The wildcards were announced for Wimbledon in 2026 on Wednesday. However, with the announcement of the wildcards, an interesting storyline has been created. While all eight wildcards have been selected in the men’s singles draw, only seven wildcards were selected in the women’s draw. This leaves one spot open, and creates speculation regarding who the last wildcard will be. Unless you have been living in a cave without Internet access over the last month, you know that Serena Williams has returned to competing in professional women’s tennis.
To date, Serena Williams has only been competing in doubles action, and has already been granted a doubles wildcard with her sister, Venus Williams. There is now a growing belief that the eighth wildcard spot could be available to Serena Williams, who has won 23 grand slam singles titles (seven Wimbledons, seven Australian Opens, six United States Opens and three French Opens). It is no secret that Serena Williams is only one grand slam singles title back of Margaret Smith Court of Australia, who has won 24 grand slams.
The other seven women’s tennis players who have qualified for Wimbledon are 2026 French Open finalist Maja Chwalinska of Poland, and six players from Great Britain (Harriet Dart, Alicia Dudeney, Hannah Klugman, Mika Stojsavljevic, Katie Swan, and Mimi Xu). Chwalinska has seen her world ranking climb from 114th in the world to 21st in the world since her remarkable run at the French Open. Wimbledon qualifying goes next week and the third major of the tennis calendar commences June 29.
