The grass court season is short, intense, and stylistically different from any other surface in tennis. After Roland Garros wraps in early June, the entire tour pivots within days to grass for a six-week stretch culminating at Wimbledon.
The men's favorites
Carlos Alcaraz won Wimbledon in 2023 and 2024 and remains the favorite. Jannik Sinner reached the 2024 final and has improved his grass game considerably. Novak Djokovic, now 38, retired after the 2025 US Open, removing the player who dominated the surface for over a decade. The field is genuinely open in a way it has not been since the early 2000s.
The women's favorites
Iga Swiatek's grass results have lagged her dominance on other surfaces, leaving the women's draw more open. Aryna Sabalenka, Coco Gauff, and Elena Rybakina (the 2022 champion) are all credible favorites. Several lower-ranked grass specialists could also make deep runs.
What Roland Garros tells us
The clay court swing typically reveals which players are physically peaked for the summer slams. Watch the Roland Garros quarterfinalists; several of them will carry that form straight to grass.
Best grass tune-up events
Queen's Club for the men, Bad Homburg and Berlin for the women. Eastbourne and Halle as the major slam tune-ups. Form at these events historically correlates well with Wimbledon performance.