Wimbledon’s men’s bracket has a bottom half full of opportunity. Who will seize it?

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THE ALL ENGLAND CLUB, London — The Wimbledon bracket was enthralling right from the start, but one already-open section has turned in to a land of opportunity during the first week.

With two-time champion and world No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz sidelined due to a wrist injury, the bottom half of the men’s singles draw was missing its apex predator before the tournament had even started. Then, in the opening round, No. 4 seed Ben Shelton of the U.S. fell to Otto Virtanen, a qualifier from Finland. A couple of rounds later, 16 players remain, and one of them will reach the Wimbledon final. For all but one of them, it would be their first.

Just one has won a Grand Slam title. Some have Wimbledon pedigree, or experience of going deep at other majors. Others are standing on the edge of an unforeseen possibility.

So here is a guide to this particularly open section of what has otherwise so far been a particularly chalky tournament, with far fewer upsets than last year’s drama-laden opening week. It starts with the seeds, and goes from there.

Alexander Zverev (2)

29, Germany

Zverev, who just won the French Open to end his wait for a Grand Slam title, has a reasonable chance of getting to the final. He may be liberated by no longer having to deal with that pressure. He also has a big serve that should work well on the grass, and was impressive in his last match on Thursday, comfortably beating the dangerous French player Valentin Royer in straight sets.

But he’s never been beyond the fourth round at Wimbledon — despite being at least a finalist at the other three majors — and tends not to deal well with low-bouncing grass courts. Zverev’s typical modus operandi is to station himself well behind the baseline and wear opponents down.

Now he is there, and meets Taylor Fritz in the quarterfinals, whom he has lost to in their last seven meetings, including here in the fourth round two years ago.

Alex de Minaur (5)

27, Australia

Anyone who appreciates a work horse could find themselves rooting for de Minaur, though he might be more accurately described as a racehorse. De Minaur is one of the quickest players on tour and relies on his stunning footspeed, excellent anticipation and flat, thudding shots to grind down opponents. His game is predicated on consistency, not fireworks and fittingly, he hasn’t had a signature Grand Slam run yet.

He’s made it to seven major quarterfinals without advancing — though he never got to play the one he made here against Novak Djokovic in 2024. He had to withdraw before the match after injuring his hip three points before the end of his round-of-16 win against Arthur Fils.

De Minaur’s path out of his quarter of the draw isn’t a walk in the park, but it isn’t a minefield either. Can he break his own ceiling?

Taylor Fritz (6)

28, United States

Fritz is as savvy on grass as they come — from the baseline, at least — with his classic power game and huge serve. He’s been nursing tendinitis in his knee that forced him to miss a few weeks of clay season, but European grass has been kind to him in years past. He used those weeks away to get stronger and fitter to better support his knee, and he’s moving extremely well and mowing through the competition.

Better still, he has little reason to fear the two biggest challengers in his quarter of the draw, with a 7-2 record against Frances Tiafoe and a 10-5 record against Zverev. Plus, he’s been in the final four of a Grand Slam twice before. He made the semifinals at Wimbledon last year but lost to Alcaraz; he made the final of the U.S. Open in 2024, but lost to Jannik Sinner. He realizes the opportunity at hand with one of those two players absent from the draw.

Flavio Cobolli (9)

24, Italy

Casual tennis fans who saw him in last month’s French Open final are probably still trying to figure out Cobolli, but he’s already both a matinee idol and sports star in Italy. He was a rising talent in the academy of iconic Italian club AS Roma before choosing tennis.

He is outwardly emotional and passionate, and has wild swings between sublimity and absurdity on a tennis court. He was never supposed to be a good grass-court player, with his big topspin strokes, perfected on Italy’s slow, high bouncing clay. But his forehand has proven just as devastating on skiddy courts, and he can move on the grass with an assuredness that not all players have. He made the quarterfinals last year, losing to Djokovic in four sets, and will see this as a serious chance to go at least one stage further.

Alexander Bublik (10)

29, Kazakhstan

Bublik is the kind of player who could just as easily go out in the first round as go on a deep run. So now that he’s in the third round, he might be able to generate enough momentum to go beyond his previous best at a Slam, the quarterfinals at last year’s French Open.

