Every year tennis commentators enjoy speculating on which players are best placed to win Wimbledon. A player’s form in the grass warm-up events is often seen as an important consideration.
Germany and England have the most prolific legs of the lawn tennis tour in the run up to Wimbledon. Spain and the Netherlands both offer a grass tournament as part of the swing.
As well, the US presents a grass event. An anomaly in the swing, Newport’s Hall of Fame Open is not a warm-up tournament. Newport used to run after Wimbledon as an ATP 250, but in 2025 became a WTA/ATP 125 that ran concurrently with the second week of Wimbledon.
Despite hosting the most prestigious tournament, these days the grass swing runs for the shortest duration – 41 days – compared to the seasons on clay, and especially hard court. The grass season also lacks a 1000 event, whereas there are three on clay and six on outdoor/indoor hard courts.
Obviously, winning a warm-up event is valuable in itself for a player. Everyone wants a trophy, first prize money and ranking points. But how reliable are these events as predictors of success at SW19?
Reflecting on this year’s Wimbledon, Taylor Fritz won two of the warm-up events then made it to the semis for his best result, while some warm-up winners were out in the first round.
Fritz though, has long experienced success on grass. His win at Eastbourne this year was his fourth in six years (excluding the cancelled 2020 edition), giving him five grass titles in all.
Part of his success on lawn courts is his outstanding serve – the speed, variety and accuracy. So good is his serve that Fritz is currently ranked the No. 1 server by the ATP. Although he is not the leader in five of the six statistics factored into the serve rating, he comes out on top because he’s good at all of them. For instance, he averages 11 aces and less than two double faults per match. And, importantly, the one statistic in which he surpasses all other players is first serve points won, which is sitting at just under 80%.
Even so, and after winning more warm-ups this year than any other player, he did not actually win Wimbledon. Jannik Sinner did; after losing in the second round of the only warm-up he played.
Stuttgart’s BOSS Open, an ATP 250, was fittingly won by BOSS Ambassador Taylor Fritz won in his debut at the tournament.
At Wimbledon, he was seeded No. 5. In his semi, Carlos Alcaraz defeated him, 6-4 5-7 6-3 7-6(6).
So, having won the Lexus Eastbourne Open in 2019, 2022 and 2024, Taylor Fritz took the ATP 250 title again this year.
Previous to making a Wimbledon semifinal this year, he reached the quarters in 2022 and 2024.
The WTA event in Eastbourne, the Lexus Eastbourne Open, was previously a WTA 500 but this year was rebranded as a 250. Nineteen year old winner Maya Joint won her first grass tournament title and second overall.
Joint was unseeded at Wimbledon and was defeated in the first round by Liudmila Samsonova, 6-3 6-2.
The Terra Wortmann Open in the German town of Halle Westfalen is an ATP 500. Alexander Bublik won this year, as he had in 2023. These Halle victories provided his only grass titles, though he was twice a finalist at the Hall of Fame in Newport.
Bublik had his best result at Wimbledon by reaching the fourth round in 2022. This year, he was seeded 28, but was edged out in the first round by unseeded Jaume Munar, 6-4 3-6 4-6 7-6(5) 6-2.
Wimbledon owns the licence for the WTA 500 in Bad Homburg, Germany. The tournament is known as the Bad Homburg Open powered by Solarwatt, and this year the winner was Jessica Pegula. It was Pegula’s second grass title, as she won the Berlin Ladies Open last year.
Seeded No. 3 at Wimbledon, Pegula was defeated in the first round by unseeded Elisabetta Cocciaretto, 6-2 6-3.
The WTA 500 Berlin Ladies Open operates under a licence owned by the Octagon agency and leased to Wimbledon. Now with its name aligned to a new sponsor as the Berlin Ladies Open by HYLO, the tournament annointed a first time winner, Markéta Vondroušová.
Her only other grass court title is Wimbledon 2023 where she swept through the field unseeded. Vondroušová was also unseeded this year, but couldn’t repeat her 2023 effort and was beaten in the second round by Emma Raducanu, 6-3, 6-3.
