FAMOUS SPORTING COMPETITIONS IN THE UK THIS SUMMER!

Wimbledon is the oldest tennis tournament in the world, starting in 1877 when it was a garden party tournament and only 22 players competed. The only competition was Men’s Singles; Ladies' Singles, and Men’s Doubles were added in 1884, with Mixed Doubles and Ladies' Doubles making their first appearance in 1913 The dates for Wimbledon this year are Monday 3rd July to Sunday 16th July 2023, and it is widely considered to be the most prestigious tournament in the world.

Key Facts

·Strawberries and cream are a Wimbledon tradition! 28,000 kg of strawberries and 10,000 litres of cream are consumed during Wimbledon Every year, over 140,000 bowls of strawberries and cream are dished out for the spectators and players All the fruit comes from one farm in Kent. Every morning before dawn, two teams of 40 pickers arrive at the farm to pick over 100,000 strawberries for one day’s consumption during the tournament!

·Over 50,000 tennis balls are used every tournament with 256 players and 254 matches in the singles tournaments alone Wimbledon needs a lot of tennis balls! Balls are changed after the first seven games and then each ninth game Last year, 54,250 balls were used across the Wimbledon championships. That’s the equivalent of 24 cans of balls per day for each outside court, and 48 cans per day for Centre Court and for Court One.

Since the 1870s, players have been required to wear white during the tournament, as it was thought that it would make them sweat less and would show fewer sweat marks. Since 2014, accessories also need to be white Players must be dressed in suitable tennis clothing that is almost entirely white This applies from when the player enters the court Normally, the Umpire decides on the day whether their outfit is acceptable Not even the top players can get away with bending the rules, and a few of them have been told off by the organisers Andre Agassi, known for his love of bright outfits, refused to play at Wimbledon from 1988 to 1990 The organizers wouldn’t allow him to wear his branded personal attire on the court, so he refused to play Even Roger Federer came under fire once for wearing orange-soled shoes in one match. He had to remove these before his next match

·Wimbledon is the only Grand Slam tennis tournament that is played on grass courts During the event, the grass is cut to a height of exactly 8 mm

·To get tickets to Wimbledon, a public ballot was created more than 100 years ago to offer as many people as possible the opportunity to get tickets for the Championships The ballot gives tennis fans from around the world the opportunity to enter a draw to purchase tickets to The Championships each year.

The Current Champions in Men’s Singles are Novak Djokovic and Elena Rybakina for Ladies' Singles

Matthew Ebden and Max Purcell won the Men’s doubles last year with Barbara Krejcikova and Katarina Siniakova winning the Ladies' doubles Neil Skupski and Desirae Krawczyk won the Mixed Doubles

·Last year the All England Lawn Tennis Club banned Russian and Belarusian players from participating due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine As a result, the three main governing bodies of tennis - the ATP, WTA, and ITF - stripped the tournament of all tennis ranking points