The Wimbledon Championship is back after two years, and this year, it commences on June 28. The defending champion in women’s singles is world number 3 Simona Halep, who won the final against Serena Williams in straight sets. Serena Williams will head into the tournament searching for her record-equalling 24th major title and eighth at Wimbledon.
The previous major, the Roland Garros, saw a new Grand Slam champion after Czech Republic’s Barbora Krejcikova beat Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the final. Both entered the top 20 rankings following their campaign in Paris. 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin dropped to sixth in the rankings after she could not go past the fourth round in the 2021 French Open.
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Ashleigh Barty and Naomi Osaka stay at number 1 and number 2 respectively, despite early second-round exits in the French Open. Ukrainian Elina Svitolina jumped over Sofia Kenin to number 5.
Last year, Wimbledon was not held due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This time, the courts will operate with up to 50% crowd, according to BBC. This means that the Centre Court can take up to 15,000 people in the stands.
Going into the tournament, Wimbledon has announced its seeding for 2021. Osaka does not appear in the list since she announced her withdrawal from the tournament earlier in the month.
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Here are the 2021 Wimbledon Championship seeding for women’s singles:
- Ashleigh Barty (Australia)
- Simona Halep (Romania)
- Aryna Sabalenka (Belarus)
- Elina Svitolina (Ukraine)
- Sofia Kenin (USA)
- Bianca Andreescu (Canada)
- Serena Williams (USA)
- Iga Swiatek (Poland)
- Karolina Pliskova (Czech Republic)
- Belinda Bencic (Switzerland)
