Officially, Wimbledon’s color scheme is a pristine purple and green overlay. But this year, the organizers tried to mix it up with a distinct shade of dark red, a claret, representing the bloodbath that was Week 1. Less a tennis event than an abattoir—or, more charitably, a demonstration of tennis’s parity—seed after seed left the court and headed to the transport desk, where they booked flights earlier than anticipated.
Coco Gauff, the winsome Roland Garros champion, fell in Round 1. Jessica Pegula, the player behind her in the seedings? She was ousted on the same day. Last year’s finalist, Jasmine Paolini? She was bounced on Wednesday. No. 5 Qinwen Zheng is out too. Sixth seed and Australian Open winner Madison Keys fell on Friday to a 37-year-old with little Wimbledon track record. (Let’s acknowledge the vanquishers: Dayana Yastremska, Elisabetta Cocciaretto, Kamilla Rakhimova, Kateřina Siniaková and Laura Siegemund, respectively and respectfully.)
The men were little better, with four of the top eight (Alexander Zverev, Jack Draper, Lorenzo Musetti and Holger Rune) all pondering hard courts.
It’s a reminder that sports are unscripted and unpredictable. That tennis is an age of parity, that grass is a surface unto itself. That it’s all a zero-sum game. For every defeat, there is a victor. For every Airbnb cancellation, there is an extension.
As we survey the wreckage and make the turn after three rounds, our midterm grades for Wimbledon 2025:
A
Parity: As often as tennis traffics in clichés meant to level set—the margins are thin; the depth is unprecedented—we got a vivid example last week. More than half of the seeded players were eliminated by the end of Round 2, including five of the top six women.
Favorites: Those avoiding defenestration? Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz and No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, both of whom were the favorites before the tournament … and remain so.
Old players still got it: Novak Djokovic (38) has looked sublime. Former finalist Marin Čilić (36) turned in the upset of the men’s side to beat Draper. Siegemund (37) advanced to Week 2 for the first time.
Sonay Kartal: Copiously tattooed and copiously talented, she is the last Brit remaining.
Italy: Jannik Sinner is the star, but the bench is deep. Even with Paolini out, a lot of tricolore remains.
Taylor Fritz: The fifth seed survived a brutal draw—two 6’ 8” powers and then a fellow seed—to reach the Round of 16.
Lucky losers: We need a more charitable term here. Solana Sierra lost in qualifying, then got a slot and made the most of it by reaching the fourth round.
USD: San Diego’s tennis program featured two players among the final 64: Oliver Tarvet (who qualified, won a round, and acquitted himself well against Alcaraz) and August Holmgren, who fell to Alex de Minaur in the third round.
Swan song choir: Two-time champ Petra Kvitová, Fabio Fognini, Yanina Wickmayer (and so many others who may not have confronted the reality) bow out for the final time.
Carson Branstine: The former USC player, qualified—beating her friend and former major champion, Bianca Andreescu, and Roland Garros Jean d’Arc, Lois Boisson, in the process. Then, she gave a fine accounting of herself against Sabalenka. And she revealed herself to be the kind of personality who will enrich the cast.
B+
Arthur Rinderknech: The former Texas A&M star beat Zverev—the biggest win of his career—and backed it up by taking out former top-20 player Cristian Garin. (Then he ran out of petrol against Kamil Majchrzak.)
Emma Raducanu: She’ll be stung by her narrow loss to Sabalenka in the third round. But she proved—hopefully to herself—that she is back to playing with the best.
Caty McNally: She couldn’t close after taking the first set off of Iga Świątek, but it was nice to see a fine player—still only 23—back at this level.
B
Gio Mpetshi Perricard: The heavily-armed Frenchman (shout-out to Ben Rothenberg for the exquisite nickname “Giovanni’s Boom”) blasted a record 153-mph serve against Fritz. But, he lost the point … and the match—a match in which he never reached a break point on the opponent’s serve.
America: Fritz, Ben Shelton and Amanda Anisimova remain. For Gauff, Pegula, Keys, Tommy Paul and Frances Tiafoe, et al. it was a most unceremonious version of “Yankee, Go Home.”
Canada: The tennis economy has come down from its highs that spanned from 2019 to ’21. But, there are some new signs of life in platinum Gabriel Diallo, Victoria Mboko (for a second consecutive major) and Branstine.
C
Chalk: It flew up in a big way. By the first Wednesday, most seeds had been axed. Gauff’s bid for a Channel Double? She barely got out of Calais. And both No. 3 seeds— Pegula and Zverev—won zero matches between them.
Recency bias: Alexander Bublik, Pegula, McCartney Kessler, Maya Joint and Markéta Vondroušová all won grass court titles … and lost in the first two rounds.
Holger Rune: Not only did he lose his first match (as the No. 8 seed), but he also got scolded by his own racket manufacturer for selling his broken sticks online.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Wimbledon 2025 Midterm Grades: Top Seeds Fall As Parity Reigns.
