Whatever happens, the winner will therefore be the first unseeded finalist in the open era, the fifth in history, the last was Billie Jean King in 1963. None of these four who already reached the final managed to lift the trophy
If it is true that Wimbledon is the temple of tennis, like every sacred place it has its rules to respect. For example, you dress only in white, you queue for miles to get in and its protagonists are only the best of the best. Actually no, forget the last one. In fact, this year there won’t be the best ones to challenge each other in the semi-final. On paper, at least: it will be the first time in the history of the women’s competition that we won’t find two seeds in the penultimate act.
the statistic
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Elina Svitolina, wildcard and number 76 in the world, and Marketa Vondrousova, number 42 in the ranking, will face each other. For the first, the fact that she is not seeded is almost a coincidence: Svitolina was number 3 in the WTA and arrived with this ranking only because she returned from maternity leave just three months ago. Different story for Vondrousova, intermittent talent and slowed down by injuries, who however was a finalist at Roland Garros 2019 and seeded in a Grand Slam for the last time at the Australian Open 2022. Whatever happens, the winner will be the first Wimbledon finalist unseeded in the open era, the fifth in history — the last was Billie Jean King in 1963 -. None of these four who had already reached the final managed to lift the trophy. The lowest-ranked winner was Venus Williams, No. 23 in the world in 2007.
the previous atp
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However, it will not be the first semi-final between underdogs ever. Among the men, two “unseeded”, as the English say, faced each other on three occasions: Pioline-Stitch in 1997, Bungert-Taylor in 1967 and Mulligan-Fraser in 1962. There are 13 tennis players who have reached the final without being heads series, with Nick Kyrgios being the last, last year. Two have managed to win: Boris Becker, in ’85 at the age of 17, and Goran Ivanisevic, in 2001 and from No. 125 in the world after recovering from an injury. Statistics on which, however, there is the benefit of the doubt. There would, in fact, be a 14th finalist and third winner, Richard Krajicek, who according to some would have been “unseeded” in 1996, although Wimbledon claims that he became top seed at a later time, due to the withdrawal of an opponent.
seeding at wimbledon
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That of “seeding”, literally sowing the best players by ranking within the draw, is a story that begins in 1927 — even if in previous years Wimbledon had adopted a similar system, which removed players of the same nationality from the draw, instead of the strongest. The basic idea is to place the best players in certain places, so that they can only face each other at the end of the competition. From 1975 until 2021, seeding at Wimbledon was based on computerized rankings, but with a twist all its own. ‘The Championship’, as it likes to do, differentiated itself from other Grand Slams by using a personalized ‘ranking’, where hierarchies could change, by decision of a committee, to favor more experienced players on grass — in 2018, for example , Serena Williams was seeded No. 25, despite her 183 WTA ranking. Since 2021 this system has been replaced by the classic rankings for women and men.
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