The Wimbledon Championships, the world’s oldest and most prestigious tennis tournament, has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London, since 1877.
The competition counts towards the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, along with the Australian Open, the French Open, and the US Open, but is the only one played on outdoor grass courts. Retractable roofs were, however, fitted to the Centre and No.1 courts in 2009 and 2019 respectively.
The traditional nature of the competition demands a strict all-white dress code for all players and features minimal advertising from their official sponsors, such as Slazenger, who have provided balls for the tournament since 1902.
The 2023 Championships will be the 136th staging and will run from Monday the 3rd to Sunday the 16th of July.
Statistics
The first matches played were the Gentlemen’s Singles games and only 22 players performed to an audience of just a few hundred. In 1884, women players were allowed to compete for the first time and the first men’s doubles matches were introduced. Both the ladies’ and mixed doubles events followed in 1913. Today’s events attract thousands of devotees, the record overall attendance being 515,164 last year.
Each year, the men’s and women’s singles events each involve 128 of the world’s top players. There are also 96 teams (128 players) in each doubles competition, with a further 48 teams (96 players) in the mixed event. So, whilst there could be up to 608 individual contestants, many will compete in both the singles and doubles games. The knock-out system whittles the competitors or double teams down to the contest. The highest-ranked individuals or teams are ‘seeded’ among the initial list of matches to avoid them meeting too early and being eliminated.
Tennis matches can extend to many hours, but the longest ever at Wimbledon was that between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut in the first round of the men’s singles in 2010. Isner eventually won 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, 70-68 in a staggering 11 hours and 5 minutes), over three days. Unfortunately, the electronic scoreboard could not cope since it was not programmed to deal with scores exceeding 47-47. The introduction of a tie-break in the final set has reduced the likelihood of this record being broken.
The strenuous job of collecting stray tennis balls is undertaken by a team of more than 200 boys and girls, who also deliver new balls after the first seven games and after every following nine games. This means that around 52,000 brand-new balls are required each year. The old ones are sold as souvenirs to the crowd at a bargain price
This year
Defending champion Novak Djokovic will be aiming for his eighth men's singles Wimbledon title to equal Roger Federer's current record. Standing in his way are some impressive challengers such as US Open champion Carlos Alcaraz, rising star Holger Rune and our own Andy Murray.
Similarly, women’s champion Elena Rybakina will be hoping to defend her title from worthy opponents such as Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka and the tournament’s ‘wild-card’ entry, five-times champion Venus Williams, making her 24th appearance in the singles draw. World number one and French Open winner Iga Swiatek, 2022 runner-up Ons Jabeur and American Coco Gauff are also stepping up.
Sadly conspicuous by their absences this year will be Rafael Nadal, Emma Raducanu and last year's men’s singles finalist Nick Kyrgios, all indisposed due to injury.
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