 153 mph serve, the fastest ever recorded in Wimbledon history, by Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard and a curfew-marred face-off to advance ahead. Meanwhile, other seeds to be upset in the first round included Stefanos Tsitsipas, Francisco Cerundolo, Ugo Humbert, and Alexei Popyrin.