If a tournament’s final four has the top two seeds, its greatest active champion and a local hero, it’s like drawing a royal flush in poker. With the best cards in hand, the event is always going to be a winner.

Wimbledon 2026 will have a chance to experience this on Friday. Jannik Sinner, the top seed and defending champion, will take on Novak Djokovic, a 24-time Major winner and seven-time titlist at SW19. In the other encounter, second seed and reigning Roland-Garros trophy-holder Alexander Zverev will meet British wildcard Arthur Fery.

There is both familiarity and novelty. Sinner and Djokovic have sparred 11 times overall, with the Italian ahead 6-5. Zverev and Fery are first-time Wimbledon semifinalists and have no history of facing each other.

The Sinner-Djokovic fixture will be more intriguing, primarily because the gap between them appears to have shrunk a little. Sinner, who thrashed Djokovic 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 here in 2025, is not the player who went on an awe-inspiring 29-match winning run earlier this year. At the French Open, he was troubled by the heat and lost early; over the past 10 days here, he has not been at his clinical best.

Djokovic beat Sinner over five pulsating sets in the Australian Open semifinal in January, snapping a run of five defeats to the Italian. But much will depend on the 39-year-old’s recovery after the five-hour, 15-minute marathon versus Felix Auger-Aliassime. Two days’ rest would have helped, and so will the additional time on Friday, for Djokovic’s will be the second match.

Back in Australia, the Serb was aided by Jakub Mensik’s withdrawal (fourth round) and Lorenzo Musetti’s mid-match retirement (quarters). Sinner, however, remains wary. “Even when I had the [winning] streak, every match with Novak had its own story,” Sinner said.

“Especially on grass, if you have a bad serving day or if you are not feeling the ball well, it’s going to be tough. He has won this tournament so many times and he knows exactly how to approach it.”

Zverev and Fery will be short on that foreknowledge, but the German, by virtue of being more pedigreed, should fancy himself. This will be his 12th Slam semifinal, and after succeeding in Paris, his confidence will be sky-high.

On the other hand, 23-year-old Fery was ranked No. 114 coming into Wimbledon and had only won two Major contests all career. He will be pumped up nonetheless, more so after the straight-sets demolition of Flavio Cobolli and the five-set victory over Grigor Dimitrov. Will there be another chapter in the fairytale?

Tennis great Chris Evert will be absent from ​this year’s Wimbledon championships as she ‌is undergoing treatment following a recurrence ​of ovarian cancer.

“I have ⁠already undergone surgery as the first step in my treatment and recovery, and ‌will begin chemotherapy in the coming weeks,” three-times Wimbledon ‌champion Evert, who now ‌commentates ⁠on the sport, said on ⁠Thursday (June 25, 2026) in a statement on X.

“Because of this, I will not be attending ​Wimbledon this year, ‌and I will step back from my professional commitments over the next few months to ‌focus on my health.

“Ovarian cancer ​is relentless, but I will stay optimistic and determined ⁠in continuing to fight this battle.”

The 71-year-old, an 18-times Grand Slam ‌singles champion, was first diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2021. She suffered a recurrence in 2023 before saying she was cancer-free again in 2024.

Her long-running rivalry ‌and close friendship with Martina Navratilova — ​including their shared battles with cancer — will be featured ⁠in the Netflix documentary, “Chris and Martina: ⁠The Final Set”, due for release on June 26.

This year’s ‌Wimbledon runs from June 29 to July 12.

Serena Williams will play singles at Wimbledon after accepting a wild card invitation, the All England Club announced Sunday (June 21, 2026).

The move comes after the 44-year-old Williams recently returned to competition in doubles after nearly four years away from professional tennis.

And it means that Williams will play both singles and doubles at Wimbledon after already accepting a wild card for the doubles competition with older sister Venus.

Serena’s last singles match was a loss to Ajla Tomljanovic in the third round of the 2022 U.S. Open. At the time, she said she didn’t want to use the word “retiring” and instead declared that she was “evolving” away from tennis.

Serena has won 23 Grand Slam titles in singles, including seven at Wimbledon. She’s also won 14 Grand Slams in doubles, all with Venus, and six of them at Wimbledon.

Wimbledon starts June 29.