Events held at The Championships:
Gentlemen's Singles (128 draw)
Ladies' Singles (128 draw)
Gentlemen's Doubles (64 draw)
Ladies' Doubles (64 draw)
Mixed Doubles (48 draw)
Boys' Singles (64 draw)
Boys' Doubles (32 draw)
Girls' Singles (64 draw)
Girls' Doubles (32 draw)
35 and over Gentlemen's Invitation Doubles (16 pairs round robin)
45 and over Gentlemen's Invitation Doubles (16 pairs)
35 and over Ladies' Invitation Doubles (8 pairs round robin)
Wheelchair Gentlemen's Invitation Doubles (4 pairs) |
Players wishing to enter The Championships are required to submit their entry on a special form, which must be submitted six weeks before The Championships begin. The Committee of Management, with the assistance of the Referee, use computer rankings to determine which players will be admitted directly into Championship events, those who have to qualify and those who are rejected.
About 500 entries, including juniors, are accepted. Of these, 128 are included in the draw for the Gentlemen's Singles and Ladies' Singles Championships, 64 pairs for the Gentlemen's Doubles and Ladies' Doubles and 48 pairs for the Mixed Doubles Championships.
Qualifying
 |
Qualifiers are the winners of the qualifying competitions
staged at Roehampton the week before The Championships.
The 2008 Qualifying competition will be held from June 16th - 20th at the Bank of England Sports Club at Roehampton.
The Official Wimbledon Webite will be following the Qualifying event from the Bank of England Sports Ground at Roehampton with live point-by-point scores and regular news updates.
Players entering the singles events must play three rounds on grass in the week before The Championships. Unlike The Championships, there is no single 'winner' of Qualifying. Instead the players who win all three rounds — 16 in the Gentlemen's Singles and 12 in the Ladies' Singles — will progress, along with four pairs in each of the Ladies' and Men's Doubles events.
Lucky losers
are losers from the final round of qualifying competitions — chosen
in order of world rankings — to fill any vacancy which occurs in the
draw before the first round has been completed.
This year's qualifying
event will take place from 16th to 20st June, 2008 at The Bank
of England Sports Ground, Priory Lane, Roehampton, London SW15.
Pre-qualifying
From 1983 to 2003 The Lawn Tennis Association held Wimbledon
Pre-Qualifying
singles events two weeks before The Championships. Entries were restricted
to players qualified to represent Great Britain
under Rule 35 of the Rules of the LTA.
In the early
years, the number of players accepted in the competition varied from year to year. From 1993 to 1998, entry was restricted to 48 gentlemen
and 32 ladies.
In 2004 the events were discontinued and amalgamated
with the LTA Wild Card Play-off competitions.
In 2007 the LTA chose a number of British players based on their world rankings and awarded them wild-cards into the Wimbledon Singles Main Draw. The British players who were not chosen played in a Wimbledon Qualifying Wild Card Play-offs Event which took place between 12th and 15th June at the AELTC Sports Ground in Raynes Park, London. The winners earnt a place in the qualifying draw.
Wild cards
Wild cards are players without a high enough world ranking who are
accepted directly into the main Championship draws at the discretion
of the Committee. Wild cards are usually offered on the basis of past performance at Wimbledon
or to increase British interest. Wild cards have been allocated
since 1977 and from 2003 some singles Wild Cards have been determined
by competition. The only wild card to win the Men's Singles title was Goran Ivanisevic in 2001. No Wild Card has won the Ladies' Singles
title.
Seeding
A simplified form of seeding was introduced in 1924 when up to four
representatives of a nation were drawn in the four different quarters
of the draw. In 1927 full seeding was carried out and competitors
were selected according to ability, irrespective of nationality. Seeding has been
based on computer rankings since 1975.
Since 1927 only two unseeded players have won the Gentlemen’s Singles
— Boris Becker in 1985 and Goran Ivanisevic in 2001. No unseeded player has ever won the Ladies’ Singles. Eleven
unseeded players have reached the final of the Gentlemen’s
Singles and four unseeded players have reached the final of the
Ladies’ Singles. Nine unseeded pairs have won the Gentlemen’s
Doubles, five unseeded pairs have won the Ladies’ Doubles
and ten unseeded pairs have won the Mixed Doubles. |
