Wimbledon 2026 recap: Jannik Sinner defends his crown, Linda Noskova wins a first major

In July, Jannik Sinner and Linda Noskova lifted the singles trophies at Wimbledon, which ran from 29 June to 12 July. Sinner defended his title against Alexander Zverev on the final Sunday, a day after the 21-year-old Noskova won an all-Czech final against Karolina Muchova.

Sinner comes from a set down against Zverev

The men's final lasted three hours and 46 minutes and finished 6-7(7) 7-6(2) 6-3 6-4. Zverev, who had won his maiden major at Roland Garros a month earlier, saved a set point with an ace and took the opening tie-break, ending a run of 14 consecutive sets Sinner had won against him.

Neither man dropped serve until the third set. Zverev earned the only break point he would get at 3-3, Sinner erased it with a drop shot, and the Italian broke two games later to lead for the first time. A single break in the seventh game of the fourth set settled it. According to the ATP, Sinner struck 58 winners and made 25 unforced errors, against 49 and 45 for Zverev.

The win made Sinner the 10th man to successfully defend the Wimbledon singles title and gave him a fifth major overall. Zverev, the first German man in a Wimbledon final since Boris Becker in 1995, was gracious in defeat: "He showed once again why he is the best player in the world," he said, as reported by the ATP.

Noskova holds her nerve in an all-Czech final

The women's final, contested by the ninth and tenth seeds, turned into a test of nerve. Noskova took the first set 6-2 in just over half an hour and led 5-2 in the second, but Muchova saved three championship points at 2-5, another in the following game and a fifth at 4-5 before taking the set 7-5.

Noskova reset during a bathroom break, took control of the decider and converted her sixth championship point when serving at 5-2. "It is definitely something that I'm going to remember forever," she said afterwards, according to the WTA.

The WTA noted that she became the youngest Wimbledon champion since Petra Kvitova in 2011, and the third Czech woman to win the title in four years after Marketa Vondrousova and Barbora Krejcikova. Her run included a third-round escape against Sorana Cirstea in which she saved a match point, and it followed a title in Berlin on grass in June.

Absences and upsets

The men's draw was missing Carlos Alcaraz, who announced on 19 May that a right wrist injury would keep him out of the whole grass season. Novak Djokovic, 39, reached a second straight Wimbledon semi-final after a five-hour, 15-minute quarter-final win over Felix Auger-Aliassime, described by the ATP as the longest quarter-final in the event's history, before losing to Sinner. British wild card Arthur Fery was the surprise of the fortnight, reaching the last four.

On the women's side, defending champion Iga Swiatek went out in the third round to Alexandra Eala. Top seed Aryna Sabalenka then lost 6-2 7-6(2) to Naomi Osaka in the fourth round, a result that ended her streak of 21 straight tie-breaks won at the majors.

What it meant for the season

For Sinner, the title was a release. He had won five Masters 1000 events in the spring but lost in the second round of Roland Garros, and Wimbledon became his first major of 2026. For Zverev, the final confirmed that his Paris breakthrough was no one-off. For women's tennis, Noskova's win meant the year's two European majors had both gone to players aged 21 or under, with Mirra Andreeva the champion in Paris.

Since then, the two Wimbledon champions have had contrasting paths. Sinner has not played again: a right knee problem kept him out of the US Open and, on 6 October, he announced that his 2026 season was over. Noskova extended her winning run at the majors to 11 matches before losing a tight US Open quarter-final to Sabalenka in September.