Aces (All time)

Men: 212 - Goran Ivanisevic (CRO)  2001
Ladies: 57 - Alexandra Stevenson (USA)  1999, Serena Williams (USA) 2008

Aces (2010)

Men: John  Isner 113  (from 1 match), Tomas Berdych 111 (from 7 matches)
Ladies: Serena Williams 89 (from 7 matches – a new Championship record)

Attendance (2010)

Total attendance figure for the 13 days of The Championships 2010 489,946, which is the second highest overall for 13 days in spite of the reduced capacity of 37,500.  All time highest of 511,043 was set in 2009 with daily capacity of 40,000.

Ball Boys and Girls

Around 250 come through a rigorous training routine.  See separate page for full information.

Balls

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 9 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 LTAs ‘Wimbledon Balls for Schools’ Scheme.  Yellow balls used for first time in 1986.  At start of day 48 tins taken onto Centre and No.1 Courts and 24 on all outside courts.

Capacity (grounds)

38,500 spectators. 

Catering

Wimbledon is the largest single annual sporting catering operation (1800 staff) carried out in Europe.  Average quantities supplied by Championships’ caterers FMC.

• 300,000 cups of tea and coffee
• 250,000 bottles of water
• 207,000 meals served
• 200,000 glasses of Pimm’s
• 190,000 sandwiches
• 150,000 bath buns, scones, pasties and doughnuts
• 135,000 ice creams
• 130,000 lunches are served
• 100,000 pints of draught beer and lager
• 60,000 Dutchees
• 40,000 char-grilled meals served
• 32,000 portions of fish and chips
• 30,000 litres of milk
• 28,000 kg (112,000 punnets) of English strawberries
• 25,000 bottles of champagne
• 23,000 bananas
• 22,000 slices of pizza
• 20,000 portions of frozen yoghurt
• 12,000 kg of poached salmon and smoked salmon
• 7,000 litres of dairy cream

Champion’s 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 2011, to be held at the Inter Continental Hotel, Park Lane.

Clothing - players

Predominately in white rule introduced in 1963.  ‘Almost entirely in white’ rule introduced in 1995.  Clothing submitted to Club for comment earlier in year.  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: 

1. No solid mass  of colouring
2. Little or no dark or bold colours
3. No fluorescent colours
4. Preference towards pastel colours
5. Preference for back of shirt to be totally white
6. Preference for shorts and skirts to be totally white
7. All other items of clothing including hats, socks and shoes to be almost entirely white.

Court (Centre)

15,000 seats.  Finals matches scheduled to be played on Centre Court:
Saturday 2 July 2011:  Ladies’ Singles, Men’s Doubles, Mixed Doubles
Sunday 3 July 2011: Men’s Singles, Ladies’ Doubles.

Court (Centre)
Roof stats

Courts grass (gen) 2011

19 Championships grass courts in total (Centre + Nos 1-19, less 13.
There are 22 grass practice courts in Aorangi Park and at Southlands College.

Court (No.1-new)

Capacity of 11,429.  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 same 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.  Court 2 takes 8 coverers, all other courts have 6 coverers.

Dates

2011: Monday 20 June - Sunday 3 July
2012: Monday 25 June – Sunday 8 July (“)
2013: Monday 24 June – Sunday 7 July (“)
2014: Monday 23 June – Sunday 6 July (“)
2015: Monday 22 June – Sunday 5 July (“)

Draw

At Club on Friday 17 June 2011, 10.00am
Men’s Singles: 128 places (inc 32 seeds, 16 qualifiers, 8 wild cards)
Ladies’ Singles: 128 (inc 32 seeds, 12 qualifiers, 8 wild cards)
Men’s, Ladies’ Doubles - 64 pairs, Mixed Doubles – 48 pairs

Fastest Serve (2010)

Men: Taylor Dent - 148 mph (new Championships record)
Ladies: Venus Williams - 128 mph

Fastest Serve (All Time)

Men: 148mph - Taylor Dent (USA) - 2010
Women: 129mph - Venus Williams (USA) – 2008

Flowers

Over 50,000 plants supplied each year. 
Ivy on Centre Court  is Boston Ivy, Parthenocissus Tricuspidaca Veitchii.

Grass

Court grass composed of 100% rye grass (changed from 70% rye/30% red fescue in Sept 2000 for enhanced wear and tear properties).  Championships playing height 8mm.

Grounds (size)

Church Road site:  13.5 acres
Plus car parks:  42 acres

Hawk

Rufus, a Harris Hawk, trained by Wayne 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. 

Information Technology

Official IT Supplier:  IBM
Over 12.3m unique users logged onto the Wimbledon Website during 2009 event.  All-time Grand Slam record.  Total page views 359m.  Average dwell time on site of 82mins.

Large Screen TV

The screen is 40 sq metres in size

Logo

Pantone refs:  Green – PMS 349, Purple – PMS 268

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 (8hrs11mins), 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

662 during Fortnight

Media (2010)

3,104 media accredited (675 press, 2,230 broadcast personnel, 199 photographers and photographic support staff).

Membership of Club

• Four categories:  Full, Life, Honorary and Temporary.
• Full and Life Membership limited to 375.  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 Ctee.  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 (2010)

The top selling items in the Wimbledon Shop were: 

• 18,000  Yellow Mini Tennis Ball Keyrings                                             
• 13,000  Men’s Championships Towels                                                  
• 8,500  Ladies Championships Towels                                    
• 8,200  Crossed Rackets T Shirt (Mens, Ladies and Kids)            
• 8,000  Twin pack wristbands                                                                   
• 7,500  4 ball can of tennis balls                                                               
• 7,400  5 inch tennis ball         

Museum

Opened in April 2006.  Open every day 10:00-17:00.   Closed Fri/Sat/Sun before, middle Sunday of and Monday after event.  Access during event only for people already in Grounds. 

