Wimbledon 2025 has been rocked by a string of high-profile upsets, with a record number of seeded players crashing out in the tournament’s early stages, creating one of the most unpredictable Grand Slams in recent memory.
As of the end of Thursday’s play, 36 seeded players had been eliminated from the singles draws, setting a new all-time record for the most seeded exits by the second round at a major tournament. This surpasses the previous high of 35, recorded at the 2020 French Open.
Among the notable casualties are French Open champion Coco Gauff and men’s third seed Alexander Zverev, both of whom were expected to make deep runs but were stunned in the early rounds. The unexpected exits have blown open the competition, offering new opportunities for lower-ranked players to advance further than ever before.
Remarkably, eight top-10 seeds, across both the men’s and women’s draws, were ousted in the opening round alone. It marks the highest number of top-10 first-round exits at any Grand Slam event since the beginning of the Open era in 1968.
The women’s draw has seen especially historic disruption. Only one of the top five seeded players, world number one Aryna Sabalenka, has advanced to the third round, just the second time this has occurred in Open era history. The level of unpredictability has left fans and analysts alike stunned.
Additionally, four of the world’s top 10 players were eliminated in the opening round, a rare occurrence that has happened only twice in the past 25 years at a Grand Slam. That figure climbed further when British fourth seed Jack Draper suffered a second-round defeat on Thursday.
The early flurry of upsets has shifted the tournament dynamic entirely, turning Wimbledon 2025 into a wide-open contest with a host of rising stars and dark horses now vying for glory on the sport’s most prestigious grass courts.
