Facts and Figures on frequently asked topics about The Championships.
Aces
Most (all time)
Gentlemen: 212 - Goran Ivanisevic (CRO) 2001
Ladies: 102 - Serena Williams (USA) 2012
Most (The Championships 2017)
Gentlemen: 139 - Sam Querrey (USA)
Ladies: 35 - Johanna Konta (GBR)
Attendance (2017)
Total attendance was 473,372 across 13 days (493,928 attended The Championships in 2016 across 14 days)
Ball Boys and Ball Girls
Around 250 from around 750 entries come through a rigorous training routine.
Balls
Part of the longest partnership in sporting goods history, Slazenger has been the Official Supplier of tennis balls to The Championships since 1902.
Yellow balls used for first time in 1986. 54,250 used during The Championships’ period. Stored at 68 deg F. New balls after first seven games (to allow for warm-up), then after every nine games. Subject to availability after use balls sold daily to LTA-affiliated clubs and to spectators in the grounds. £2.50 per can of three. Proceeds go to the Wimbledon Foundation. At start of day 48 tins are taken onto Centre and No.1 Courts and 24 on all outside courts.
Broadcast
From 2018, the AELTC will launch Wimbledon Broadcast Services, which will take on responsibility for the host coverage of The Championships.
BBC remains the host broadcaster in the UK. Free to air agreement extended in 2016 through to 2024 (inclusive).
Global news access audience estimated at over 1bn people in 200 territories.
Broadcast viewing figures
In 2017, television coverage from the Qualifying Competition was shown with matches on the main Show Court broadcast to spectators inside the Grounds via a giant video screen and to Wimbledon fans around the world on Wimbledon.com and via the AELTC’s broadcast partners.
The BBC served 24.1 million stream requests during Wimbledon this year via BBC Sport and BBC iPlayer, making it the most streamed Wimbledon to date.
The most popular match was Rafael Nadal and Gilles Muller’s 66 game epic with 1.4m requests.
The Johanna Konta vs Simona Halep quarter-final at 7.4m viewers became the most watched Wimbledon Ladies’ match on BBC record.
The Gentleman’s Singles Final had a peak of 6.4m and the Ladies’ Singles Final peaked at 4.7m.
Capacity (grounds)
39,000 spectators in the grounds at any one time. Re-selling of used/unwanted tickets for charity creates turnover so the cumulative daily figure can be higher.
Catering
Wimbledon is the largest single annual sporting catering operation (2200 staff) carried out in Europe. Average quantities of food and beverages served at The Championships are below.
- 330,000 cups of tea and coffee
- 320,000 glasses of Pimm’s
- 234,000 meals
- 230,000 bottles of water
- 110,000 pints of draught beer and lager
- 86,000 ice creams
- 76,000 sandwiches
- 35,000 litres of milk
- 30,000 pizzas
- 29,000 bottles of champagne
- 34,000 kg (166,000 servings) of English strawberries
- 110,000 scones
- 17,000 portions of fish and chips
- 2,200 afternoon tea hampers
- 10,000 litres of dairy cream
- 2,200kg of bananas
Champions' Dinner
Instigated in 1977 when the LTA Ball previously held on the final evening of The Championships was moved to the middle Saturday.
The tradition of dancing between the two Singles Champions ceased then.
In 2017, Champions' Dinner was held at the Guildhall.
Charity
- £173,212.50 – money raised from the Ticket Resale scheme, whereby Show Court tickets no longer required are re-sold to spectators already in the Grounds
- £346,425 – total funds donated to the Wimbledon Foundation after Official Supplier HSBC has matched the Ticket Resale scheme figure. Proceeds distributed to charities through the Wimbledon Foundation’s grant programmes
See Wimbledon Foundation for more.
Clothing - players
The “predominately in white” rule was introduced in 1963 before the “almost entirely in white rule” was brought in in 1995. Accessories were included in the rule from 2014. Competitors must be dressed in suitable tennis attire that is almost entirely white and this applies from the point at which the player enters the court surround.
Both Grand Slam and WTA rules stipulate recognised tennis attire. Decision on the day as to whether clothing/players’ turnout is suitable at discretion of Referee. Guidelines:
- No solid mass of colouring
- Little or no dark or bold colour
- No fluorescent colours
- Preference towards pastel colours
- Preference for back of shirt to be totally white
- Preference for shorts and skirts to be totally white
All other items of clothing including hats, socks and shoes to be almost entirely white.
Coin Toss - 2018
LADIES’ SINGLES FINAL
Tia Carter, aged 11, will perform the coin toss.
