Your guide to Wimbledon
It’s time for strawberries and cream, Pimms on the lawn and of course, Wimbledon.
The annual soiree at the All England Tennis club will dominate the next few weeks, but here’s all the facts you need from Ticketbis.net. Total prize money for the players has risen by seven per cent. That means £1.88m each is on offer for the Singles so Novak Djokovic and Petra Kvitová will be fighting hard to defend their titles.
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History
The Ladies’ Singles Plate has been contested since 1886. The Men’s Singles Cup since 1887.
Current champions
Novak Djokovic (Men’s Singles)
Petra Kvitová (Ladies’ Singles)
Players
More than 750 players will play
Prize Money
Singles Champions: £1.88m
Total: £26.75m
Attendance
Total attendance for 2014: 491,084. Up to 39,000 spectators per day.
Matches
660 during the fortnight
Longest Match
2010, Court 18, played over three days; John Isner (USA) beat Nicolas Mahut (FRA) 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (7), 7-6 (3), 70-68. 11 hours five minutes. The Final set lasted 8hrs 11mins.
Most Aces
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Hide AdMen: 212 - Goran Ivanisevic (CRO) 2001. Ladies: 57 - Alexandra Stevenson (USA) 1999, Serena Williams (USA) 2008
Fastest Ever Serve
Men: 148mph Taylor Dent – 2010. Women: 129mph - Venus Williams - 2008
English Summer Weather
Only seven Championships have been recorded as being without rain interruptions since: 1931, 1976, 1977, 1993, 1995, 2009, 2010.
Courts
19 Championships grass courts (Centre Court, Court Number 1, plus 17 more). There is no court 13!
Grass
Playing height 8mm.
Hawk
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Balls
54,250 used
No thank you
Fans have been told to leave selfie sticks at home, whilst the players must avoid wearing bright coloured clothes and keep to mainly white shirts and shorts or skirts.
Queue
The 2015 queue starts at 8am on Sunday 28 June. Only a few tickets are available each day for the show courts.
Ground tickets
Buy tickets on the day for standing room and unreserved seating across courts 3-19.
Go online
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Ballot
Go in for the ballot run by All England Lawn Tennis Club. Write to AELTC (P.O. BOX 98, London SW19 5AE) for ballot form, but this has to be sent by December of previous year. Chances are 1 in 10.
Royal box
The Royal Box has 74 seats. Getting an invite is tricky but President Clinton managed it and Kate Middleton found a way in for life!
Refreshments
At the largest single annual sporting catering operation in Europe, these quantities are over the fortnight of play.
350,000 cups of tea and coffee
230,000 glasses of Pimm’s
100,000 pints of draught beer
142,000 portions of English strawberries