Ten years, ten different women’s singles winners at Wimbledon — what’s happening?

The Ladies draw at the Slams is very different and exciting as opposed to the Men’s side. At Wimbledon more so as the last decade has seen ten different winners emerge as the Women’s Singles winner which means there is less consistency in the women’s draw but also point towards healthier competition whereas the Men’s draw sees similar patterns with either Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic and Alex Zverev the familiar faces going deep in the big tournaments in recent years. 

With all the previous active winners (Iga Swiatek, Elena Rybakina and Barbora Krejcikova) all exiting the tournament by the third round, there is again a chance that a new winner will emerge at the Championships in the women’s section. The previous ten year’s winners are – 

• 2016 – Serena Williams
• 2017- Garbine Muguruza
• 2018 – Angelique Kerber
• 2019 – Simona Halep
• 2020 – Tournament cancelled
• 2021 – Ashleigh Barty
• 2022 – Elena Rybakina
• 2023 – Markéta Vondrousova
• 2024 – Barbora Krejcikova
• 2025 – Iga Swiatek

If we compare it to the Men’s draw, there’s a more predictable pattern with a few players winning the tournament multiple times there. The past 10 years the men’s Singles winners are –  

• 2016 – Andy Murray
• 2017 – Roger Federer
• 2018 – Novak Djokovic
• 2019 – Novak Djokovic
• 2020 – Tournament Cancelled
• 2021 – Novak Djokovic
• 2022 – Novak Djokovic
• 2023 – Carlos Alcaraz
• 2024 – Carlos Alcaraz
• 2025 – Jannik Sinner

The women’s game has been really unpredictable, not just at Wimbledon but also at the other Slams. For context, there were three different Slam winners in 2024 and four different Slam winners in 2025 in the women’s draw. In contrast, the Men’s draw had seen only Sinner and Alcaraz winning Grand Slams in the last two years. Only Alexander Zverev winning the recently concluded French Open was the exception. 

So, what makes the Women’s side of the draw so unpredictable as opposed to the Men’s?  The answer to that lies in multiple factors mentioned below – 

The Difference in Format

Women’s tennis and Men’s tennis differ in format when it comes to the Grand Slams. While Men’s Singles is a best of five sets format, the Women’s Singles is a best of three format. It’s more challenging to beat a top player in a longer format as they can find their groove and form and still recover from a bad start to beat the opponent. However, the same is not true for the Women’s game as a best of three sets means a top player has to start really well or recover fairly early to win or else its game, set, match to the opponent. 

Hence, we see so many upsets on the Women’s side of the draw as a bad start or losing focus in one or two games could cost you the match while Men’s Singles players have ample opportunities to make a comeback although its physically more challenging. 

Serve Dynamics

Another reason for Women’s game being unpredictable is because of the difference in the serve dynamics. Most Men’s players rely on their powerful serves to win their service games as it’s a vital part of their all-round game. Therefore, there are fewer breaks in the Men’s game. In contrast, the Women’s game doesn’t have the same number of powerful servers with the exception of maybe the Top 10 players and the rest rely more on their playing style to win games. The Men’s service game being stronger than the Women’s game leads to relatively more service breaks in the Women’s game. 

For context, Men’s players serve more aces than the Women’s players and lesser double faults than them. According to the International Tennis Federation’s (ITF) review from the data accrued from the four Grand Slams in 2009, Men’s players hold serve 80-84% of the time while Women’s players hold their serve roughly 65% of the time. This translates into approximately one service break per five games for men and one break per three games for Women’s players. Hence, the match becomes more balanced for Women’s players rather than fancying a higher-ranked player who can serve consistently well. 

Competitive Playing Field

Men’s tennis has always had a group of 4-5 top players, iconic rivalries like Bjorg – McEnroe, Sampras- Agassi or a famous legendary trio (Roger Federer – Rafael Nadal – Novak Djokovic) that dominated tennis for decades. We are experiencing the same with the new SinCaraz rivalry but the same cannot be said for Women’s tennis right now. Although Women’s tennis saw its fair share of domination with Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert, Steffi Graf and Martina Seles, Serena and Venus Williams, the current group of players aren’t as consistent and due to the playing styles being more similar, the Top 20 ranked players are all capable of beating each other.  

While we have seen the likes of Sabalenka and Swiatek sweep up a few Slam titles, there is still a lot of competition in the draw that leads to upsets, unpredictable results and different winners at each Slam almost every season – making Women’s tennis very interesting in recent years. 

Conclusion

We are all aware of the challenges in women’s tennis, and there are both positives and negatives to seeing a different Slam champion each time. On the positive side, the competition remains highly unpredictable and exciting, as it is difficult to identify an overwhelming favorite before the tournament starts. However, this trend also raises questions about the consistency of the top-ranked players, who are usually expected to deliver strong performances at the biggest stage. 

When players such as Sabalenka and Rybakina are eliminated in the early rounds, it could also lead to financial implications for the tournament. As some of the sport’s biggest women’s players, they attract bigger crowds and TV audiences. Their early exits could reduce interest and overall viewership.

At the same time, greater unpredictability broadens the competitive landscape, giving more top women’s players a genuine opportunity to win Slam titles. It keeps the draw competitive and forces the top players to continually improve their games and maintain the high standards expected from players competing at the highest level. 

We can’t lie though, as tennis aficionados, we enjoy the competition but it would also be great to see some iconic rivalries, similar to the past decades and for that the top women’s players need to up the ante and bring their A-game to the biggest stage.