Tia will be representing the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund. The Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund provides support to serving and former RAF personnel and their dependants, including grants to help with financial difficulty and living independently, support with care needs, welfare breaks and support for RAF children through their Airplay programme
GENTLEMEN’S SINGLES FINAL
Joshua Bills, aged 11, will perform the coin toss.
Joshua will be representing The Fire Fighters Charity. Formed during the Second World War to support the bereaved families of firefighters who died during the Blitz, today The Fire Fighters Charity provides health and wellbeing services to serving and former members of the fire community and their families.
Court (Centre)
14,979 seats.
Finals matches scheduled to be played on Centre Court:
Saturday 14 July 2018: Ladies' Singles, Gentlemen's Doubles, Ladies' Doubles
Sunday 15 July 2018: Gentlemen's Singles, Mixed Doubles
Court (Centre) - roof stats
- 8 litres per second of fresh air per person pumped into the bowl to manage the environment
- 9 chiller units required to cool the air
- 10 minutes (maximum) that the roof takes to close
- 10 trusses holding up the roof
- 16 metres (height of the roof above the court surface)
- 30 minutes: maximum time expected before play can start/continue after the roof is closed and the internal environment is controlled and stabilised
- 43mph: wind speed up to which the roof can be deployed/retracted
- 70 tonnes: weight of each of the 10 trusses without extra parts
- 77 metres: the span of the moving roof trusses (width of football pitch = 68m)
- 100 tonnes: weight of each of the 10 trusses with all extras – eg motors, locking arms
- 100 percent of the roof’s fabric is recyclable
- 214 MM per second - maximum speed of truss deployment
- 1,200 extra seats installed in 2008
- 3,000 tonnes: combined weight (both fixed and moving) of the roof
- 5,200 square metres, area of retractable roof when fully deployed
- 7,500 Wimbledon umbrellas would be needed to cover the same area as the retractable roof
- 15,000: maximum spectator capacity
- 143,000 litres per second: total amount of conditioned air that the air-management system supplies to the bowl
- 290 million: number of tennis balls that could fit into Centre Court with the roof closed
Courts grass (gen) 2018
40 in total. 18 Championships grass courts (Centre + Nos 1-18, less 13) plus 20 grass court practice courts in Aorangi Park and at Southlands College (reduced from 22 due to No.1 Court Project).
Court (No.1)
Capacity of 11,393. Play scheduled to start at 1.00pm all days.
Courts (dimensions)
Centre Ct: Stadium – 110m long x 119m wide x 19m high. Area of grass - 41m x 22m.
No.1 Court: Stadium - 121m long x 121 wide x 18 m high. Area of grass as Centre Ct.
All lines are 50mm wide, except base lines which are 100mm.
Court Covers
Centre: New translucent cover in 1998. Weighs 1 ton (wet & dry) and takes 16 people approx 30 seconds to cover the court. Cover allows a greater amount of light to the grass. Air ventilation under the cover is aided by four large fans (two at each end).
No.1: New translucent cover in 1999. Weight etc as Centre. No.2 Court takes 8 coverers, all other courts have 6 coverers.
Dates
2018: Monday 2 July – Sunday 15 July
Digital figures
- Unique devices – 17.8m (20.9m in 2016)
- Visits – 69.9m (69.4m in 2016)
- Page views – 436m (395m in 2016)
- mobile.com uniques: 7.4m (7m in 2016)
- mobile.com visits: 17.8m (17m in 2016)
- mobile.com page views: 71.7m (64m in 2016)
- App downloads: 1.3m (1.4m in 2016)
- Pre-event video views: 39m
- Championships video views: 201m (115m in 2016)
- Apple TV downloads: 20,976 (24,758 in 2016)
- .com to apps uniques split: 93% to 7% (94% to 6% in 2016)
- .com to apps page views split: 48% to 52% (51% to 49% in 2016)
Fastest Serves
All Time
Gentlemen: 148mph - Taylor Dent, USA (2010)
Ladies: 129mph - Venus Williams, USA (2008)
2017
Gentlemen: 143mph - Nikoloz Basilashvili, GEO
Ladies: 121mph - Petra Martic, CRO
Flowers
Over 50,000 plants supplied each year.
Ivy on Centre Court is Boston Ivy, Parthenocissus Tricuspidaca Veitchii.
Grass
Championships playing height 8mm. Court grass composed of 100% rye grass.
Grounds (size)
Church Road site: 13.5 acres.
Plus car parks: 42 acres.
Hawk
Rufus, a Harris Hawk, trained by Imogen Davis of Avian Control. Visits the Club most weeks in the year to provide a deterrent to local pigeons by making aware of a predator in the grounds to persuade them to roost elsewhere. Flies for one hour (9.00am) most mornings of The Championships before the gates open.
