Richard Pagliaro | Tuesday, June 23, 2026
Photograph credit score: Jamie Squire/Getty
Serena Williams stays the final girl to efficiently defend Wimbledon.
The 23-time Grand Slam champion is a favourite amongst bettors to shock the world and lift the Rosewater Dish for the eighth time in her Wimbledon return.
Bettors are backing 44-year-old Serena huge time in her Wimbledon return a decade after she defeated good buddy Angelique Kerber to seize her seventh Wimbledon crown in 2016.
Regardless of the very fact the previous world No. 1 has not performed a Tour-level singles match since bowing to Ajla Tomljanovic on the 2022 US Open, Serena Williams is already the 2026 folks’s champion amongst Wimbledon gamblers.
Serena Williams has generated greater than two instances the outright winner bets of some other participant within the Wimbledon ladies’s subject, in line with Hard Rock Bet’s data based on the 24-hour window after The Championships introduced her singles wild card.
How strongly are bettors backing Serena?
The mom of two daughters, who has misplaced her final two Wimbledon matches within the first spherical, has additionally attracted greater than two instances the overall betting deal with versus each different competitor, Hard Rock Bet gambling data shows.
“Regardless of being priced at 30/1 (+3000), early Onerous Rock Wager knowledge reveals Serena is dominating betting curiosity throughout the sphere,” Onerous Rock Wager stories.
World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, bidding for her maiden grass-court championship, stays the Wimbledon favourite at 17/5, adopted by 2022 champion and reigning AO champion Elena Rybakina at 6/1, Mirra Andreeva 7/1, reigning champion Iga Swiatek 8/1, Coco Gauff 13/1 and 2025 finalist Amanda Anisimova at 14/1.
Williams and 19-year-old accomplice Victoria Mboko defeated third seeds Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Erin Routliffe 7-6(2), 6-2 of their Queen’s Membership opening match earlier this month.
Three years, 9 months and 6 days after her loss to Ajla Tomljanovic in her final professional match on the 2022 US Open, Serena returned earlier than a very packed Andy Murray Area and, maybe surprisingly, regarded loads just like the Serena Williams all of us recall.
“I imply, I believe I used to be nervous, however I didn’t actually give it some thought. I didn’t actually take into consideration being nervous,” Williams informed the media in London. “I simply considered having enjoyable, which I did at this time. I simply
considered… that’s it.
“So I didn’t actually have time. I acquired nervous proper earlier than the match, like, perhaps half-hour earlier than, after which I simply let it go.”