With a huge serve and pretty much every shot in the book, grass has long been assumed to be his best surface. He defeated world No. 1 Sinner on the way to winning the Halle Open in Germany last year. In an interview last year, his agent and manager Corrado Tschabuschnig said he thought Bublik could one day win Wimbledon.

He may never get a better chance, though Tiafoe is a tough third-round opponent.

Bublik is wonderfully nonconformist. “I’m the guy you can see having a nice time down the street in Paris in the evening before the match,” Bublik said in a news conference at last year’s French Open, elaborating on how players who sacrifice everything for tennis are heralded as the norm.

“Not to go crazy, but I’m social. I can skip the practice if I don’t feel like it. In my opinion, I’m super normal, and they make me feel different.”

Kind of relatable, right?

Jiří Lehečka (13)

24, Czech Republic

For a fan who likes tennis with easy, languid power, delivered quietly and artistically, Lehečka may be the guy.

The rising Czech, has plenty of talent, and he knows his way around a grass court, having made the final of Queen’s last year. He pushed Alcaraz to three sets, which counts as a win for anyone not named Sinner or Djokovic. He likes playing fast, high-octane tennis.

He made the final of the Miami Open in March, falling only to Sinner. He’s 24 and has reached the point where he doesn’t often beat himself, especially on courts he favors. He definitely favors the Wimbledon grass, even if a likely meeting with Zverev could prove a bridge too far.

Frances Tiafoe (17)

28, United States

No one has more openly talked about the opportunity men’s tennis players have right now. That makes sense for Tiafoe — he’s not one for hiding his emotions or mincing his words, and he believes deeply in making tennis as broadly entertaining and accessible as any major team sport. That ethos is reflected in his play style, which marries power with an athletic all-court game and produces highlight-reel moments. Tiafoe lives for a big match against a top player on Centre Court or under the lights at the U.S. Open, but lately he’s brought a level of measured restraint to his matches, too.

Tiafoe’s lack of experience in the final stages of a major tournament could be his biggest challenge. He won the biggest title of his career, an ATP 500-level tournament in Halle, Germany, just before Wimbledon, which could mean his emotional battery and legs start to fade. He beat his good buddy Fritz for that title, and might have to play his fellow American again in the quarterfinals.

Frances Tiafoe has the game to make it on the Wimbledon grass, but his third-round assignment is tough. (Henry Nicholls / AFP via Getty Images)

Karen Khachanov (19)

30, Russia

The most likely outcome is that Khachanov will exit the tournament in the third or fourth round. He’s lost at one of those stages in 18 of the 36 Grand Slams he’s played in his career, and tends to perform as his world ranking says he will. He’s currently ranked No. 22 and will be the underdog against the No. 9 seed Cobolli in his next match.

But he was a quarterfinalist here last year, and is a former semifinalist at the U.S. Open and Australian Open, so is not a stranger to the latter stages of the slams.

To actually go on and win here would represent shattering his own ceiling. Fans tend to think of tennis as being a thrilling career full of ups and downs, but Khachanov has generally been the sport’s Mr. Consistent, acting as a gatekeeper for numerous prodigies trying to make the second week of a major. In normal job terms, he’s very much a 9-5 man.

Zizou Bergs

27, Belgium

Bergs is easy to root for or hard to get into, largely depending on one’s perspective of TikTok. The Belgian is exuberant in his tennis and his celebrations, won his first ATP Tour title on the grass at the Eastbourne Open ahead of Wimbledon, and is most notorious for being at the center of a Davis Cup farce between Belgium and Chile last year. Facing British wild card Arthur Fery, he will eye the chance to reach the second week of a major for the first time, which would be a hefty achievement right after the emotions of a first title.

Jaume Munar

29, Spain

Munar took Alcaraz to the brink on a broiling day at Queen’s in London in 2025, the season in which he transformed his game to be more aggressive, attacking and intentional — three huge assets in grass-court tennis. His immediate problem is that Lehečka is one of the toughest draws left in this section; should Munar get through that match, he will back himself to give either Zverev or Marcos Giron serious fits in the fourth round.