Officials

Chairman:  Philip Brook (2011)
Chief Executive:  Ian Ritchie (2006)
Referee:  Andrew Jarrett (2006)
Chief of Umpires:  Jenny Higgs (2010)
Head Groundsman:  Eddie Seaward

Order of play

Decided by Referee and published around 6.00pm daily.

Player Entries

Closes May 9.   Final list around mid June.

Players (2010) inc qualifying

584 players

Prize Money (2011)

Singles Champions:  £1,100,000.  Total:  £14.6m.

Practice

For Qualifying at Roehampton – Saturday 11 June
For Main Draw at Aorangi Park – Saturday 11 June
For Main Draw on Championships’ courts – Wednesday 15 June

Qualifying

Mon 13-Thurs 14 June 2011
Bank of England Sports Ground, Roehampton.

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. 

Radio Wimbledon

Official Championships Radio Station .  Offers match commentary, news, views interviews, traffic updates .  Frequency 87.7FM (4 mile radius of Club) and 96.3FM (Centre Court only) Also available on www.wimbledon.com

Roof (Centre Court)

Completed in 2009.  Main works commenced after 2006 Championships 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. 

Royal Box

Contains 74 dark green Lloyd Loom wicker chairs.  Guest list only released on the day for security reasons.  The Queen attended in 1957, 1962, 1977, 2010.  Top of parapet is 12ft from court level.  See separate sheet for more information.

Seedings

To be announced on Wednesday 15 June 2011, around 10.00am
32 seeds in Men’s and Ladies’ singles.

Revised seeding arrangements for men introduced in 2001 when seedings committee disbanded.  Formula amended in 2002 for men as follows: 
Take ESP points at 13 June 2011
Add 100% points earned for all grass court tournament in past 12 months
Add 75% points earned for best grass court tournament in 12 months before that

Staff

Staff  taken on for Championships approx:
Ball boys & girls:  250
Ball distributors:  7
Carpenters, electricians etc:  6
Catering Staff:  1,700
Cleaners (ground):  75
Cleaners (office):  75
Court attendants:  140
Court officials:  335
Dressing room attendants:  18
Groundsmen & maintenance men:  46
Lavatory attendants:  112
Left luggage office:  30
Lift operators:  30
Physiotherapists:  13
Practice courts:  6
Press Office staff:  18
Referee’s Office:  15
Scoreboard operators & data collectors:  46
Security guards:  590
Speed of Service Operators:  8
Stewards (Honorary):  150
Stewards (Service & London Fire Brigade):  490
Transport service drivers:  315

Strawberries & Cream

Usually Grade I Kent strawberries of the highest quality
Around 28,000 kg/112,000 punnets consumed during the Fortnight. 
Around 8615 punnets (2100 kg) containing minimum of 10 berries consumed daily,
Served with over 7,000 litres of fresh cream.
To ensure utmost freshness, strawberries are picked the day before being served, arrive at Wimbledon at around 5.30a.m where they are inspected before being hulled.
Price of strawberries (Grade 1 from Kent) & cream for punnet of not less than 10 berries + cream:  1993 - £1.70; 1994 - £1.70; 1995 - £1.75; 1996 - £1.80; 1997 - £1.85; 1998 - £1.85; 1999 - £1.75; 2000 - £1.80; 2001 - £1.85: 2002 - £1.95;  2003 - £2.00;  2004 - £2.00; 2005 – £2.00; 2006-£2.00; 2007-£2.00; 2008-£2.25; 2009- £2.25; 2010 - £2.50; 2011- £2.50.

Tickets

See tickets section on www.wimbledon.com.

Tickets (used)

Used/unwanted tickets recycled via collection from red boxes or bar code scan.  Re-sold to people in the grounds.  Priced at £5.00.  Since 1954, money raised from returned tickets has been donated to charity (see Charity above).  

Times of Play

Grounds open at 10:30am.
Start scheduled for 12:00 noon daily on the outside courts.
Scheduled to start at 1.00pm on Centre and No.1 Courts except for the Men’s and Ladies’ Finals   at 2.00pm.  Close of play:  Approx 9.00pm depending on weather, light and matches state.

Transport

Fleet of 167 vehicles and 315 drivers, The Championships’ courtesy cars make over 15,000 journeys for players and VIP. 

Trophies

Men’s Singles – Challenge Cup (since 1887). 
Ladies’ Singles – Ladies’ Singles Plate (since 1886)

TV

BBC is the host broadcaster.  Agreement renewed in 2008 to 2014 inc.  Global cumulative audience estimated at 378.8m people in 182 countries.

Umpires & Line judges

330 (approx 125 women) on duty comprising mostly British plus 60 from overseas.  British are members of Association of British Tennis Officials based at The Queen’s Club.

Weather

Championships recorded as being without rain interruptions since 1922:  1931, 1976, 1977, 1993, 1995, 2009, 2010

Wild cards

Announced w/c Monday 6 June 2011.  Awarded at discretion of Championships Committee.  Usually to British players nominated by LTA or special circumstances (eg Goran Ivanisevic in 2001 or a recent Champion whose ranking has fallen through injury).  Eight available in both Men’s & Ladies’ Singles.  LTA Wild Card play-off at Club w/c Monday 7 June.