It's a question that many players looking for Grand Slam success will wrestle with. Can winning a warm-up tournament lead to success at the main event?

In 2024, Jessica Pegula took the Berlin title in the lead-in to Wimbledon, saving multiple championship points against Anna Kalinskaya. This year it was Bad Homburg; the American beat Iga Swiatek for a ninth tour title and third of the season.

But the 31-year-old may be rethinking her pre-Wimbledon plans for 2026.

Pegula was ousted by Xinyu Wang of China in the second round of The Championships last year, and on Tuesday, as No.3 seed, went out in her opening match against Italy’s Elisabetta Cocciaretto in one of the biggest upsets of this year’s tournament.

“I should just play no tournaments, get no wins, then roll into Wimbledon, and maybe I'll have better results,” she said in her press conference on Tuesday. 

She gave full credit to her opponent but was clearly disappointed.

“The grass season, it's always tricky with the schedule, what you want to play. But to be honest, this year I physically felt a lot better on the grass.

“Sometimes it takes me a while to get used to it. You can get kind of stiff, sore. You're much lower. It's a different surface to move on. That's kind of why I wanted to keep playing to make sure physically that I was able to play back-to-back matches and not have to deal with soreness or anything like that holding me back.

“That was the plan. But obviously it didn't work out. (Although) I probably won't change that much next year, to be honest.” 

Ladies’ Singles Champion in 2023, Marketa Vondrousova (main picture) took the title in Berlin this year, beating Madison Keys and Aryna Sabalenka on her way to the trophy.

It has been a difficult road for the Czech following shoulder surgery last year, but her first title in nearly two years was a reminder of her grass court pedigree. Even so, her first round victory at The Championships on Monday was at the expense of the USA’s McCartney Kessler, who came into The Championships fresh from her grass court title in Nottingham.

Another player for whom a lead-in title failed to translate to Grand Slam success this year was 19-year-old Maya Joint, who was the winner on England's south coast last week, picking up her second career title at Eastbourne.

Despite defeating British No.1 Emma Raducanu in the round of 16, she fell in the first round of The Championships on Monday. Joint found herself up against No.19 seed Liudmila Samsonova, who has one of the best serve and forehands in the women’s game. Unfortunately for Joint, both those shots were on point in the blistering heat of Court 18 and Samsonsova took the match in 71 minutes. 

Joint’s first title came on the clay courts of Rabat this year, right before Roland-Garros, where the Australian fell to compatriot Ajla Tomjlanovic in the first round.

“It’s definitely something I hope to get used to,” she said. “It was a lot different than last time when I had to go from Morocco to Paris. This time I had an extra day to prepare. I was expected to do a little bit better.”

Tatjana Maria was the queen of Queen's Club as women's tennis returned to the London tournament in June, where as a qualifier she overcame world No.15 Amanda Anisimova in the final for her fourth career title.

However, on Tuesday in SW19, with rankings expectations and arguably the form to beat the USA’s Katie Volynets, the 37-year-old failed to capitalise on her recent title and went out in three sets. 

Adding more intrigue to the question of whether committing to a lead-in tournament can help with Grand Slam preparation, Volynets had lost this year in the first round of Nottingham and Eastbourne, and earned her first grass court win of the season against Maria.

But there were others for whom pre-Wimbledon tournament preparation paid off. Elise Mertens saved 11 match points in her semi-final in s'Hertogenbosch in the run up to The Championshps - the most saved by any player in a tour-level main-draw match this decade. The Belgian went on to win the title, her 10th on the WTA Tour.

This year is Mertens' eighth Wimbledon main draw appearance and she has twice made it through to the second week. On Monday, the 29-year-old reached the second round with victory over qualifier Linda Fruhvirtova in straight sets.