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Wimbledon: Can Gauff or Pegula maintain American Dream?

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At least as far as the WTA Tour is concerned, the American Dream is alive and kicking in 2025.

After Madison Keys stunned Aryna Sabalenka to win her maiden grand slam title at the Australian Open in January, Coco Gauff downed the same opponent in an epic French Open showpiece.

Not since 2015, when Serena Williams held all four major titles at the same time, have three straight slams been won by American women.

Players from the United States have won a combined 29 women's singles titles at Wimbledon in the Open Era, 21 more than the next-most successful nation, with Germany earning eight crowns.

The charge for title number 30 will be led by current Roland-Garros champion Gauff, though she has never been beyond the fourth round at SW19, having gone that far as a 15-year-old in 2019 and on two subsequent occasions.

World number three Jessica Pegula will also hope to go deep, as will Keys and Emma Navarro, both of whom possess a top-10 seeding for the tournament.

But challenges will also come from elsewhere, with Sabalenka desperate to atone for runner-up finishes at the last two slams, and 2023 champion Marketa Vondrousova coming off an impressive triumph at the Berlin Open. 

Here, we run through all the major storylines ahead of the third grand slam of the year.

Star-spangled banner to fly high?

Six women have won the singles title at Wimbledon while competing under the flag of the United States – Billie Jean King (four times), Chris Evert (three), Martina Navratilova (nine), Lindsay Davenport (one), Serena Williams (seven) and Venus Williams (five).

Gauff is considered the most likely American to join that illustrious list, having fought back from a set down to beat Sabalenka in the French Open final earlier this month.

Having already won the US Open in 2023, the 21-year-old became the youngest player to win women's singles titles on multiple surfaces since Maria Sharapova (2004 Wimbledon, 2006 US Open).

Gauff's grand slam breakthrough came at SW19 in 2019, when she stunned Venus Williams in the first round as a 15-year-old. 

Wimbledon has not been particularly kind to Gauff since then, however, as it is the only slam at which she is yet to reach the quarter-finals of the singles draw. She did make the last eight in doubles last year, having paired up with Jessica Pegula. 

Pegula enters Wimbledon as the world number three, and on Saturday, she swept Iga Swiatek aside in her first final since finishing as runner-up to Sabalenka at the 2024 US Open, claiming the Bad Homburg Open crown.

The last time three consecutive majors were won by three different American women was between 2001 and 2002, when the Williams sisters won the US Open and Roland-Garros, on either side of Jennifer Capriati's triumph at the 2002 Australian Open.

If that is to be repeated in the next fortnight, the most likely candidates are surely Pegula, Navarro and Amanda Anisimova.

Navarro went into the French Open having made at least the quarter-finals at three straight slams, only to be thrashed 6-0 6-1 by Spain's Jessica Bouzas Maneiro in the first round.

Anisimova, meanwhile, warmed up for Wimbledon by finishing as runner-up to Tatjana Maria at Queen's, having impressively dispatched Navarro and Zheng Qinwen en route to the final.

The other major American contender is Australian Open champion Keys, who strung together 10 straight grand slam wins before squandering a one-set advantage against Gauff in the Roland-Garros quarters.

Keys made the quarter-finals at Wimbledon in 2015 and 2023, and she has advanced past the first round in all 10 of her previous main-draw appearances at the tournament. 

She could become the first player to progress past the first round in their first 11 appearances since Agnieszka Radwanska between 2006 and 2016, while her 71.4% win rate at Wimbledon is better than the records of Gauff (68.8%), Navarro (66.7%), Anisimova (62.5%) and Pegula (61.5%).

Keys' 51 aces at grand slams this year are the most of anyone on the WTA Tour, which should make her a real threat as the ball zips across the grass.

Keys is a potential quarter-final opponent for Sabalenka, while American fans could be torn if Gauff and Pegula go all the way to the semi-finals, where they would meet.

Sabalenka looks to atone 

The recent American success at slams has come primarily at the expense of Sabalenka, the runner-up at both the Australian Open and Roland-Garros.

All three of Sabalenka's defeats in grand slam finals have come against American players, though she did overcome Pegula at Flushing Meadows last year.

