The Championships, Wimbledon, commonly referred to as
Wimbledon, is the oldest major championship in
tennis and is widely considered to be the most prestigious. for two weeks (usually ending, at the latest, on the second Sunday of July) at the
All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in
London,
England. The tournament is the third
Grand Slam event played each year, preceded by the
Australian Open and the
French Open, and followed by the
U.S. Open. The tournament duration is subject to extensions for rain.
Separate tournaments are simultaneously held, all at the same venue, for
Gentlemen's Singles,
Ladies' Singles,
Gentlemen's Doubles, Ladies' Doubles and
Mixed Doubles. Youth tournaments – Boys' Singles, Girls' Singles, Boys' Doubles and Girls' Doubles – are also held. Additionally, special invitational tournaments are held: the 35 and over Gentlemen's Doubles, 45 and over Gentlemen's Doubles, 35 and over Ladies' Doubles and
wheelchair doubles.
Australian Open French Open (Roland Garros)
Wimbledon US Open Events A total of 128 players feature in each singles event, 64 pairs in each single-sex doubles event, and 48 pairs in Mixed Doubles. Players and doubles pairs are admitted to the main events on the basis of their international rankings, with consideration also given to their previous performances at grasscourt events. Currently (since 2001) 32 male and female players are given seedings in the Gentlemen's and Ladies' singles while 16 teams are seeded in the doubles events.
The Committee of Management and the Referee evaluate all applications for entry, and determine which players may be admitted to the tournament directly. The committee may admit a player without a high enough ranking as a
wild card. Usually, wild cards are players who have performed well during previous tournaments, or would stimulate public interest in Wimbledon by participating. The only wild card to win the Gentlemen's Singles Championship was
Goran Ivanišević (
2001). Players and pairs who neither have high enough rankings nor receive wild cards may participate in a qualifying tournament held one week before Wimbledon at the Bank of England Sports Ground in
Roehampton. The singles qualifying competitions are three-round events; the same-sex doubles competitions last for only one round. There is no qualifying tournament for Mixed Doubles. No qualifier has won either the Gentlemen's Singles or the Ladies' Singles tournaments. The furthest that any qualifier has progressed in the main draw of a Singles tournament is the semi-final round:
John McEnroe in 1977 and
Vladimir Voltchkov of Belarus in 2000 (Gentlemen's Singles), and
Alexandra Stevenson in 1999 (Ladies' Singles).
Players are admitted to the junior tournaments upon the recommendations of their national tennis associations, on their
International Tennis Federation world rankings and, in the case of the singles events, on the basis of a qualifying competition. The Committee of Management determines which players may enter the four invitational events.
The Committee seeds the top players and pairs (thirty-two players in each main singles events, and sixteen pairs in each main doubles event) on the basis of their rankings. However, the Committee does also change the seedings due to a player's previous grass court performance. A majority of the entrants are unseeded. Only two unseeded players have ever won the Gentlemen's Singles Championship:
Boris Becker in
1985 and
Goran Ivanišević in
2001. (In 1985 there were only sixteen seeds - Becker was ranked 20th at the time; Ivanišević, however, was as low as 125th.) No unseeded player has captured the Ladies' Singles title; the lowest seeded female champion was
Venus Williams, who won in
2007 as the twenty-third seed, beating her own record from
2005, when Williams won as the fourteenth seed. Unseeded pairs have won the doubles titles on numerous occasions; the 2005 Gentlemen's Doubles champions were not only unseeded, but also (for the first time ever) qualifiers.
See also: Women's Seeds at The Championships, Wimbledon Players and seeding Main article: All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club Grounds Traditions Dark green and
purple (sometimes also referred to as
mauve) are the traditional Wimbledon colours. Green clothing was worn by the chair umpire, linesmen, ball boys and ball girls through the 2005 Championships; however, beginning with the 2006 Championships, officials, ball boys and ball girls were outfitted in new navy blue and cream coloured uniforms from American designer
Ralph Lauren. This marked the first time in the history of the Championships that an outside company was used to design Wimbledon clothing. As of June 2006, Wimbledon's contract with Ralph Lauren is set to last until 2009.
Colours and uniforms The All England Club requires players to wear "almost entirely white" clothing during matches (used as an excuse by a young
Andre Agassi for not playing the tournament in 1990, although his decision may have had more to do with his game at the time being unsuited to grass; he later won the competition). No other Grand Slam tournament has such a strict dress code for players. During matches, female players are always referred to by the title "Miss" or "Mrs"; married female players were formerly and formally referred to by their husband's names: for example,
Chris Evert-Lloyd appeared on scoreboards as "Mrs. J. M. Lloyd" during her marriage to
John M. Lloyd. This custom has been abandoned; the title "Mr" is never used for male players.
