Wimbledon Men’s Semi-Finals Preview

Four of the top six seeds have reached the semi-finals in the men’s singles at Wimbledon and the stage is set for a pair of classic encounters on Friday. The action at the All England Club in London starts at 13:30 BST on Friday 11th July and will be shown live on the BBC.

Setting the scene

Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz continues his quest for a hat-trick when he takes on American Taylor Fritz in the first semi-final at Wimbledon on Friday before No.1 seed Jannik Sinner meets seven-time champion Novak Djokovic in a humdinger of a clash.

The only two players seeded to reach this stage who did not get there are third seed Alexander Zverev, who was a first-round casualty against Arthur Rinderknech, and top British hope Jack Draper, who was the fourth seed for the grass-court Grand Slam event but who went out in the second round to veteran Marin Cilic. 

Alcaraz is the favourite to win the tournament for a third year in succession, but he has not had everything go his way so far and could face a tough challenge from the improving Fritz.

Tip 1 – Taylor Fritz +5.5 games @ 5/6 with Bet365

Carlos Alcaraz can arguably feel disrespected to be only the second seed at Wimbledon this year as he bids for a third successive win in the tournament, and he has won three of the last five Grand Slams to be played given his French Open wins in both 2024 and 2025. The Spanish star has had some comfortable matches over the last two weeks, but he has also run into trouble a couple of times and his semi-final match-up with the improving Taylor Fritz has the potential to turn into an epic encounter. 

Alcaraz was slow out of the blocks and had to go to five sets to send 38-year-old Fabio Fognini into retirement in his first-round match, twice allowing the Italian to come back at him. He had a straightforward second-round tie with British qualifier Ollie Tarvet but dropped sets in his third and fourth round matches against Jan-Lennard Struff and 14th seed Andrey Rublev. He demolished another Brit, Cameron Norrie, in his quarter-final but can expect a sterner test from Fritz, who reached the US Open final last year.

The American has now reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals in three of the last four years and has a fantastic record on grass. He is 43-14 on the fastest surface since 2019, has won 23 of his 26 grass-court contests in the last two seasons and is now 13-1 this year. He could cover a +5.5 game handicap even if he loses in straight sets (7-6 7-5 6-4, for example) but he has the potential to do much better than that with Alcaraz having already dropped sets against weaker players than the American in this tournament.

Tip 2 – Taylor Fritz to win 3-2 @ 10/1 with Bet365

For a longshot bet on the Wimbledon semi-finals, consider Fritz to beat Alcaraz in five sets at double-figure odds. A drawn-out encounter is arguably his best chance to oust the defending champion and the underdog showed plenty of heart for a fight when coming through five-setters against Giovani Mpetshi Perricard and Gabriel Diallo in his first two matches. 

Fritz dropped only one set against 17th seed Karen Khachanov in his quarter-final, and while Alcaraz has won both of their head-to-head meetings in straight sets, those encounters were both on hard courts and Fritz may just be able to produce a personal-best performance on grass.

Tip 3: Four sets in Jannik Sinner vs Novak Djokovic @ 8/5 with Bet365

Top seed Jannik Sinner’s 2025 Wimbledon campaign has been largely smooth sailing apart from the notable exception of his fourth-round match against Grigor Dimitrov, when he might easily have gone out of the tournament. The Italian cruised past Luca Nardi, Aleksandar Vukic, Pedro Martinez and Ben Shelton in straight sets in his other matches, but was on the ropes at two sets down and 2-2 in the third when his opponent cruelly had to retire due to a pectoral injury.

That showed that Sinner is vulnerable and Novak Djokovic can at least ensure that both players win a set in the second semi-final despite his advancing years. The Serbian has won this tournament seven times and has knocked out Sinner twice, in a five-set quarter-final in 2022 and in straight sets at this stage two years ago. Sinner is aiming to reach a fourth successive Grand Slam final and didn’t drop a set in beating the veteran in the French Open semi-finals this year, but Djokovic has responded well to any adversity in this tournament and is capable of treating the fans to at least a four-set match.