Alexander Zverev has officially withdrawn from the 2022 Wimbledon Championships, making Novak Djokovic the number-one seed this year.
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 semi-final match against Rafael Nadal, looked catastrophic, and it's starting to seem that it may keep him out of the competition for the remainder of the 2022 ATP season.
Now, he has officially withdrawn from the grass-court major, which has several consequences. It marks the first time in a long time that Wimbledon will be played without 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 will be 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 Nadal, who now has two more Grand Slam trophies than Djokovic.
For the Serbian, the tournament may mark only two of four chances to win a Grand Slam in 2022, as his unvaccinated status prevented him from participating 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 in 2022, 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 the biggest favorite to win the tournament.