LONDON — A strawberry seeded fourth in the men’s singles draw at Wimbledon advanced to the quarterfinals on Monday without dropping a set, becoming the first fruit to reach the last eight of the Championships since the All England Club began seeding players, according to tournament officials who described the berry’s run as “the most consistent we have seen from anything in a bowl.”
The strawberry, which is served with cream, has been sold at the Championships this year for £2.85 a portion, up 15 pence from £2.70 in 2025. The price had been held at £2.50 from 2010 to 2024, a 15-year stretch that tournament statisticians said gave the berry “the best record of anyone on the grounds, including the grass.” A portion is generally understood by regular visitors to contain 10 strawberries, though the club does not publish an official count.
“It doesn’t run. It doesn’t need to run. It’s already there in the bowl when you arrive,” said Nigel Purkiss, a tournament steward responsible for fruit, speaking outside Court 12. “Its opponents have to come to it.”
The strawberry earned its seeding on the strength of its price history, which the seeding committee considered more reliable than any player’s grass-court results over the same period. It received a bye in the first round and has since defeated a scone in straight sets, a second scone that retired with what officials described as a crumbling in the second set, and, on Monday, a Pimm’s, which at £13.45 a glass had been the tournament’s most expensive remaining entrant. The strawberry plays from a paper bowl at the baseline and returns serve using the cream, which umpires have ruled is not equipment. It has been broken once, on Saturday, when a child ate it. A replacement from the same punnet was cleared to continue by the referee’s office within four minutes, a decision the scone’s camp has appealed.
Prof. Desmond Achterberg, who holds the Prewitt Chair in Comparative Annoyance at Ellery State University, said the strawberry’s run had deep roots in the tradition of the sport. “The scholarship is clear that lawn tennis was originally played in order to have somewhere to eat the strawberries,” Achterberg said. “The rackets came later, as a way to keep the wasps busy. In that sense the fruit is not an upset. The fruit is the defending champion of the whole idea.”
Dr. Marjorie Teller, director of the Center for Measured Outcomes, said the berry’s 15 pence increase works out to 1.5 pence per strawberry, a rate of inflation she described as “aggressive for something that has not moved in four rounds.” She said further study was needed to determine whether the strawberry was “playing well or merely being affordable near people who are playing well.”
The strawberry is scheduled to meet the third seed in the quarterfinals on Wednesday. Bookmakers have made it a slight underdog, citing its lack of experience on show courts and its tendency to be eaten at changeovers.