Wimbledon said its 2026 Championships will begin on 29 June and run through 12 July, setting the dates for the 139th staging of one of tennis’s biggest events. The announcement arrives as the club rolls out a global campaign ahead of next year’s tournament.
That is why fans are asking when does Wimbledon start now: the timetable is fixed, and the countdown has begun. For players, broadcasters and the All England Lawn Tennis Club, those two weeks define the calendar around Centre Court and the rest of the grounds.
The campaign is called “Where beauty meets the battle,” and it is the second instalment of Wimbledon’s “There is only one Wimbledon” platform. A 60-second hero film, narrated by Annabel Croft, follows the path of a Holly Blue butterfly and places the tournament’s grace and its pressure side by side — the polished lawns, the stillness of the setting, and the fight that happens once the ball is struck.
Alfie Hewett appears in the film, a choice that carries added weight in a year when wheelchair tennis marks its 50th anniversary. Hewett said it meant a great deal to be involved in the campaign, and Henri Leconte also appears through an old Wimbledon memory, recalling a butterfly landing at his feet in 1986 as he prepared to serve. Those details push the campaign beyond branding and into the tournament’s long memory.
Wimbledon has long sold itself as more than a draw sheet, and this film leans into that idea by pairing elegance with elite competition. The club described the event as the “ultimate arena of Centre Court and all its beauty,” a line that captures the balancing act at the heart of the Championships: the flowers, the quiet and the polish on one side, and the intensity of world-class tennis on the other.
The broader plan is a global rollout in the build-up to the 2026 Championships, which start on 29 June and finish on 12 July. What the club has not yet said is whether the schedule will alter match times, ticketing or broadcast plans, but the dates now give fans a clear target and put Wimbledon’s next chapter on the clock.
