Current men’s singles Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz beat Britain’s Cameron Norrie in straight sets in their quarter final match on Tuesday. With Norrie the last British player standing in either the men’s or women’s singles tournament, we are now assured that we won’t see another British singles champ this time around.
To be fair, it would have been a major surprise if one of the 23 Brits had gone all the way this time. Not since Andy Murray won his second singles title at SW19 in 2016 has a home talent tasted success in arguably the biggest Grand Slam of the lot. And on the women’s side, we have to go all the way back to 1977 when Virginia Wade got the better of Dutch player Betty Stöve to win her sole Wimbledon title.
Even so, we might have hoped that home involvement would have lasted a little longer than this, especially after a strong early showing. In this article, we’ll take a look back at how the British players performed at this year’s singles tournaments.
British Players Knocked Out in the First Round of Wimbledon 2025
Of course, as is always the case with Wimbledon, plenty of British players were given wildcard entries, and many of those would not have qualified otherwise. The following were granted wildcards on the women’s side of things: Jodie Burrage, Harriet Dart, Francesca Jones, Hannah Klugman, Mika Stojsavljevic, Heather Watson and Mimi Xu. While for the men, we had Jay Clarke, Oliver Crawford, Dan Evans, Arthur Fery, George Loffhagen, Johannus Monday, Jack Pinnington Jones and Henry Searle.
It was no great surprise to see several of the British wildcards get knocked out in the first round. Here are the British first-round casualties (WC denotes they gained entry to the tournament as a wildcard):
British Men to Fall at First Hurdle
- George Loffhagen (WC) – Went down in four sets to Spanish player Pedro Martinez (lost to Jannik Sinner in the third round)
- Johannus Monday (WC) – Lost in straight sets to American Tommy Paul, who got knocked out in the following round to Austrian Sebastian Ofner
- Jay Clarke (WC) – Given he was drawn against fellow British wildcard Dan Evans, at least one Brit got through to the second round when Evans won in straight sets
- Henry Searle (WC) – After taking the opening set, Searle lost the next three to Ethan Quinn of the USA, and the American went out in straight sets in the next round to Polish player Kamil Majchrzak
- Jacob Fearnley – The only British man who wasn’t a wildcard to go out in the opening round, Fearnley went down in straight sets to Brazilian João Fonseca. The South American made it to the third round, where he lost to Nicolas Jarry of Chile. Jarry would go on to lose to Camron Norrie
- Oliver Crawford (WC) – Another who won the opening set before falling away, Crawford lost in four sets to Italian player Mattia Bellucci
British Women to Go Out in Round One
- Mimi Xu (WC) – Xu was drawn to face fellow Brit Emma Raducanu in the opening round, which was always going to be a tough one. So it proved, as the former US Open champion won in straight sets. Youngster Xu got a taste of life on Court 1, at least
- Hannah Klugman (WC) – Another British wildcard losing in straight sets, Klugman went down to Leylah Fernandez from Canada
- Harriet Dart (WC) – Dart took the opening set against her Hungarian opponent Dalma Gálfi, but lost the next two and her tournament was brought to an abrupt end
- Mika Stojsavljevic (WC) – Ashlyn Krueger from the United States was the player who ended Stojsavljevic’s Wimbledon at the first hurdle, in straight sets
- Jodie Burrage (WC) – Another American crushed a British player’s dreams as Caty McNally beat Burrage in two sets
- Heather Watson (WC) – Despite making it to the fourth round at SW19 in 2022, Watson fell at the first hurdle this time around. Her Danish opponent, Clara Tauson, proved simply too good and came back from a set down to win
- Francesca Jones (WC) – Yet another wildcard who started brightly before fading, Jones lost in three sets to Ukrainian Yuliia Starodubtseva
Now let’s take a look at the players who made it beyond the opening round in the singles at Wimbledon, focusing on those who went furthest into their respective tournaments.
Men’s Singles – Norrie Surpassed Expectations as Draper Fell Short
Although he’ll be disappointed that he couldn’t put up a better fight against Alcaraz, Norrie had a very good tournament. He didn’t always make it easy for himself, however, and only managed to win one of his five matches in straight sets (against Frances Tiafoe in the second round). But he showed real grit to come back from two sets down to beat the very capable Jarry in the fourth round and the 29-year-old will take many positives from his victories.
Jack Draper, meanwhile, had gone into the tournament as the fourth seed and there were hopes he could make it to the semis at least and perhaps even win it. Those hopes proved unfounded as Draper lost in just the second round to big-serving veteran Croatian Marin Čilić.
Dan Evans also fell at the second-round stage, but there’s no shame in it as he lost to the greatest of them all, Novak Djokovic. Also in the second round, Billy Harris went down in straight sets to Nuno Borges of Portugal, while British qualifier Oliver Tarvet lost to Alcaraz. British wildcards Arthur Fery and Jack Pinnington Jones also faltered at that stage.
Women’s Singles – Surprise Fourth Round for Kartal as Raducanu Lost to World Number One
It was always going to be a big ask for Raducanu to rediscover her US Open form of a few years ago and make an impact at this year’s Wimbledon, but she gave it a decent shot. Sadly for her and her fans, her third-round opponent was Aryna Sabalenka, who is the best player in the world at the moment.
The only British woman to make it to the fourth round was Sonay Kartal, who performed brilliantly to overcome Viktoriya Tomova of Bulgaria in the second round and French qualifier Diane Parry in the third, both in straight sets. Unfortunately, Nastia Pavlyuchenkova was just too good in the next round, and new fan favourite Kartal lost in two sets herself. Aside from that, Katie Boulter went out in the second round despite a spirited fight against Solana Sierra of Argentina.
So there will be no British singles champions at Wimbledon this time around, but at the time of writing, there is still British interest in both the men’s doubles and the mixed doubles, as well as the wheelchair men’s singles, so there could be British silverware after all.