Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka received the No. 1 seeds in the Wimbledon draws announced June 27, but Carlos Alcaraz and Jasmine Paolini got the best draws.
Meanwhile, Taylor Fritz and Madison Keys must navigate bumpy paths on the grass courts at the All-England Club when the third Grand Slam of 2025 gets underway June 30.
Alcaraz got the easiest men's draw, based on the average world ranking of likely opponents, as he starts his pursuit of a third consecutive Wimbledon title. Alcaraz, the No. 2 seed, will play the traditional first match on Centre Court against Fabio Fognini. That would have been a rough opening draw a few years ago.
Who got the toughest and easiest draws for Wimbledon?
Now, Fognini is 38 years old and ranked No. 127 in the world. Alcaraz's opponent in the second round would be a qualifier. Looking ahead to the latter stages of the tournament, Alcaraz is tucked away in the bottom half of the draw, safely away from world No. 1 Sinner as well as Novak Djokovic, the only other man in the field with a Wimbledon title.
Paolini, the No. 4 seed, got a boost in her quest to return to the Wimbledon final for the second year in a row in the form of the easiest draw in the women's bracket, based on the average world ranking of likely opponents.
Paolini plays Anastasija Sevastova, who is in the tournament on a protected ranking, in the first round. Her next opponent would be ranked outside the top 75. Her most likely quarterfinal opponent, No. 5 seed Qinwen Zheng, has not won a Wimbledon match since 2022.
Toughest draws for top seeds
Taylor Fritz, the No. 5 seed in the men's field, got an atrocious draw. He opens against big-serving Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, who missed getting a seed of his own by just one spot in the world rankings. All of Fritz's likely opponents would be ranked in the top 50 - an unusually tough path for a top seed at a Grand Slam.
Madison Keys, the No. 6 seed, got the most challenging path among the top seeds for the women's tournament. Keys, the reigning Australian Open champion, plays her first match against current No. 57 Elena-Gabriela Ruse. All of Keys' opponents thereafter would be ranked in the top 40.
Toughest draws overall
If this is indeed two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova's final appearance at the All-England Club, she didn't get much of a going-away gift from the drawmakers. Kvitova, who has announced plans to retire, faces No. 10 seed Emma Navarro in the opening round and has the worst overall draw in the entire field, with the (theoretical) possibility of playing six top-20 opponents in seven matches.
Benjamin Bonzi, who is in the same cursed section of the draw as Fritz, got the worst draw in the men's field, based on the average world ranking of likely opponents. Bonzi's first-round opponent is resurgent No. 9 seed Daniil Medvedev. It wouldn't get much easier from there, with six possible matches against opponents in the top 25.
Best opportunities for unseeded players
Four-time major winner and current No. 56 Naomi Osaka isn't known for her play on grass, but she has an opening to get through to the second week. Osaka drew qualifier Talia Gibson in the first round. The top seed in Osaka's section is the aforementioned Qinwen Zheng, who has not won a match at Wimbledon in three years.
The crowds won’t favor 21-year-old American Ethan Quinn, but the math offers a path to the round of 32. Quinn first has to get past British wild card Henry Searle, the 2023 Wimbledon boys champion.
The likely opponent in the second round is former Wimbledon runner-up Matteo Berrettini, who at No. 32 is the last of the seeded players and has been plagued by a variety of misfortunes since contesting the 2021 final.
World No. 58 Fábián Marozsán has a similar opportunity, with a first-round match against a qualifier and a second-round matchup against a talented seed - in his case, Alexander Bublik - with inconsistent results.