Wimbledon 2025 Women’s Seed Report: Aryna Sabalenka Looks for First Major of the Year

We talk about players coming into events with momentum. Well, here comes an entire sport, thundering into the third major with all that propulsive energy. Three weeks ago, tennis wrapped up a sensational Roland Garros—featuring No. 1 vs. No. 2 in both finals, no real controversies, emerging stars, veterans hanging on and a generationally spellbinding last match.

Now, here comes the grampy/grandmum of them all, as the Brits might say. Wimbledon 2025 kicks off Monday morning at the All England Club, all bangers and mash. Will Coco Gauff pull the Channel double, backing up her Paris tour de force with the greater London equivalent? Will No.1 Aryna Sabalenka win her first major of 2025?

Stay tuned. But first, our women’s seed report:

1. Aryna Sabalenka

She’s won 12 matches at majors this year, but has no title thus far, and she’s missed Wimbledon three of the past five years. Still, Sabalenka is the top seed and our pick to win what would be her fourth major and first Wimbledon title. Her power is that devastating. So too, her power to reset after adversity.

2. Coco Gauff

Gauff will try to pull off the Channel double after her triumph in France. Her best showing at Wimbledon may have been her pre-COVID-19 “Hello, World!” debut, but she has the game to win it all. She faces a tough first-round opponent in Dayana Yastremska.

3. Jessica Pegula

She’s a consummate pro. A player worth emulating that has maxed out everything she can control, avoids own goals and competes uncompromisingly. But re-upping the Paris thumbnail: Solid gets you so far … but only so far. The enduring question: Is she capable of winning a big prize?

4. Jasmine Paolini

A finalist last year, Paolini has acquitted herself admirably in 2025, proving that ’24 was the rule not the exception. You wish she had more pop on the serve and more weapons on the grass, but she makes up for it with her movement. And spirit. (If she’s an outsider in singles, she’s the favorite in doubles.)

5. Qinwen Zheng

Credit her for the top-four seeding. Her combination of athleticism and power makes her dangerous. But the grass track is just not there, losing in the first round at Wimbledon in 2023 and ’24.

6. Madison Keys

The winner of the year’s first major has a real chance of taking the third. You could make a case that grass is Keys’s best surface. Note how many of her previous Wimbledons have been undone not by better opponents, but by injuries and health. If Sabalenka and Gauff are the top contenders, Keys is next.

7. Mirra Andreeva

A future major winner, but lately, Andreeva has looked a lot more like a teenager than a precocious adult. Grass will be a tough surface for her to master—she lost in the first round last year. But, she’s a fast learner, and if she can play herself into the draw, look out.

8. Iga Świątek

For a player who has been No. 1 for much of the past three years, that No. 8 is an awfully plump digit to see alongside her name. The former junior Wimbledon winner (2018) has had a tough go of it as an adult, never getting beyond the quarterfinals. She gave a fine accounting of herself in Paris, though she did not win the title. If she can play to the same round at the All England Club (another semifinal), it would be a considerable achievement.

9. Paula Badosa

As always, when she’s on, she can hang with the best. When she is injured—when her back is troubling her—she is far less effective. Badosa has more power than she’s given credit for, and she’s made the fourth round at Wimbledon three of the past four years. But it’s hard to see a run deeper than that.

10. Emma Navarro

A quarterfinalist last year (beating Gauff along the way), her game has slipped a bit in 2025. She’s 20–16 on the year, including a shocking first-round upset in Paris. She’s adjusting to the heightened expectations and pressure that come from being a top 10 player. And that’s normal. A solid Wimbledon would help in advance of the American hard court stretch.

11. Elena Rybakina

Was it only three years ago that she won the Wimbledon title? An absolute enigma. She should be—and may well be—in the contender conversation. But there’s so much off-court distraction that there are more causes for concern than optimism—concerns that go well beyond how she’ll fare in a tournament.

12. Diana Shnaider

The lefty game intrigues, especially on grass. Plus, she’s coming off a tune-up month that includes wins over Katie Boulter and Donna Vekić. She plays a nifty game of doubles, too, but has taken on a lot of losses in 2025.

13. Amanda Anisimova

She’s such a dangerous player. And the power can mask movement that is sometimes less than slick. A Queen’s Club finalist, Anisimova has already recorded a slew of grass wins. The overarching question: Is she a legit contender? Or a streaky, scary-on-a-given-day comet?

14. Elina Svitolina

As her country is still besieged, she charges on.

15. Karolína Muchová

It’s mostly a question of her ability to stay healthy. The game is there, and the athleticism is there. The attacking mentality is there, too. Just a question of health. Not unlike …

16. Daria Kasatkina

The Aussie sensation is A) a joy to watch, B) a player worthy of admiration and C) a good bet to live up to her seeding, but, alas, not a real threat to win given her deficit of power.

Barbora Krejcikova charged to a stunning Wimbledon win in 2024. | Susan Mullane-Imagn Images

Seeds 17-32

17. Barbora Krejčíková

Hail the defending champion, who comes in on a seven-match All England Club win streak. Stymied as she’s been with a back injury, she doubled her 2025 win total in Eastbourne. At anything resembling full health, she’s a threat to defend. She faces a tricky early opponent in Alexandra Eala.

20. Jeļena Ostapenko

As ever, a seeded wild card (who actually plays quite well on grass).

22. Donna Vekić

She’s had a bit of an erratic year (and now without Pam Shriver) but was a semifinalist last year.

24. Elise Mertens

Mertens is a pro’s pro who has already won a grass court event this year.

26. Marta Kostyuk

Kostyuk is a hot-and-cold player who competes well and with passion. A player worthy of starring on your racing form.

28. Sofia Kenin

She still puts up wildly erratic results, but Kenin has a 2023 Wimbledon win over Gauff. Her return to the land of the seeds from a ranking that plummeted deep into the triple-digits remains an undertold comeback story.

32. McCartney Kessler

“Mack the Knife.” What a revelation. Kessler’s ascent over the past nine months or so includes a title in Nottingham.

Dark horse corridor

Wang Xinyu: The ingénue, Xinyu, was a finalist in Berlin and can play on the green stuff.

Markéta Vondroušová: Not only a winner in Berlin but—how quickly we forget—a 2023 Wimbledon champion. She comes shrouded in yellow tape, she is that dangerous.

Petra Kvitová: The two-time champion received a wild card to enter her final Wimbledon. May she get the send-off she richly deserves.

Emma Raducanu: Beyond the local hype, the highest ranked Brit is having a sneaky good year.

Olga Danilović: Her lefty game could cause problems.

Alycia Parks: She is one of the more potent servers in the women’s game and is back in the top 50.

Ons Jabeur: She is now outside the top 60 but a Wimbledon finalist only two (and three) years ago.

Hailey Baptiste: The 23-year-old is looking to build on a strong Roland Garros.

Lulu Sun: She was a Week 2 player last year and is still in the top 50.

Naomi Osaka: Grass has never been her thing, but four-time major winners get name checked.

Tatiana Maria: A former semifinalist, she is encroaching on the top 40, turns 38 on Aug. 8 (trivia: who else was born that day?) and won Queen’s Club.

Taylor Townsend: she qualified for the main singles draw.

First round matches to watch

Sabalenka vs. Carson Branstine: The top seed gets former Texas A&M/qualifier/cousin of Freddie Freeman of the Dodgers.
Anisimova vs. Yulia Antonovna Putintseva
Kessler vs. Vondroušová: Two grass tune-up winners face off early.
Townsend vs. Kenin: A study in contrasts.
Parks vs. Belinda Bencic: A top-five server goes against a steady former top 10-er.