"The whole bottom half is wide open" - Martina Navratilova predicts Wimbledon champion following record-breaking upsets

Former champion Martina Navratilova has her eyes set on certain players to prevail at the 2025 Wimbledon Championships, with the WTA icon keeping a close tab on one player in particular.

There have been an unheard of number of shock exits at SW19 this year, with 23 seeds across the men’s and women’s singles draws exiting their respective competitions. Several more have since fallen, giving other lesser known stars the chance to take advantage of their newfound opportunities.

The nine-time Wimbledon singles champion weighed in on the topic of witnessing so many seeds falling in the early stages. During the second round match between former World No.3 Elena Rybakina and Greek star Maria Sakkari, Navratilova hinted at the Kazakh star being a dark horse to lift the trophy due to her experience after her 2022 title run.

"The bottom half, the top seed now is Mirra Andreeva who’s seeded seventh and even if you don’t pay attention to the draw and you don’t look ahead, you know you’re in the top half or bottom half depending on when you play," analyzed Navratilova. “So all these players know that two, three and five (seeds) are gone. Pegula, Gauff and Qinwen Zheng gone.
“So you know there is a massive opportunity for you to get through. There is a big hole in the draw. That whole bottom half is wide open and maybe Rybakina’s the favourite now even though she’s only seeded 11th. She has obviously had the best results here in the past."

Rybakina defeated Tunisian Ons Jabeur in the final of the 2022 Wimbledon Championships to lift her maiden Grand Slam title. The World No.11 has looked impressive this week, dropping a total of seven games across her first and second round matches. Rybakina will face Danish star Clara Tauson for a spot in the round of 16.