Players Previously, players bowed or curtsied to members of the Royal Family seated in the Royal Box upon entering or leaving Centre Court. In
2003, however, the President of the All England Club, HRH The Duke of Kent, decided to discontinue the tradition. Now, players are required to bow or curtsy only if the Queen or the Prince of Wales is present.
Royal Family For the spectators,
strawberries and
cream is the traditional snack at Wimbledon. Approximately 62,000 pounds of strawberries and 1,540 gallons of cream are sold each year during the Championships.
Strawberries and cream Main article: Radio Wimbledon Radio Wimbledon For over 60 years, the
BBC has broadcast the tournament on television in the UK, splitting time for the many matches it covers between its two main terrestrial channels,
BBC One and
BBC Two. During the days of
British Satellite Broadcasting, its sports channel carried extra coverage of Wimbledon for subscribers, and the BBC annually distributes its commercial-free feed to outlets worldwide. Americans have made a tradition of
NBC's "Breakfast at Wimbledon" specials on the weekends, where live coverage starts early in the morning (the US being a minimum of 5 hours behind the UK) and continues well into the afternoon, interspersed with commentary and interviews from
Bud Collins, whose tennis acumen and (in)famous patterned trousers are well-known to tennis fans in the USA. Collins was fired by
NBC in 2007.
Wimbledon was also involved, unintentionally, in a piece of television history, on
1 July 1967. That was when the first, official, colour broadcast took place in the UK. Four hours live coverage of Wimbledon was shown on BBC2 (then the only colour channel in the UK), and although footage of that historic match no longer survives, the men's final that year is still held in the BBC archives, for it was the first men's final transmitted in colour.
From 2007, the most anticipated Wimbledon matches are transmitted in High Definition, on the BBC's free-to-air channel
BBC HD, with continual live coverage during the tournament of Centre Court and Court No. 1 as well as an evening highlight show (
The Best of Today at Wimbledon).
Television Coverage Wimbledon is the only major grand slam where fans without tickets for play that day can queue up and still get seats on Centre Court, Court 1 and Court 2. Usually there are 2 queues and each are allotted about 250 seats for each court. Fans are handed vouchers when they arrive in their queue with a number on it and the following morning when the line moves towards the Grounds, stewards come through the line and hand out wristbands that are colour coded to the specific court. The voucher is then redeemed at the ticket office for the ticket.
Tickets The Gentlemen's Singles champion receives a silver gilt cup 18.5 inches (about 47 cm) in height and 7.5 inches (about 19 cm) in diameter. The trophy has been awarded since
1887 and bears the inscription: "The All England Lawn Tennis Club Single Handed Champion of the World." The Ladies' Singles champion receives a sterling silver salver commonly known as the "
Venus Rosewater Dish", or simply the "Rosewater Dish". The salver, which is 18.75 inches (about 48 cm) in diameter, is decorated with figures from mythology. The winners of the Gentlemen's Doubles, Ladies' Doubles, and Mixed Doubles events receive silver cups. The runner-up in each event receives an inscribed silver plate. The trophies are usually presented by the President of the All England Club,
The Duke of Kent, and by his wife, the Duchess of Kent.
At Wimbledon, more prize money was traditionally awarded in the Gentlemen's events than in the Ladies' events. However, as of 2007 prize money is equal at all levels (in part in response to a powerful protest by tennis player Venus Williams). In 2005, Wimbledon prize money exceeded a total of £10 million (£10,085,510) total for the first time. The sums awarded to the winners of each of the main events in 2006 are as follows (the amounts shown for the doubles events are per pair):
The revised prize money for the year 2007 is:
Total prize money at Wimbledon 2007 was nearly 9% more than in 2006.
Gentlemen's Singles: £655,000 (US $1,287,469)
Ladies' Singles: £625,000 (US $1,228,501)
Gentlemen's Doubles: £220,690 (US $407,265)
Ladies' Doubles: £205,280 (US $378,840)
Mixed Doubles: £90,000 (US $166,093)
Gentlemen's Singles Winner £700,000 (US $1,408,181.53)
Ladies' Singles Winner £700,000 (US $1,408,181.53)
Gentlemen's Doubles Winners £222,900 (US $448,405.23)
Ladies' Doubles Winners £222,900 (US $448,405.23)
Mixed Doubles Winners £90,000 (US $181,051.91)
Trophies and prize money Among the four major titles, Wimbledon is the one that generates the most anxiety for the British. This is due to the fact that not only has no British player won a Wimbledon singles title since 1977, but no Brit has even been in the singles finals since then. Therefore, all the British (especially the English) usually will rally around a single countryman to bring back the glory. In the recent past,
Tim Henman was the most prominent hope. However, since he is getting older and has yet to win a Slam,
Andy Murray has become the next hope to rally around.
Main article: List of Wimbledon champions Champions Wimbledon in popular culture List of Wimbledon champions Wimbledon Effect
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