Jannik Sinner springs a scheduling surprise before Wimbledon

Jannik Sinner skips Halle Open ahead of 2026 Wimbledon title defence

In each of the past three years, Jannik Sinner chose to play the Halle Open over Queen’s as his final tune-up before Wimbledon.

He captured the grass-court ATP 500 title in 2024, then followed it up with a quarter-final appearance at SW19.

Sinner exited Halle in the second round last year but went on to lift his first Wimbledon trophy later that summer. This time around, though, he hasn’t been included on the entry list for the 2026 event.

As a result, it appears Sinner will head straight to Wimbledon without playing any grass-court warm-ups beforehand. The decision mirrors what we often saw from Novak Djokovic earlier in his career when he also skipped pre-Wimbledon events and still found success.

Jannik Sinner’s journey at the 2025 Wimbledon championships

Sinner got off to a strong start at the 2025 Wimbledon championships, moving past Luca Nardi, Aleksandar Vukic and Pedro Martinez without dropping a set.

But his tournament nearly ended in the fourth round against Grigor Dimitrov, who took a two-set lead before an injury changed the match.

Dimitrov was ahead by two sets and looking likely to reach the quarterfinals before picking up a pectoral injury with the third set tied at 2-2.

Sinner then won his quarterfinal and semifinal matches against Ben Shelton and Novak Djokovic respectively in straight sets to reach the final, where he met Alcaraz.

Alcaraz, who was bidding to three-peat at Wimbledon, won the opening set in their clash, but Sinner fought back to clinch the trophy.