This event marked the final professional singles appearance of 20-time major champion, eight-time Wimbledon champion, and former world No. 1 Roger Federer; he lost in the quarterfinals toHubert Hurkacz. Federer was the oldest man in the Open Era to reach the Wimbledon quarterfinals, and the oldest man to reach a major quarterfinal sinceKen Rosewall at theDecember 1977 Australian Open.[6] His fourth-round victory marked 105 match wins at Wimbledon. The 18 quarterfinals and 119 matches he contested at Wimbledon are both tournament records.[7][8]
Berrettini was the first Italian man to reach a major final sinceAdriano Panatta at the1976 French Open and the first to do so at Wimbledon.[9]Zhang Zhizhen was the first Chinese man to qualify for the Wimbledon main draw in the Open Era.[10][11]Márton Fucsovics was the first Hungarian to reach a men's singles major quarterfinal sinceBalázs Taróczy at the1981 French Open, and the first to do so at Wimbledon sinceJózsef Asbóth in1948.[12] This was the first time since2017 that two-time championAndy Murray participated.[13] This marked the Wimbledon debuts of future championsCarlos Alcaraz andJannik Sinner. They lost in the second round and first round respectively.
For the first time since 2002, thegrass court seeding formula was abandoned and the standard ranking system based on theATP rankings was permanently adopted, like at the other three majors.[14][15]
The following are the seeded players. Seedings are based on ATP rankings as of 21 June 2021. Rankings and points are as before 28 June 2021. Players will count either their 2021 points or 50% of their 2019 points, whichever is greater.[16]
† The player did not qualify for the tournament in 2019. Accordingly, points defending from theATP Challenger Tour are deducted instead. ^ Because the 2021 tournament was non-mandatory, the player substituted his 19th best result in place of the points won in this tournament.