ATPTour.com looks at five ATP Challenger Tour players to keep your eyes on during Wimbledon.

Max Purcell
The Australian has lit up the Challenger circuit this season, boasting a 34-7 match record at that level. Purcell has competed in six Challenger finals in 2023 and enjoyed a 15-match winning streak in February, when he triumphed at Challengers in Chennai, Bengaluru and Pune.

The World No. 64 is now in position to compete in more ATP Tour events and will next aim to continue his breakthrough year at the season’s third major. Part of what makes Purcell a tricky opponent on grass is his unique style of play, which he will put on display against seventh seed Andrey Rublev in the opening round.

“I don’t see anyone hitting slice forehands like I do, so I think that’s pretty unique,” Purcell told ATPTour.com earlier this year. “I don’t think you see many singles guys volleying as well as I do, from all the doubles [I’ve played]. Big emphasis on coming to the net when I can and when I do come to the net, making sure I pull off some good volleys.”

Last year, the 25-year-old Purcell partnered countryman Matthew Ebden at Wimbledon and went on a dream title run to win the men’s doubles crown. Five of their six matches went the distance, including the championship match against Croatians Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic.

Dominic Stricker
The World No. 117 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, who was crowned champion at this year’s Rovereto and Prague Challengers, is the only Swiss player to win five Challenger titles before his 21st birthday.

The lefty will look to build on his momentum at Wimbledon, where he meets Australian Alexei Popyrin in the first round. Should Stricker advance in his SW19 debut, it would be his first Grand Slam main-draw victory.

The former junior World No. 3 was a semi-finalist at last year’s Next Gen ATP Finals and is eligible for the 21-and-under event again this year. Stricker is currently eighth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Next Gen Race.

Matteo Arnaldi
The 22-year-old advanced through qualifying as the top seed and will face Spaniard Roberto Carballes Baena in the first round. Arnaldi has collected a trio of Challenger titles this season, including last month in Heilbronn, where the Italian rose to a career-high No. 72 following his triumph.

Arnaldi relied on his lethal forehand to earn his first Top-10 win at the Mutua Madrid Open, where he downed third seed Casper Ruud in what he described as the “best match of my life”. The Sanremo-native is making his Wimbledon debut.

Sebastian Ofner
The Austrian has tallied a 30-12 Challenger record this season and has competed in five Challenger finals. Following a finalist finish two weeks ago at the grass-court Ilkley Challenger, Ofner was awarded a wild card into Wimbledon. The 27-year-old will next aim to back up his surprise run at Roland Garros, where he reached the fourth round as a qualifier and sealed his Top 100 debut.

In 2017, Ofner made his first Grand Slam tournament appearance at the All England Club and upset 17th seed Jack Sock en route to the third round. Ofner will bid for another run when he starts on Tuesday against World No. 36 Jiri Lehecka.

Shintaro Mochizuki
A former junior No. 1, Mochizuki became the first Japanese male player in history to win a major boys’ singles title at Wimbledon in 2019.

The #NextGenATP star has since graduated to the ATP Challenger Tour, where he won his maiden title in April at the Barletta Challenger. The then-19-year-old became the third Japanese teenager to win a Challenger title, joining Kei Nishikori (Bermuda 2008) and Yoshihito Nishioka (Shanghai 2014).

The Kawasaki-native will look for the biggest win of his career in the first round when he meets 16th seed Tommy Paul.

There was a time in the not-too-distant past that anything short of a run to the second week of Wimbledon would have felt like a failure to Milos Raonic.

A semi-finalist in 2014, the Canadian reached the final in 2016, the quarter-finals in ’17 and ‘18 and the fourth round in his most recent appearance in 2019.

But after nearly two years away from the sport following a succession of injuries – most notably to his Achilles – Raonic isn’t sure what would constitute a passing grade at this year’s event. Traditional benchmarks don’t seem to apply.

“I think it’s going to be an emotional thing that I go through. I don’t think it’s possible to have an idea,” Raonic said. “I could win my first match, I could lose my first match and I could walk away in both cases happy or upset. So I’m not exactly too sure [what success would be].

“What I used to measure things last time I was here was quite different than how I would measure things now.”

Last month the 32-year-old won his return match in ‘s-Hertogenbosch against Miomir Kecmanovic, admitting after the match that there were times during the past two years that he thought he would not make it back. He said at the time: “There were moments when I said, ‘I’m done’. At the end of 2021, I had no intention to play again, [I thought] ‘I’m going to figure out my life’, shortly after I got married.”

Despite his return to Wimbledon, this is a far from a full-throated ‘I’m back baby!’ story. After leaving ‘s-Hertogenbosch with shoulder soreness following a second-round defeat to Australian Jordan Thompson, Raonic’s goals remain short-term.

“Right now. I’m coming back to play here,” he said Sunday at Wimbledon. “One more time coming back especially to play Toronto, and I’ve come back for the US Open as well. And then I have to have a conversation with myself.”

Raonic says that he enters Wimbledon happy with his right shoulder, which throughout his career has fired 8,160 aces (ninth best all-time according to Infosys ATP Stats), but he will be mindful of his recent experience at the ATP 250 in The Netherlands.

“I played the first match, everything was kind of feeling okay. It wasn’t so much the prep, but a lot of it was tension and nerves,” he said. “I’ve played a lot of times where I’ve been out for three, four months, even, I think six months, one time. But this time it was two years. And for the first year and two months, I didn’t hit a single ball. So I think those kinds of things take a bit of a toll.

“No matter how much you prepare and practise, some things you can’t really replicate, like the tension of a match and how badly you want to win.”

Raonic, who boasts a 27-9 record at Wimbledon, plays his opening match Tuesday against World No. 159 Dennis Novak.

