Jannik Sinner primed for "goosebumps moment" at 2026 Wimbledon

Sinner won Wimbledon in 2025 after defeating his great rival Carlos Alcaraz in four sets to claim his first-ever Grand Slam title at SW19.

As a result, the World No 1 knows that he will be opening up Centre Court on Monday, 29th June, as has been the tradition for Wimbledon since 1922.

It's an honour that Sinner is not taking lately and he cannot wait to play out his first round match in front of a packed-out Centre Court on day one of the Grand Slam.

Speaking in a press release prior to his Wimbledon title defence, Sinner said: "For me, opening play on Centre Court will be a goosebumps moment.

"The atmosphere is unique, unlike anything else you experience on tennis courts around the world. I would never have dreamed that one day it would be me stepping onto that lawn and into that theatre for the very first match of the championships."

Sinner will be buoyed by the fact that in 103 years, only four defending champions at Wimbledon have been dumped out at the first round stage.

Manuel Santana was the first defending champion to fall at the first hurdle, after he was defeated by Charlie Pasarell in the opening round of the 1967 Grand Slam.

27 years later, and Steffi Graf became the second defending champion to be beaten in round. The German icon suffered a shock at the hands of Lori McNeil in the 1994 Championships.

Nine years after and Lleyton Hewitt earned the rare unwanted record, becoming just the third defending champion to be beaten in the first round.

The Australian was beaten by then-unknown Ivo Karlovic in round one of Wimbledon when the giant Croatian was ranked outside the top 200. To make matters worse, Hewitt was also ranked World No 1 at the time of the match.

The last defending champion to be beaten in the opening round was Marketa Vondrousova, who lost to Jessica Bouzas Maneiro in the first round of the 2024 Championships.

While the World No 1 will be the overwhelming favourite to at least make it through to the next round, he will undoubtedly have these four key losses in the back of his head.

Sinner will find out who he will play when the Wimbledon draw is made on Friday, June 29th. One thing he does know is that he can't play any of the top 32 seeds, but anyone outside of that, including wildcards, could be his first-round opponent at the Grand Slam.

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