Wimbledon Tennis Information

Wimbledon is the oldest tennis tournament in the world, and many professional players consider it to be the most significant. Wimbledon is held in a suburb of London in the United Kingdom and is one of the four famous annual Grand Slam tennis tournaments (the others are the Australian Open, the French Open, and the U.S. Open). It's a two-week tournament that lasts from the end of June into the beginning of July.

  1. Dates and Logistics

    • Wimbledon is the third Grand Slam tournament of the year, arriving after the Australian Open in January and the French Open in late May and early June. The All England Club hosts the tournament, which was played in open-air outdoor stadiums until 2009, when a retractable roof was constructed over Centre Court to prevent rain delays from disrupting the schedule of play. In the past, rainy London weather sometimes caused major delays for the players and spectators. Wimbledon is played on grass, the traditional surface for tennis matches; it's the only tournament of the four Grand Slams that is played on that surface.

    Tickets

    • Centre Court tickets and grounds tickets are available via a ballot/lottery system (http://www.wimbledon.org/en_GB/about/tickets/tickets.html). For the early rounds of play, about 500 tickets are also reserved for the public for each show court. Fans can line up hours in advance to wait for these tickets, and they will be given a voucher that they can then present at the All England Club grounds for the chance of obtaining a ticket.

    Significance

    • The All England Club was founded in 1868, and the first Wimbledon tennis tournament for a gentlemen's singles title was played in 1877. The ladies' singles and men's doubles titles were added to the tournament in 1884. Wimbledon is arguably the most prestigious and famous of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, and many well-known players place Wimbledon victories at a higher priority than victories for any other matches. The grass courts of the tournament are also significant for some players, who appreciate the unique challenges of especially fast play and low ball bounces that the surface provides.

    Procedure and Schedule

    • Wimbledon hosts both main events and junior tennis events during the two weeks of tournament play. The five main events are gentlemen's singles, ladies' singles, gentlemen's doubles, ladies' doubles and mixed doubles. Men play for a win in the best of three sets out of five, and women play for the best of two out of three sets. If a 6-6 score occurs during any set except the final set, players settle that set with a tiebreaker. In the final and deciding set of a match, players must win by two games to win the match. The tournament lasts for 13 days, begins in late June, and commences about two weeks after the Queen's Club Championships, another London-based tennis tournament.

    More Information

    • The world's top tennis players are admitted to the Wimbledon tournament based on their international rankings and are given "seeds," or numbers that predict their expected placing in the tournament. Some players are admitted through being granted a wild card, meaning that their ranking alone is not high enough to secure them a spot in the tournament, but Wimbledon officials agree to admit them based on their past performances or their potential to bring attention to the tournament. Winners of Wimbledon receive prize money and trophies: the winner of the gentlemen's singles title receives a large engraved silver gilt cup, and the ladies' singles champion receives an intricately decorated silver salver.