Wimbledon 2023 starts: dates, participants and prize details

The main draw matches of Wimbledon, the third Grand Slam tennis tournament of the season, will begin tomorrow in London, the capital of England.

Wimbledon, one of the four most important tournaments of the tennis season, with the Australian Open, the French Open (Roland Garros) and the US Open, will be organized from July 3 to 16 this year.

The All England Lawn Tennis Club in London will host Wimbledon matches for the 136th time, first held in 1877.

Russian and Belarusian tennis players, who were barred from Wimbledon in 2022 due to Russia’s Belarusian-backed military intervention in Ukraine, will compete as neutral athletes this year.

Total prize money for Wimbledon 2023 reached the highest level in the organization’s history at £44.7 million (approximately 1.5 billion lire). Total prize money increased 10.8 percent compared to last year.

Consequently, the organization’s individual champions will win prize money of £2.35 million (approximately 77.5 million lire). The women’s and men’s singles champions received £2 million in 2022.

DJOKOVIC ON THE FIELD FOR THE 24TH GRAND SLAM

Novak Djokovic, who has won Wimbledon 7 times including the last 4 events, will add a new one to his championships and try to increase his own record of winning the most Grand Slam tournaments to 24.

If the second-seeded men’s Djokovic reaches his eighth win, he will share the record for the most Wimbledon-winning male tennis player held by Roger Federer.

Djokovic, 36, will also catch up with Margaret Court, who holds the title of “the tennis player who has won the most Grand Slam tournaments in history” with 24 championships.

Djokovic, who missed the first two major tournaments of the season through injury, was runner-up to last year’s Nick Kyrgios (30 seeds), Andrey Rublev (7), Felix Auger-Aliassime (10) in the same main draw quarter. , Casper Ruud (4), Jannik Sinner (8). ) and Taylor Fritz (9) are also in the same half of the main chart.

In the other half of the main table, world number 1 Carlos Alcaraz leads. Two weeks ago, 20-year-old Alcaraz, who won the first grass-court tournament of his career, en route to the final includes Daniil Medvedev (3), Stefanos Tsitsipas (5), Holger Rune (6), Frances Tiafoe (10) , Alexander Zverev (19) and the 2021 finalists Matteo Berrettini.

THREE FAVORITES IN WOMEN

Iga Swiatek, Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina, who are in the top three world rankings, are listed as the women’s favorites for Wimbledon. However, it should not be ignored that different names have won the last 6 Wimbledon Tournaments.

Last year’s champion Rybakina (seeded 3) and Sabalenka (2), who lost in the final of this year’s Australian Open, fell in the same half of the main table. In the neighborhood where Rybakina is located, attention is drawn to last year’s finalist Ons Jabeur (6), 2011 and 2014 champion Petra Kvitova (9).

Maria Sakkari (8), Barbora Krejcíkova (10) and Karolina Muchova (16), who played in the final of the French Open this year, stand out among the names Sabalenka can face until the semifinals.

World number 1 Swiatek, who did not have a championship on grass courts and could not see beyond the 4th round at Wimbledon, competed in the other part of the main table with ambitious tennis players like Jessica Pegula (4), Caroline Garcia (5), Coco Gauff (7), Daria Kasatkina (11).

RAFAEL NADAL WILL NOT ATTEND

Rafael Nadal, who has been away from tennis since January due to injury, will miss Wimbledon, where he won the championship in 2008 and 2010. Nadal, 37, is expected to return to the courts in the Davis Cup Finals in September or at the Australian Open next year.

In addition to Nadal, Karen Khachanov, who is ranked 11th in the men’s world rankings, will not be able to play at Wimbledon due to injury.

THE DIFFERENT STORY OF WIMBLEDON

Wimbledon, the oldest tennis tournament, was first held on July 9, 1877, with 22 all-male British tennis players participating.

Spencer Gore won the first tournament at the facility, which was established on 23 July 1868 to play croquet (an outdoor game similar to cricket), and was named the “All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club” in 1877. In In 1884, women’s singles and men’s doubles categories were added to the tournament, while women’s doubles and mixed doubles were included in the organization in 1913.

The Wimbledon Tournament, which is among the most prestigious organizations in tennis, has a special place with its own rules. In the tournament where “dark green” and “purple” have been accepted as official colors since 1909, the background behind the courts must be “dark green” per the rules. Although it is not written, there are some rules such as the “obligation to wear white”, the protocol for entering and leaving the court. The rules did not only apply to the 2012 London Olympics.

Wimbledon is also the only Grand Slam tournament to be played on grass courts. On the grass surface, the ball gains more speed than on a hard court and clay. The grass court, where the balls do not rise very high off the ground, gives advantage to players with fast serves and strong kicks.

In the event of rain during the match, the fields outside the center court are covered with tarpaulin and a rain break is given for the matches. Following Center Court with a retractable roof since 2009, Court Number 1 also received a retractable roof system in 2019.

WIMBLEDON RECORDS

Here are some statistics from the Wimbledon Tennis Tournament, where Roger Federer of Switzerland won 8 championships in men’s singles and Martina Navratilova of the USA 9 in women’s singles:

MORE WINNERS IN SINGLES

• Men:
• Roger Federer (Switzerland) – 8 times
• *William Renshaw (Great Britain) – 7
• Pete Sampras (United States) – 7
• Novak Djokovic (Serbia) – 7
• Women:
• Martina Navratilova (United States) – 9
• *Helen Wills Moody (United States) – 8
• Steffi Graf (Germany) – 7
• Serena Williams (United States) – 7
• *Dorothea Lambert Chambers (England) – 7
• Most consecutive winners
• Men:
• *William Renshaw (Great Britain) – 6 times
• Bjorn Borg (Sweden) – 5
• Roger Federer (Switzerland) – 5
• Women:
• Martina Navratilova (United States) – 6
• *Suzanne Lenglen (France) – 5
• Winners of the last 10 years
• Men:
• 2012 – Roger Federer (Switzerland)
• 2013 – Andy Murray (Great Britain)
• 2014 – Novak Djokovic (Serbia)
• 2015 – Novak Djokovic (Serbia)
• 2016 – Andy Murray (Great Britain)
• 2017 – Roger Federer (Switzerland)
• 2018 – Novak Djokovic (Serbia)
• 2019 – Novak Djokovic (Serbia)
• 2021 – Novak Djokovic (Serbia)
• 2022 – Novak Djokovic (Serbia)
• Women:
• 2012 – Serena Williams (United States)
• 2013 – Marion Bartoli (France)
• 2014 – Petra Kvitova (Czech Republic)
• 2015 – Serena Williams (United States)
• 2016 – Serena Williams (United States)
• 2017 – Garbiñe Muguruza (Spain)
• 2018 – Angelique Kerber (Germany)
• 2019 – Simona Aleppo (Romania)
• 2021 – Ashleigh Barty (Australia)
• 2022 – Elena Rybakina (Kazakhstan)

• youngest winner

• Men: Boris Becker (Germany) (1985) – 17 years
• Women: *Lottie Dod (Great Britain) (1887) – 15

• oldest winner

• Men: *Arthur Gore (Great Britain) (1909) – 41 years old
• Women: *Charlotte Cooper (Great Britain) (1908) – 37

• Lowest Ranking Winner

• Men: Goran Ivanisevic (Croatia) (2001) – 125th in the world
• Women: Venus Williams (USA) (2007) – 31st in the world
• Note: *Including championships won before the open period (professional tennis players were allowed to play against amateur players in 1968).
• Note 2: Wimbledon did not take place in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

(AA)