The Belarusian endured a remarkable meltdown against Gauff in Paris earlier this month, committing 70 unforced errors in a 6-7 (5-7) 6-2 6-4 defeat.

A tearful Sabalenka described that performance as "terrible", then suggested Gauff had not needed to play well to win in a post-match press conference. 

She will be desperate to atone at the penultimate slam of the season, having missed two of the last three editions of Wimbledon – she was banned due to Belarus' involvement in the war in Ukraine in 2022 and withdrew due to injury last year.

The last woman to lose three consecutive grand slam finals that she appeared in was Ons Jabeur, who was runner-up at Wimbledon in 2022 and 2023, on either side of losing the US Open final.

Each of Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, Evonne Goolagong, Martina Hingis and Venus Williams lost five consecutive grand slam finals they appeared in at various points in their careers – a joint-record in the women's game.

Sabalenka has some way to go to match those streaks, though she could become just the sixth player to lose three major finals within a single season.

Goolagong did so in 1972, with Evert (1984), Sanchez Vicario (1995), Venus Williams (2002) and Justine Henin (2006) all following suit. 

A word of warning, though, to anyone who faces Sabalenka: she has won 42 matches in 2025, the most on the WTA Tour, and 35 of those wins have come in straight sets.

Former champions and other contenders

Elena Rybakina, Vondrousova and Barbora Krejcikova, victors of the last three editions, are the former champions to watch in the women's singles draw.

With a win-loss record of 74-7 at the event, Steffi Graf (91.4%) holds the highest winning percentage in women's singles matches at Wimbledon in the Open Era (minimum of three main-draw appearances). Rybakina (86.4%, 19-3) has the best record of any active player.

Rybakina has also hit the second-most aces on the WTA Tour this year, with her 221 putting her just behind Clara Tauson (223).

Vondrousova's 2023 triumph made her the only unseeded player to win the women's singles title at SW19 in the Open Era, while she was also the lowest-ranked player to win the title since the WTA rankings were first published in 1975, at 42.

Two other players have won Wimbledon while ranked outside the top 30 – Venus Williams in 2007 (31) and Krejcikova last year (32).

The defending champion is seeded 17th and could face Navarro – who opens her campaign against two-time winner Petra Kvitova – as early as the third round.

The other big names to watch include Swiatek, Zheng and Mirra Andreeva. Swiatek has five grand slam titles to her name, but has never won a tournament on grass at any level, and, after being seeded eighth, she could come up against both Rybakina and Gauff before the final. 

Andreeva is the seventh seed and is coming off the back of a last-eight run at Roland-Garros. The Russian turned 18 in April, but two players have previously landed the women's singles title before turning 18 – Hingis in 1997 (16 years old) and Sharapova in 2004 (17).

Zheng also made the quarters in Paris, but has previously struggled on grass; she reached the third round on her Wimbledon debut in 2022, but fell at the first hurdle in 2023 and 2024. 

Raducanu and Boulter carry home hopes

Ann Jones in 1969 and Virginia Wade in 1977 are the only two British players to reach a Wimbledon women's singles final in the Open Era, both winning their respective showpieces.

There are no Brits among the seeds in the women's singles, with Katie Boulter (40) the highest-ranked home player ahead of Emma Raducanu (45).

No British woman reached the final of any grand slam between Wade's 1977 triumph at SW19 and Raducanu's breakout triumph at the 2021 US Open. 

Since lifting the trophy at Flushing Meadows, Raducanu has only gone beyond the third round at one grand slam, losing to qualifier Lulu Sun in the fourth round at Wimbledon last year.

Wimbledon is the only major where Raducanu has enjoyed multiple trips past the third round (also round four on her main-draw debut in 2021), and her win ratio of 70% at SW19 (7-3) is the best of any British woman since the turn of the century.

Boulter is third on that list with a 53.8% success rate (7-6), behind Johanna Konta (57.9%, 11-8). 

She opens with a tough assignment against ninth seed Paula Badosa, while Raducanu faces another Brit – wildcard Mimi Xu – in round one.