KEY NUMBERS, STATISTICS AND TRENDS AHEAD OF WIMBLEDON

2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina. (Getty/Simon Bruty)

After a pair of amazing finals at Roland-Garros, the tour immediately switched to the grass courts in the build-up to SW19.

Up until the mid-1970s, all Grand Slams, except the French Open, were played on grass courts. But Wimbledon now stands alone as perhaps the most unique and prestigious of the four majors.

The First Serve analyses some of the key numbers, statistics and historical trends that might shed light on the path to victory in 2025.

As per the recent history of most Slams, the openness of the women's draw has been in contrast to that of the men's draw.

Since 2018, the most successful players on the women's draw are Iga Świątek (five titles), Naomi Osaka (four titles), Ash Barty (three titles), Aryna Sabalenka (three titles) and Coco Gauff (two titles). However, out of the 17 majors won by those five players, only one has come at Wimbledon, which was Barty's memorable 2021 win.

At the same time, Novak Djokovic (12), Rafael Nadal (five), Alcaraz (five), and Sinner (three) are the most successful men, winning nearly all the majors in that same period, including six Wimbledon crowns.

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The lead-up events are generally Queens, Halle, Birmingham, Eastbourne, Bad Homburg and Nottingham, but what does the clay court Slam mean as a form reference? Given the contrasting surface, historically, we have seen a contrast in fortunes.

Between 1990 and 2005, only two men who made the French Open final went on to reach the Wimbledon final. The nearly two decades since paint a very different story.

On the men's side, 12 of the last 18 years have seen a French Open finalist almost make the Wimbledon decider.

In 2006, 2007 and 2008, we had exactly the same match-up with Nadal and Federer facing off in Paris and London in the same year.

In the same length of time, only four women's finalists in Paris have reached the Wimbledon final in the same year.

However, almost remarkably, seven of the last nine female winners of Wimbledon had previously played in a French Open final, showing a correlation in ability to play on the surfaces, but rarely the ability to back it up within the same season.

The last seven Wimbledon titles were won by first-time winners of the event.

Barty, Simona Halep, Garbiñe Muguruza, Angelique Kerber, Elena Rybakina, Markéta Vondroušová and Barbora Krejčíková all won the first Wimbledon titles of their career over the past seven events, and four of those players also won Roland-Garros.

Both Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka are legitimate chances to win this year's event, but we haven't had a repeat French Open final contest at Wimbledon since the Williams sisters met in both finals back in 2002.

Carlos Alcaraz in 2023 is the first-time male Wimbledon winner since Nadal’s epic victory over Federer in 2008.

Every winner of the Wimbledon title since 2005 has also won a French Open in their career, with the exception of Andy Murray, who still managed to reach a final in Paris in 2016.

In terms of lead-up events, seven men's finalists from Queens have gone on to make the final of Wimbledon in the past decade, equating to 35 per cent of finalists.

For women, the Queen's event will be fascinating as it was held as part of the WTA schedule for the first time in half a century, and it produced the oldest winner of a WTA title since 2020. Germany's Tatjana Maria, at the age of 37, took the crown with wins over four Slam finalists in Leylah Fernandez, Karolína Muchová, Rybakina and Madison Keys.

Of the other lead-up events, Halle was dominated by Roger Federer on his path to the title historically, with the Swiss maestro reaching the final of both Halle and Wimbledon in the same year on 10 separate occasions.

Eastbourne and Nottingham have been good form references amongst women's players over recent years for those looking at form lines.

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