With its enduring support for tennis, Rolex continues to champion talented players as the official timekeeper of Wimbledon. Will we see new champions—or old—crowned at the prestigious All England Club?
As the red clay dust of Roland‑Garros settles, the spotlight now turns to the grass courts of the All England Club in London this month. The Championships, Wimbledon is one of the four grand slam tennis tournaments—together with the Australian Open, the Roland-Garros and the US Open—and the only major played on grass.
With first round matches starting today, this year’s edition is highly anticipated by both players and fans alike after the tournament was cancelled in 2020. For men’s singles, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic will be gunning for top honours. For nearly 20 years, the duo, together with Rafael Nadal who is skipping the tournament this year, has dominated men’s singles, with a combined total of 13 Wimbledon titles.
For Federer, this year’s tournament is significant. The Rolex Testimonee has already etched his name into the annals of the All England Club with eight titles over the span of his career. Snagging his ninth title a month before his 40th birthday would be even sweeter as he would break his own record of the most title wins at Wimbledon in the Open era.
And it is clear that he has made Wimbledon his top priority since his comeback from two knee surgeries last year. In an interview during the Qatar Open in March, he openly admitted: “I’ll just see how much workload the body and the knee can take and what’s the best way to prepare all the way for basically the beginning of the season for me, which is the grass court season.”
With Roland-Garros being his third competitive tournament of the year, Federer would have had gained much match fitness and the opportunity to assess his physical condition. Most importantly, the additional week of rest before his participation in the Noventi Open—a key warm-up tournament before Wimbledon—offers recovery time for his body.
One thing is for sure: during his injury lay-off, tennis has missed the beauty of his fluid motion on the courts as well as his astounding variety of shots—they combine power with touch, slices with volleys, and spins with angles, all of which are often executed elegantly, effortlessly and accurately.