Hawk-Eye
Electronic line calling system introduced on Centre and No.1 Cts in 2006. In 2017 covered Centre Court, No.1 Ct, No.2 Ct, No.3 Ct, Ct 12 and Ct 18.
Large Screen TV
The screen is 40 sq metres in size.
Longest Match
- 2010, Court 18, played over 3 days
- John Isner (USA) bt Nicolas Mahut (FRA) 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (7), 7-6 (3), 70-68
- 11 hours 05 minutes duration
- Final set lasted 491 minutes (8hrs 11mins), 1hr 38mins longer than the previous longest match in tennis history
- 980 points played in total – Mahut won 502 and Isner 478 of them (Serena Williams won 789 points over seven rounds to win the Ladies’ Singles)
- Isner served the most aces in a match – 113
- 123 balls used
Matches
674 during Fortnight.
Match Schedule
Media
3,250 media accredited (530+ press, 2,500 broadcast personnel, 200+ photographers and photographic support staff).
Membership of Club
- Five categories: Full, Life, Honorary, Temporary and Junior Temporary
- Full and Life Membership limited to 375 (the number of seats in the old Worple Road stand). All enjoy full privileges.
- Hon members elected by the Committee and mostly past singles champions and other people who have given special service to the sport.
- Around 120 Temp members also elected by the Committee. Renewed annually.
- To become a member must be proposed seconded and supported by 4 existing Full Members, all of whom are required to write in support of the application.
- Waiting list of about 1000 dating back many years.
Merchandise
During The Championships 2017, more than 151,000 retail transactions took place in the Wimbledon Shop, including:
- 46,408 Baseball Caps
- 30,386 Championships Towels
- 17,195 Crossed Rackets Logo T-Shirts
- 9,721 Autograph Balls
- 8,882 Umbrellas
- 1,334 Panama Hats
Middle Sunday
There is usually no play scheduled on middle Sunday to allow the courts to recover from intensive use of Week 1 and be thoroughly watered to ensure optimum performance in Week 2. Play has taken place on Middle Sunday four occasions: in 1991, 1997, 2004, 2016.
Officials
- Chairman: Philip Brook (2011)
- Chief Executive: Richard Lewis (2012)
- Referee: Andrew Jarrett (2006)
- Chief of Umpires: Adrian Wilson (2016)
- Head of Courts and Horticulture: Neil Stubley (2013)
Official Suppliers 2018 (13)
- Slazenger Official Ball (began in 1902)
- Robinsons Official Still Soft Drink (began in 1935)
- Rolex Official Timekeeper (began in 1978)
- IBM Official Supplier of Information Technology (began in 1990)
- Lanson Official Champagne (began in 2001)
- Ralph Lauren Official Outfitter (began in 2006)
- HSBC Official Banking Partner (began in 2008)
- Evian Official Bottled Water (began in 2008)
- Lavazza Official Coffee (began in 2011)
- Stella Artois Official Beer (began in 2014)
- Jaguar Official Car (began in 2015)
- Häagen-Dazs Official Ice Cream (began in 2016)
- Pimm's (began in 2017)
Order of Play
Decided by Referee and published around 6.00pm daily.
Players (2018) inc qualifying
790 players
Prize Money (2018)
Qualifying event
Mon 25 - Thurs 28 June 2018
Bank of England Sports Ground, Roehampton.
The Queue and General Security
- £5.00 fee (proceeds donated to charity) levied on storage of camping kit.
- Ground entry security procedures will be at an appropriately high level.
- On-day sales queue in Wimbledon Park leading to off-site search/scanning operation.
- All ticket holders searched on entry.
- Only one bag per ticket holder allowed. No larger than 16x12x12ins (40x30x30cm).
- No hard-sided items (picnic hampers, briefcases, cool-boxes, flasks, opaque bottles) allowed into the grounds.
- No Left Luggage facilities inside the grounds.
Racket Stringing
Championships stringing team string on average over 2,000 rackets comprising 60% for men, 40% for women. In total this adds up to over 40 miles of string.
Roof (Centre Court)
Completed in 2009. Main works commenced after The Championships 2006 as part of wholesale improvements to the east side of Centre Court. No roof in 2007, new fixed roof in 2008, retractable part in 2009.
Roof (No.1 Court)
Work started in August 2016. Scheduled for completion in 2019. There was a fixed, partial roof in 2017. New fixed roof in 2018, retractable element and fully operational in 2019.
Royal Box
Contains 74 dark green Lloyd Loom wicker chairs. The Queen attended in 1957, 1962, 1977, 2010.