When Maxime Cressy needs to think positively, his internal discussions are in English. Lately, it’s been a battle to keep French from creeping back into his thoughts.

Before a first-round win this past week in Eastbourne, the French-born American had lost 10 straight matches dating back to the second round of Marseille in February. For a man who writes ‘instill doubt’ on his racquets to reflect the disruptive message he wants to send to opponents, Cressy has been the one second-guessing himself recently.

“Usually my negative side comes out in French. I picked it up from my mom,” said Cressy, who was born in Paris. “Usually I think positively when I’m thinking in English… so I try to stay in the English phase.

“The clay season is where I had the most doubts, and I think it did spill over to the beginning of the grass season. But I’m building my confidence back up. Last week, I played much better and this week could be really great… I believe at any moment. I can have a major breakthrough.”

Despite his recent disappointing record, few players would raise their hands for a chance to play the 6’ 7” serve/volleying powerhouse in the opening round at Wimbledon, where last year he upset Felix Auger-Aliassime in the first round. If anyone could turn around a season with a bone-rattling run at The Championships, it’s the 26-year-old, who kicks off his campaign Tuesday against Serb Laslo Djere.

With a booming serve, massive wingspan and effective volleys, Cressy is a suffocating presence for opponents, especially at Wimbledon where pressure is magnified, margins are small and grass suits his attack-at-all-costs approach.

So unsettling is his game that the World No. 55 says that he struggles to find practice partners. “It’s difficult. Few players want to play with me because they’re looking for rhythm and they don’t necessarily get that with me.”

Cressy, whose broader mission in life is to re-introduce the serve-and-volley art to the sport, can be a little quirky. He is known to write notes to himself during changeovers and until recently played with two racquets: one for service games and another for return games. And he would string only those two racquets for matches, even for best-of-five-setters. But he’s bringing a different approach to Wimbledon.

“I started using just one racquet two weeks ago and it’s been much better. I’m now just using my return racquet, the one that is lighter and gives me more control,” he said. “I had been missing a little too much with the serve racquet, which I found a little too powerful.

“I’ll still just get two racquets strung for matches, but they are both return racquets.”

Nick Kyrgios withdrew from Wimbledon on Sunday evening citing a torn ligament in his wrist.

“I’m really sad to say that I have to withdraw from Wimbledon this year. I tried my hardest to be ready after my surgery and to be able to step on the Wimbledon courts again,” Kyrgios wrote on Instagram. “During my comeback, I experienced some pain in my wrist during the week of Mallorca. As a precaution I had it scanned and it came back showing a torn ligament in my wrist. I tried everything to be able to play and I am disappointed to say that I just didn’t have enough time to manage it before Wimbledon.”

The Australian missed the entire start of the season after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his left knee in January. Kyrgios made his return last month in Stuttgart, where he lost to Wu Yibing in the first round.

Kyrgios reached his first major final last year at The Championships and has earned some of the biggest wins of his career at the tournament, including an upset of Rafael Nadal en route to the 2014 quarter-finals.

“I’ll be back” Kyrgios wrote. “And as always, I appreciate the support from all my fans.”

Twelves months ago, Brandon Nakashima posted his best result at a major when he advanced to the fourth round at Wimbledon. Ahead of his third appearance at The Championships, the 21-year-old caught up with ATPTour.com to discuss his memories from last year, his favourite Wimbledon traditions and why the grass-court Slam is so special to him.

What is your first memory of watching Wimbledon?
My first memory of watching Wimbledon would be when I was playing a junior tournament, and it was actually during the final, I think it was the 2008 final between Federer and Nadal. I was playing a junior tournament close to home and I remember watching that match on TV and being very excited to be able to watch. It was amazing, an all-time classic.

What are your first memories of playing Wimbledon both as a junior and Tour player and what were your early thoughts about the aura of the venue?
The first time I went to Wimbledon was in the juniors in 2018. It was such a pleasure just to be there to be able to play on those courts. I was just super excited every time I got to go there and play and it was just a such a special experience for a young junior to be around the grounds, see how it is, see all the pro players playing there.

It was really amazing to see it at a young age. It was a little bit different, I would say coming back as a pro in 2021. Just as special, but I was a little bit more used to it. I knew kind of where everything was. But obviously playing in the pros is different, the format and the atmosphere a little bit. It was super exciting. I have nothing but good memories there.

What is the greatest moment you have had at Wimbledon?
My greatest moment would probably be stepping out on Centre Court in the fourth round last year. I didn’t really know what to expect too much and stepping out on such a prestigious court like that, it was a super special feeling. Obviously I was nervous a little bit, but I was super excited and just tried to take it all in. You’re at the biggest stage in professional tennis.

What makes the event so special for you?

I think it’s just the history, all the fans. It’s just such a prestigious place and tournament. It’s from right when you step into the grounds as a fan or as a player, you just feel this sort of atmosphere that you don’t really get anywhere else or any other tournament.

What is your favourite Wimbledon tradition and why?
I would say my favourite tradition would probably be the all-white. I always like it when there’s some sort of dress code in some tournaments. I think the white looks very clean. It’s just special. No other tournament like that, no other dress code like that. I would say that’s my favourite tradition for sure.

What is your favourite thing about playing on grass?
I like the surface a lot. I’d say the season is a little bit short. It takes a little bit time to get used to it but I like it. I would say my favourite part about it is the variety of your game that you have to have to try and play. There is just a bunch of different dimensions to it, like any other surface, but it is different and sometimes you have got to get a little bit out of your comfort zone to do well.

Outside of the main show courts, do you have a favourite court out on the grounds?
Last year I won two matches on Court 12, which is pretty nice. That court was pretty cool. Pretty big stands and a good atmosphere, full stadium. I would say that that court is pretty special to me.