Wimbledon Events

Wimbledon Trophy

Wimbledon consists of five main events, five junior events and five invitation events.

Main events

The five main events, and the number of players (or teams, in the case of doubles) are:

Gentlemen's Singles (128)

Ladies' Singles (128)

Gentlemen's Doubles (64)

Ladies' Doubles (64)

Mixed Doubles (48)

Junior events

The five junior events and the number of players or teams are:

Boys' Singles (64)

Girls' Singles (64)

Boys' Doubles (32)

Girls' Doubles (32)

Disabled Doubles (12)

No mixed doubles event is held at this level.

Invitation events

The five invitational events and the number of pairs are:

Gentlemen's Invitation Doubles (8 pairs Round Robin)

Senior Gentlemen's Invitation Doubles (8 pairs Round Robin)

Ladies' Invitation Doubles (8 pairs Round Robin)

Gentlemen's Wheelchair Doubles (4 pairs)

Ladies' Wheelchair Doubles (4 pairs)

Match formats

Matches in the Gentlemen's Singles and Gentlemen's Doubles are best-of-five sets; all other events are best-of-three sets. A tiebreak game is played if the score reaches 6–6 in any set except the fifth (in a five-set match) or the third (in a three-set match), in which case a two-game lead must be reached.

All events are single-elimination tournaments, except for the Gentlemen's, Senior Gentlemen's and the Ladies' Invitation Doubles, which are round-robin tournaments.

Until 1922, the winners of the previous year's competition (except in the Ladies' Doubles and Mixed Doubles) were automatically granted byes into the final round (then known as the challenge round). This led to many winners retaining their titles in successive years, as they were able to rest while their opponent competed from the start of the competition. From 1922, the prior year's champions were required to play all the rounds, like other tournament competitors.

Schedule

Each year (currently until 2015), the tournament begins on the Monday falling between 20 and 26 June, two weeks after the Queen's Club Championships, which is one of the men's major warm-up tournaments. Another important men's warm-up tournament is the Gerry Weber Open, which is held in Halle, Germany, during the same week as the Queen's Club Championships. Other important grass-court tournaments before Wimbledon are Eastbourne, England, and 's-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands, both combining mixed events. The other women's warm-up tournament for Wimbledon is Birmingham, also in England. After the Championships each year there is a tournament at Newport, Rhode Island, USA.

Wimbledon is scheduled for 14 days, beginning on a Monday and ending on a Sunday. The five main events span both weeks, but the youth and invitational events are held mainly during the second week. Traditionally, there is no play on the "Middle Sunday", which is considered a rest day. However, rain has forced play on the Middle Sunday three times, in 1991, 1997 and 2004. On each of these occasions, Wimbledon staged a "People's Sunday", with unreserved seating and readily available, inexpensive tickets, allowing those with more limited means to sit on the show courts. If the tournament is not completed by the end of the second Sunday, all remaining matches are postponed until "People's Monday".

From 2015, the championships will begin one week later than in previous years, extending the gap between the tournament and the French Open from two to three weeks

Players and seeding

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 grass court events. Since the 2001 tournament 32 players have been given seedings in the Gentlemen's and Ladies' singles, 16 teams 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 in 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. The furthest that any qualifier has progressed in a Singles tournament is the semi-final round: John McEnroe in 1977 (Gentlemen's Singles), Vladimir Voltchkov 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 on the basis of their rankings, but it can change the seedings based on a player's previous grass court performance. Since 2002 a seeding committee has not been required for the Gentlemen's Singles following an agreement with the ATP. The seeding order is determined using the formula: ATP Entry System Position points + 100% points earned for all grass court tournaments in the past 12 months + 75% points earned for the best grass court tournament in the 12 months before that. A majority of the entrants are unseeded. Only two unseeded players have won the Gentlemen's Singles: Boris Becker in 1985 and Goran Ivanisevic in 2001. In 1985 there were only 16 seeds and Becker was ranked 20th; Ivanišević was ranked 125th when he won as a Wild Card entrant, although he had previously been a finalist three times, and been ranked no. 2 in the world; his low ranking was due to having been hampered by a persistent shoulder injury for three years, which had only just cleared up. In 1996, the title was won by Richard Krajicek, who was originally unseeded (ranked 17th, and only 16 players were seeded) but was promoted to a seeded position (still with the number 17) when Thomas Muster withdrew before the tournament. No unseeded player has captured the Ladies' Singles title; the lowest seeded female champion was Venus Williams, who won in 2007 as the 23rd seed; Williams was returning from an injury that had prevented her playing in previous tournaments, giving her a lower ranking than she would normally have had. 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.