Eala makes history as first Filipina to reach WTA Tour final; Alcaraz seeks Wimbledon hat-trick

Carlos Alcaraz will start his Wimbledon defence against Fabio Fognini while world number one Jannik Sinner faces a potential semi-final clash against Novak Djokovic following Friday’s draw.

On the women’s side, reigning champion Barbora Krejcikova will begin her campaign against rising star Alexandra Eala on Centre Court if she can recover from injury.

Spain’s Alcaraz, who has beaten Djokovic in the past two finals at the All England Club, returns to Wimbledon, which starts on Monday, on a career-best 18-match winning streak.

He is aiming to become just the fifth man to win at least three straight Wimbledon titles in the Open Era after Bjorn Borg, Pete Sampras, Roger Federer and Djokovic.

The Spaniard, 22, has a 2-0 head-to-head record against Italian Fognini, who is 38.

Sinner’s pursuit of a maiden Wimbledon crown could hinge on a heavyweight semi-final clash with seven-time champion Djokovic.

The Italian, who lost to Alcaraz in the recent French Open final, opens against compatriot Luca Nardi at the grass-court major.

Djokovic, competing at his lowest seeding (sixth) since 2018, will begin his campaign for a record-tying eighth Wimbledon men’s title against Frenchman Alexandre Muller.

The Serb, who has been in every final since 2018, is seeded for a quarter-final meeting with British fourth seed Jack Draper, who meets Argentina’s Sebastian Baez in the first round.

Djokovic is aiming to win a record 25th Grand Slam, which would take him clear of his tie with the long-retired Margaret Court, and has the added incentive of matching Roger Federer’s record tally of Wimbledon men’s titles.

World number three Alexander Zverev, who starts against France’s Arthur Rinderknech, is seeded to meet Taylor Fritz in the quarter-finals.

Fifth-seeded American Fritz faces big-serving Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard from France. Krejcikova missed the first five months of 2025 with a back injury and was forced to withdraw from this week’s Eastbourne quarter-finals due to a thigh injury.

Top seed Aryna Sabalenka, hoping to progress beyond the semi-finals at Wimbledon for the first time, opens against fast-rising Canadian qualifier Carson Branstine.

The Belarusian has won three Grand Slams but lost in the Australian Open final and the French Open final this year.

Her potential third-round opponents include 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova, Nottingham winner McCartney Kessler and 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu.

Home favourite Raducanu takes on British qualifier Mingge Xu in the first round.

Second seed Coco Gauff, who beat Sabalenka at Roland Garros, starts against Nottingham finalist Dayana Yastremska.

Meanwhile, Alexandra Eala became the first player from the Philippines to reach a WTA Tour final after beating Varvara Gracheva 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 in the last four at Eastbourne on Friday.

Eala survived a tense clash lasting more than two hours to make history in the Wimbledon warm-up event on the grass at Devonshire Park.

In a final featuring two of the rising stars of the women’s game, the 20-year-old will face Australian teenager Maya Joint on Saturday.

Joint, 19, ranked 51 the world, beat Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-5, 6-3.

“There were tough moments where she was playing well, and I didn’t know how to get out of it,” Eala said. Eala’s run to the final underlined the world number 74’s emergence as one to watch.

Swiatek enters Bad Homburg final: Five-time Grand Slam winner Iga Swiatek reached her first ever grass-court final on Friday defeating last year’s Wimbledon runner-up Jasmine Paolini in the semi-finals at Bad Homburg.

The former world number one swept past second seed Paolini 6-1, 6-3 in just over an hour to reach her first final in a year since she lifted her fourth French Open trophy at Roland Garros.

Swiatek will bid for her 23rd career title on Saturday against US top seed Jessica Pegula, who rallied past Czech Linda Noskova 6-7 (2/7), 7-5, 6-1 in the northern suburbs of Frankfurt.

Agencies