Alexander Zverev has officially pulled out of Wimbledon, making Novak Djokovic the number-one seed this year.
Alexander Zverev's Wimbledon participation was always in question, and pretty much the moment he was seen leaving the Court Philippe-Chatrier in a wheelchair, many, including him, knew it wasn't going to happen.
His injury, which happened in the semifinal match against Rafael Nadal, looked really catastrophic, and it's starting to seem that it may keep him out of the competition for the remainder of the 2022 ATP season.
Today, he officially withdrew from the tournament, which has several consequences. It marks the first time in a long time that Wimbledon will be with either the world number one or number two.
Daniil Medvedev is among the banned players, and Zverev is unable to participate. It also means defending champion Novak Djokovic is the number one seed once again and will open play as per tradition.
Djokovic is looking to shake off a bad Roland Garros outing with a strong showing at Wimbledon, where he will be the number one favorite. He needs to win it in order to stay close to Rafael Nadal, who now has two more Grand Slam trophies than Djokovic.
For the Serbian, the tournament possibly marks only two of possible four chances to win a Grand Slam in 2022, as his unvaccinated status caused his inability to participate at the Australian Open, and the US Open is expected to be no-different.
After not succeeding at the Roland Garros, the grass-court Grand Slam will very likely be Djokovic's last chance to win a major, and if he doesn't do that, it may be his first season since 2017 when that would happen.
Yet, without the only two players ranked higher than him missing, Djokovic is clearly the biggest favourite to win the tournament.
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