Since 2018, the Rosmalen Grass Court Championships in the Netherlands has been branded with its sponsor’s name, the Libéma Open, but is often referred to by the city where it takes place, ‘s-Hertogenbosch. The ATP 250 tournament was won this year by 23 year old Canadian Gabriel Diallo, becoming his maiden title.
Diallo was unseeded at Wimbledon and in a tough 3-6 6-3 7-6(0) 4-6 6-3 match, was defeated by Taylor Fritz in the second round.
Elise Mertens won her 10th career singles title at the WTA 250 in ‘s-Hertogenbosch. Although her first on grass, she had previously won the doubles championship at Wimbledon with Hsieh Su-wei.
Mertens progressed to the fourth round in the singles draw at this year’s Wimbledon, as she had done three times before. Seeded 24, her run was ended by the top seed Aryna Sabalenka, 6-4 7-6(4). Happily for Mertens, she won the doubles title again, this time with Veronika Kudermetova.
The Queens Club in West Kensington, Greater London, holds a tournament currently known as The HSBC Championships. For most tennis people, this ATP 500 is simply referred to as Queens. This year’s winner was Carlos Alcaraz, holding aloft his second Queens Trophy. Of course, his other two grass titles are from Wimbledon ’23 and ’24.
This year, Alcaraz was 2nd seed at Wimbledon. He finished as runner up to top seed Jannik Sinner, 4-6 6-4 6-4 6-4. Sinner had played the Terra Wortmann Open at his warm-up event, but he lost in the second round to eventual champion, Alexander Bublik.
At the WTA 500 in Queens, Tatjana Maria won the title, having waited since 2018 for her second grass title after Mallorca.
Wimbledon has been Maria’s best grand slam tournament. Three years ago, she sliced her way to the semis. She was unseeded then and also this year, as she was beaten in the first round by Katie Volynets 3-6 7-6(4) 6-1.
McCartney Kessler won the 10th edition of the Lexus Nottingham Open, giving her a first grass title for her third overall. She defeated local favourite Katie Boulter in the quarterfinals, and in the final, Dayana Yastremska in straight sets with her sixth match point.
For Wimbledon, Kessler was seeded 32 but Markéta Vondroušová knocked her out in the first round, 6-1 7-6(3).
Tallon Griekspoor claimed his first grass title at the 2023 ‘s-Hertogenbosch, in his homeland of the Netherlands. This year in Spain, Griekspoor won his second title on grass. At the ATP 250 commercially named the Mallorca Championships presented by Ecotrans Group, he won by utilising a traditional lawn tennis tactic; coming to the net. He did so 47 times in the two sets, winning on 32 of those occasions.
Griekspoor was seeded 31 at Wimbledon, but was bettered in the first round by unseeded Jenson Brooksby, 6-2 7-5 6-3.
Although the main tour is confined to 250-1000 tournaments, it’s interesting to also look at the winners of the 125 warm-up events.
For the Brits, the grass season still starts at Birmingham, even though the city’s tournament is no longer part of the main tour. 2024 was its last year as a WTA 250. Now the event is rejigged as a 125 and has been joined by a new ATP 125 Challenger.
The WTA 125 Lexus Birmingham was won by Greet Minnen. She was unable to play at Wimbledon due to a back injury incurred two days prior to the opening day.
Otto Virtanen was the inaugural winner of the Lexus Birmingham ATP 125. Virtanen was an Alternate for the men’s singles draw at Wimbledon but was not called on to play and was recovering from a knee injury anyway.
Ilkey in West Yorkshire is the home of the WTA 125 Lexus Ilkey. This year’s winner Iva Jovic made it through Wimbledon qualifying but was defeated in the first round by Suzan Lamens 6-1 6-1.
In Nottingham, veteran Marin Čilić won the ATP 125 Lexus Nottingham Open. Back in 2017, Čilić was a Wimbledon finalist. This year he was unseeded but beat 4th seed Jack Draper in first round, on his way to a fourth round defeat by Flavio Cobolli 6-4 6-4 6-7(4) 7-6(3).
Title photo of the pristine Wimbledon grass by Simone Kemler