2001 Wimbledon Championships – Men's singles
| Men's singles | |
|---|---|
| 2001 Wimbledon Championships | |
| Champion | Goran Ivanišević |
| Runner-up | Patrick Rafter |
| Score | 6–3, 3–6, 6–3, 2–6, 9–7 |
| Draw | 128 (16 Q / 8 WC ) |
| Seeds | 32 |
Goran Ivanišević defeated Patrick Rafter in the final, 6–3, 3–6, 6–3, 2–6, 9–7 to win the gentlemen's singles tennis title at the 2001 Wimbledon Championships. It was his first and only major title. Ivanišević was the first unseeded player to win the title since Boris Becker in 1985, and the first wild card to win a major. And as of June 2025, he remains the only man (Kim Clijsters won the 2009 US Open as a wild card) to win a major as a wild card. His ranking improved by 109 places following the win, from world No. 125 to world No. 16. Ivanišević had reached the Wimbledon final three times before (in 1992, 1994 and 1998) but lost each time. The final was held on the third Monday of the event in front of a boisterous crowd, after Ivanišević's semifinal against Tim Henman took three days to complete due to rain.
Pete Sampras was the four-time defending champion, but he lost in the fourth round to Roger Federer. The Sampras–Federer match was the pair's only professional meeting, with Federer being 19 years old and Sampras retiring from the sport the following year. This was the first major in which Federer was seeded. Sampras was attempting to equal Björn Borg's record of five consecutive Wimbledon titles (which Federer would himself achieve in 2007) and win a record eighth men's singles Wimbledon title (which Federer would achieve in 2017).
This was the year when Wimbledon expanded from 16 to 32 seeds.