This year, that honour will go to Czech tennis player Barbora Krejcikova. However, the extraordinary honour is accompanied by a champion's curse. None of the last seven All England Club winners on the women's side have failed to defend their title.
Scenes from her journey to the sacred round plate last year adorn the grounds of the grass slam and its surroundings. They are not to be missed. They remind Krejcikova of her success wherever she goes. After all, according to tradition, she had to get to Wimbledon early to officially hand over the trophy to All England Club chairwoman Debbie Jevans. "I don't feel the atmosphere and energy at any other centre court but here," she confided to her as they both went to see the famous court.
But the expectations of the surroundings and the burden of history and responsibility bind and tie. Since 2017, not only have none of the players managed to defend their Wimbledon title, but only one of the reigning champions has made it past the second round.
It's not so much the quality of the opposition as how the defending champions handle the pressure. Moreover, Krejcikova has had a season full of injuries and did not play in the quarter-finals in Birmingham last week due to problems with her right thigh.
So, how did the efforts to defend the previous conquerors of the most famous tournament in the world turn out?
2024, Marketa Vondrousova
Like Krejcikova last year, her compatriot shocked London the year before. She became the first unseeded Wimbledon champion in the history of the tournament. A year later, she recorded another remarkable feat, this time a negative one. For only the second time in the so-called open era, she failed to defend her championship at the third Grand Slam of the season in the opening match.
Spain's Bouzas Maneiro should not have been a serious obstacle. But she only allowed her six games, and she pulled away from the defending champion. Vondrousova then spoke about the pitfalls of the difficult mission. "I was nervous from the morning. You want to win, to prove yourself. Overall, it was tough. I felt like everybody expected me to win again," the player said, and then she even cried among the journalists in a rush of emotions.
2023, Elena Rybakina
Kazakhstan's exception to the dismal list. Rybakina reached the quarter-finals, even if she didn't meet a stronger opponent on her way there. It is the weaker ones that represent a stumbling block for the defending champions. Brazil's Haddad Maia was forced to retire just after five games in Rybakina's fourth-round clash, having previously knocked out mediocre players Boulter, Cornet and Rogers.
The important thing for this review of past champions is that she struggled in the opening round. She had to turn the match around with the 30-year-old Rogers after a bad first set. And she, too, spoke of the atmosphere that came over her. The opening matches of the reigning champions are marked by the legends in the stands. "When I saw Federer there, my childhood role model, it didn't make me feel better. I was as nervous as I was a year ago in the final," she said.
2022, Ashleigh Barty
"Where the hell is Ash Barty?" American news site ESPN asked with that exact headline in its article during the opening day of Wimbledon 2022. The answer? "Playing golf in New Jersey with Michael Phelps or Harry Kane." A few months after she conquered the Australian Open. Shortly after that, she announced the end of her career at just 25 years old. A world number one.
And unlike many of her colleagues, she has kept to her word on that retirement (so far). It was her second farewell, after all. The first was when she was just 18, three years after she won the Wimbledon junior title. Complaining of burnout, she spent the next two years playing cricket professionally. But she had the dream of a lifetime - an All England Club triumph among adults. After she achieved it, those close to her knew she wouldn't be defending her title in London...
2021 - Simona Halep
A strange case, as it took her two years to get the chance to follow up on her victory. In 2020, the traditional tournament had to be cancelled due to the COVID pandemic. And that didn't go down well with the Romanian. While she was in form at the time, the next summer she had to give up her participation in this grand slam the day before the start of Wimbledon.
Her calf had been bothering her since mid-May, and she hadn't played a single match. She also skipped the French Open, trying to subordinate everything to being able to compete in London.
"I have wonderful memories of two years ago. It was an honour to return to the courts here as a defending champion. But it is with great sadness that I have to report that my injury has not been fixed," she announced just minutes before the tournament was called.
2019 - Angelique Kerber
A year ago, she caused a sensation when she dispatched Serena Williams in two sets in the final, denying her the chance to win a record 24th Grand Slam. The American wrote an impressive story, reaching the final just 10 months after giving birth to her daughter and five months after returning to the courts. But Kerber stood up to everyone and succeeded.
Next year, she said, the return was full of emotions for her. "And I have to admit that I was very nervous, especially at the beginning. It's my first time here as the reigning champion, I'm trying to enjoy this role, especially off the court," she said after the opening round in which she easily beat compatriot Maria. She did not add another win, however, as she crashed out in the next stage to American Davis, the loser of the qualifying round.
2018, Garbine Muguruza
The unbalanced psyche of the Spaniard has always been a target for her critics. And when she came to Wimbledon to defend her championship from the previous year, she was much discussed. Muguruza claimed that she had learnt from the situation that followed her triumph at the French Open in 2016. In fact, she hadn't won her first Grand Slam in her head and started dropping out in the opening rounds of tournaments.
The crisis was only stopped by a winning campaign at the All England Club. After that, she became the world number one. "You have to get the what-if thoughts out of your head. They're toxic. I'm completely different now," she assured a press conference after arriving in London. She said she had minimal conversations with her coach about Wimbledon. It didn't help, the Spaniard was knocked out in the second round by the racket of Belgian Van Uytvanck.
2017 - Serena Williams
She should have been attacking for a hat-trick. Only she and her sister Venus have managed to repeat the triumph on the grass Grand Slam in this millennium. Win three times? The last time Germany's Steffi Graf managed that was in the early 1990s. But Serena stayed home instead as she awaited the birth of her daughter Alexis Olympia, who was born in September.
So instead of fighting for another trophy, she watched older sister Venus, who had made it through to the final, on TV overseas. "I feel like I was there," Serena said in a televised online interview with ESPN. The sister clan's name didn't end up on the list of winners that year anyway. And Serena remains the last player to defend the Wimbledon trophy thanks to victories in 2015 and 2016.