Matteo Berrettini

30, Italy

Grass-court purists will back Matteo Berrettini. His huge serve, heavy forehand and cutting backhand slice have brought him plenty of success, including reaching a Wimbledon final that he lost to Djokovic in 2021. He was a trendsetter in those years and at the forefront of the wave of elite young players that has poured out of Italy in the last five years. But his career has been derailed by injuries and he hasn’t lived up to that potential — which would make a return to the final, or dare-say a title at Wimbledon — that much better of a story.

If Berrettini can stay healthy, after having to withdraw from his French Open quarterfinal with an injury, he’s got as much talent — especially on grass — as anyone in his half of the draw.

Matteo Berrettini is the only Wimbledon finalist left in the men’s draw. (Adrian Dennis / AFP via Getty Images)

Zachary Svajda

23, United States

The other Americans still standing, Fritz and Tiafoe, are far better-known, but there was a time when Zachary Svadja of San Diego was a next big thing. He defeated Shelton to win the U.S. Boys’ National Championship in 2021, a title Svadja won two years in a row.

Svadja took a little longer to develop than some of his peers, a process that got thrown off by his father being diagnosed with colon cancer in October 2024. Tom Svajda was a tennis pro and his first coach. He died a year after the diagnosis, and after taking time away from the tour, Svadja is on the verge of reaching the second week of a Grand Slam for the second time in five weeks.

Everything about him says long-shot. He’s not flashy. But he’s so comfortable playing low to the ground, which is essential on grass. And he keeps winning.

Lorenzo Sonego

31, Italy

Sonego’s flashing creativity, love of a Hail Mary winner from improbable positions and side quest as a prolific music artist make him a popular and entertaining character. How awkward he can make Fritz’s life on grass is another question entirely, but he did make the fourth round last year and made Shelton work for victory in their meeting. Sonego’s issue over five sets will be whether he can turn mercurial brilliance into something more sustainable.

Marcos Giron

32, United States

A player seemingly forever on the precipice, Giron’s most recent so-close-but-not-quite heartache came at the Stuttgart Open in Germany, when he had a routine volley on top of the net to bring up three match points against compatriot Shelton. He missed it. He lost. Zverev is a difficult assignment but Giron is a more natural grass-court player than the German, so if he can keep Zverev from running away with their match, interesting things might happen. Then Giron will again face his most frequently asked question: Can he take advantage?

Grigor Dimitrov (WC)

35, Bulgaria

Grigor Dimitrov’s Wimbledon redemption story already has a happy ending. After tearing his right pectoral muscle when two sets up on Sinner last year, he has returned to London and won two matches, the latter a chest-beating win over rising talent Jakub Menšík that had him dancing on the grass once more.

He’s made up with that. But he also has a fiendish backhand slice, a still-powerful serve and more grass nous than most of the players around him in this draw. Why not dream of even more? His match with Berrettini is likely to be a challenge, but the winner will face Bergs or Arthur Fery, which is one of the more appetizing outcomes for a player who knows their way around a grass court.

Arthur Féry (WC)

23, United Kingdom

In an open half, Fery is the true underdog. He was given a wild card into the tournament by dint of being a British player, and is yet to crack the world’s top 100.

But he had a winnable match against Bergs in the third round, and had already done well to last longer than any of his compatriots. Then he won that. Then he beat Grigor Dimitrov. Now he faces Cobolli, who he beat Cobolli at the Australian Open in January. Standing at only five feet, nine inches, Fery does not have the build of a typical male tennis player these days, but can volley well and plays with good variation that makes his style easy on the eye.

He earned fans at large after putting earplugs in while first-round opponent Damir Džumhur ranted at the chair umpire, later saying in a news conference that he used them regularly, and for admitting that he spotted Tim Henman, the British tennis figurehead, watching one of his matches, but not Princess Catherine of Wales. He has already performed beyond expectation, and anything else would be a British bonus at an otherwise miserable tournament for the home nation.