Seedings
Men
The seeds are the top 32 players on the ATP Ranking list, BUT then rearranged on a surface-based system. Since 2002 a seeding committee has not been required for the Gentlemen’s Singles following an agreement made with the ATP. The seeding order is determined using an objective and transparent system to reflect more accurately an individual player’s grass court achievements. It is based on giving additional credit for grass court performance in the 2 year period immediately before the date used for seeding for The Championships. The formula is:
- Take the ATP Ranking points at 26 June 2017
- Add 100% of the points earned for all grass court tournaments in the immediate past 12 months period prior to 26 June 2017.
- Add 75% of the points earned for the best grass court tournament in the 12 months prior to that
Ladies
The seeding order follows the WTA ranking list, except where in the opinion of the committee, a change is necessary to produce a balanced draw.
Staff
Around 6,000 staff are taken on for Championships, including:
- Ball boys & girls: 250
- Ball distributors: 9
- Catering Staff: 2,200
- Court attendants: 192
- Data Collectors: 50
- Dressing room attendants: 30
- Facilities management: 54
- Groundstaff: 31
- Housekeeping staff: 400
- Media staff: 22
- Physio and massage therapists: 22
- Podiatrists: 2
- Referee’s Office: 16
- Stewards (Honorary): 200
- Stewards (Service & London Fire Brigade): 613
- Transport service drivers: 348
- Umpires, Chair and Line & management: 360
Strawberries & Cream
- Price for a portion of a minimum of 10 strawberries and cream at Wimbledon has remained at £2.50 per serving for seven years, since 2010.
- 33,000kg consumed during the 2017 tournament with over 10,000 litres of fresh cream.
- Usually Grade 1 English strawberries of the highest quality from Kent.
- From LEAF-registered farms (LEAF is a charity promoting Integrated Farm Management balancing organic with chemical practices).
- To ensure the utmost freshness, strawberries are picked at 4.00am, collected from the packing plant at 9.00am and are delivered to the Club by 11.00am for inspection and hulling. They are then enjoyed by guests on the same day
The Wimbledon Channel
The Wimbledon Channel, featured on wimbledon.com and on social media, provides live video and radio coverage of The Championships from 9am to close of play, including news from around the Grounds, behind-the-scenes interviews and features with players and Wimbledon personalities, weather reports and score updates.
Presented from a variety of locations including The Queue, Centre Court, The Hill, the Kids’ Zone, and a Centre Court commentary box, the channel shows off the full breadth of being on the Grounds at The Championships through a series of segments, including Breakfast at Wimbledon, the Lunch Hour, the Daily Debate, and Wimblewatch Live.
The Wimbledon Channel is available on Wimbledon.com, the Official Wimbledon Apps, YouTube, Twitter and selected segments on Facebook.
In addition, Wimbledon continues to partner with the BBC and ESPN to provide live streaming for British and American viewers. Visitors to Wimbledon.com in the UK were able to watch the BBC’s coverage of Centre Court, while visitors to Wimbledon.com in the US were able to watch all of ESPN’s coverage.
The Wimbledon Channel was also live from Qualifying in 2017 as the main Show Court was broadcast for the first time.
Tickets
See wimbledon.com
Tickets (resales)
Wimbledon Foundation - Ticket Resale for charity
- Since 1954, money raised from returned tickets has been donated to charity.
- Unwanted tickets recycled via collection from red boxes or bar code scan.
- Re-sold to people in the grounds. Priced at £15 for Centre Court and No.1 Court, £10 for No.2 Court.
- Total net income in 2017 was £173,212.50
- £346,425 – total funds donated to the Wimbledon Foundation after matching by HSBC. Proceeds distributed to charities through the Wimbledon Foundation’s grant programmes
Times of Play
- Grounds open at 10:30am.
- Start on Courts 2-18 scheduled for 11:30 daily
- Start on Centre and No.1 Court scheduled for 1pm daily except for the Gentlemen’s and Ladies’ Finals at 2.00pm.
- Close of play: Approx 9pm depending on weather, light and matches state.
Trophies
- Gentlemen’s Singles – Challenge Cup (since 1887)
- Ladies’ Singles – Ladies’ Singles Plate (since 1886)
Umpires, Chair and Line
- 360 officials working at The Championships in total of which 140 are from overseas. 40 dedicated Chair Umpires, 6 Technical Advisors and 12 Review Official with the remainder being Line Umpires.
- British Officials are all members of the Association of British Tennis Officials.
Weather
Championships recorded as being without rain interruptions since 1922: 1931, 1976, 1977, 1993, 1995, 2009, 2010.
Wild Cards
Awarded at the discretion of The Championships’ Committee who take into account LTA recommendations regarding British players. Overseas players may also be considered based on past performance and ranking, or recent record that has caused significant ranking gain since the close of Wimbledon entries, particularly if that has been achieved on grass.
