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The stage will open again in 2023 for the world's oldest and most prestigious tennis tournament - the Wimbledon.
As the 2022 season comes to a close, here's everything you will need to know about Wimbledon that will take centerstage in the next British Summer.
Date for the Wimbledon
The 2023 edition of the Wimbledon series will take place from the 3rd of July to the 16th of July, 2023.Location
The location for the Wimbledon will be the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club down in Church Road, South-West London. The tournament celebrated its centenary at the current venue in 2022. The venue that hosts the Wimbledon includes 18 championship courts.The show courts - the Centre Court will be where the all-important finals will take place. Alongside this, the No 1 Court and No 2 Court will be where the other important games will be played.
Will Russian players be allowed?
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian athletes were restricted from international sporting events. Currently, there is no clear green light as to whether Russian players will be allowed to participate in Wimbledon.The imposition, a part of the British sports governing bodies, came amidst rising tensions in 2022. The Lawn Tennis Association restricted players from Russia and Belarus from competing in any tennis tournament in the UK.
Owing to this rule, Wimbledon points were stripped from ranking points last year.
But it is yet to be decided if the Lawn Tennis Association will allow Russian and Belarus players to compete. However, if they lift the restriction, they will have to play under the Olympic flag and not represent the Russian flag.
The Middle Sunday
One of the implementations that were successful in 2022 was the middle Sunday. In 2022, the tournament organizers had a full schedule on the middle Sunday of the tournament. The implementation was successful, and the excitement continued through the weekend to the decisive finals days.Before 2022, the middle Sunday was a rest day, except for exceptional circumstances. Before the 2022 tournament, the organizers added that there would be a complete order of play in the middle Sunday to encourage better participation and keep the tournament hype.
With Middle Sunday continuing for another year, the fourth-round singles schedule will now be split between Sunday and Monday. It was a chaotic Monday earlier, where all the singles in the fourth round were played due to the rest day.
This implementation helps the organizers schedule the games so that anyone with Wimbledon tickets can watch as many matches as they wish without missing out.
The Defending Champions
Novak Djokovic is currently the defending Genthleman's Champion. The Serbian defeated Australia's Nick Kyrgios in an exciting final. It was a game where both players stepped up with scores reading 4-6, 6-3. 6-4, 7-6 (7-3), to win his 7th title and his overall 21st Grand Slam title.This was also Djokovic's fourth back-to-back title since 2018. In 2020, the tournament was not played due to the global pandemic.
This win from Djokovic made him surpass Roger Federer for most Grand Slam wins. He is now behind the King of Clay, Rafael Nadal, in most Grand Slams, with 22 wins.
Elba Ryabina from Kazakhstan was the Ladies' singles' twinner in 2022, defeating Ons Jabeur of Tunisia 3-6, 6-2, 6-2. This was Elena's first Grand Slam title.
The defending champions of the other categories are as follows:
Men's doubles: Matthew Ebden and Max Purcell
Women's doubles: Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova
Mixed doubles: Neal Skupski and Desirae Krawczyk
Wheelchair men's singles: Shingo Kunieda
Wheelchair women's singles: Diede de Groot
Wheelchair quad singles: Sam Schroder
Wheelchair men's doubles: Gustavo Fernández / Shingo Kunieda
Wheelchair women's doubles: Yui Kamiji / Dana Mathewson
Wheelchair quad doubles: Sam Schroder / Niels Vink
Boys' singles: Mili Poljicak
Girls' singles: Liv Hovde
Boys' doubles: Sebastian Gorzny / Alex Michelsen
Girls' doubles: Rose Marie Nijkamp / Angella Okutoyi
Wimbledon Hall of Fame
Winning a Wimbledon is every professional tennis player's dream. Martina Navratilova has the most titles at Wimbledon and has a record of nine wins, including six in a row from 1982 to 1982.The retired Roger Federer has the record for the second most titles with eight. He also won five times in a row between 2003 and 2007. The Swiss legend's last win came in 2017 when he defeated Marin Cilic of Croatia. Bjorn Borg also has a similar achievement at Wimbledon, winning it five times in succession between 1976 to 1980.
The last Brit to win a Wimbledon was in 2016 when Andy Murray defeated Milos Raonic. The last woman of British origin to win a singles title was Virginia Wade, who beat Betty Stove in 1977.
Prize Money
With its elite setting, prize money at Wimbledon is also heavily talked about. The torment rewards both men and women equally, and the Singles' winner will take home a bounty of 2 million pounds. The runner-up will be rewarded with 1.05 million pounds, and the second runner-up will pick up £535,000 pounds.The rest of the prize money for the singles draw is as follows:
- Semi-Finalist £535,000
- Quarter-Finalist £310,000
- Fourth Round £190,000
- Third Round £120,000
- Second Round £78,000
- First Round £50,000
Federer departs from the Wimbledon stage
Roger Federer redefined the epitomes of success at Wimbledon in his illustrious career of 20+ years. The Swiss who retired in October is an eight-time winner and will surely be missed by all who will purchase Wimbledon tickets for 2023.But the fierce battles, the never-give-up attitude and the camaraderie he showed during his long stint will always stay close to every single person who watched him play with Wimbledon tickets will remain priceless.
Tickets for the 2023 event will follow a similar approach to the other years. The organizers will allow individuals to register for an open ballot each year and draw out Wimbledon tickets. This is a tricky process since there's a huge demand, and often fans get disappointed.
But as a fix, trusted reseller platforms provide an easy way into Wimbledon, and it should be an option you should be checking out for Wimbledon tickets in 2023.
