Wimbledon (The Championships)

What is Wimbledon?

The Championships, Wimbledon, is one of tennis's four Grand Slam tournaments, played annually on grass at the All England Lawn Tennis Club in London over two weeks at the turn of June and July. Its two singles events are the gentlemen's singles and the ladies' singles, each a knockout draw; the organiser publishes a draw sheet for each event and records the champion at the head of the sheet.^[2][3] Doubles and other championships are played in the same fortnight.

Who organizes Wimbledon?

The Wimbledon Compendium, the club's annual reference book, is published on behalf of The All England Lawn Tennis Club (Championships) Limited, and lists among its records various agreements and arrangements between the All England Club and the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA).^[1] Wimbledon is one of the four tournaments in Grand Slam Tennis, which the 2026 Official Grand Slam Rule Book describes as “the collaboration between the four Grand Slam tournaments”, managed through a board of the four Grand Slam chairs supported by their CEOs and “responsible for reviewing and making decisions on sporting competition matters.”^[9] Ranking points are awarded by the two tours, the ATP for men and the WTA for women, and the ITF is the sport's international federation.

When and where is it held?

The Championships are staged at the All England Lawn Tennis Club in Wimbledon, London. The 2026 Championships ran from 29 June to 12 July 2026, with the ladies' singles final on Saturday 11 July and the gentlemen's singles final on Sunday 12 July.^[7][13] Wimbledon's draw sheets record Jannik Sinner as the 2026 gentlemen's singles champion and Linda Noskova as the ladies' singles champion, and Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek as the 2025 champions.^{[2][3][4][14]} The club gives the dates of the next edition as 28 June to 11 July 2027, which it marks as 150 Years of The Championships.^[6] The Compendium states that the Championships 2020 was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic; no edition was held that year.^[1]

Gentlemen's (M) and ladies' (W) singles champions. 2025–2026 from Wimbledon's draw sheets; gentlemen's champions 2016–2024 from the Wimbledon Compendium 2025; ladies' champions 2016–2024 from the WTA's list of past winners, which prints an initial and surname. No Championships were held in 2020.^[1][5]

Since when does it exist?

The Compendium dates the event to 1877 and reproduces the notice in which the club, then called the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club, announced that it proposed “to hold a lawn tennis meeting, open to all amateurs”, with a gold champion prize to the winner.^[1] The same Compendium numbers the 2025 tournament the 138th Championships.^[1]

How do players qualify?

Entry follows the 2026 Official Grand Slam Rule Book, common to all four Grand Slam tournaments. Unless otherwise agreed, each singles main draw has 128 places: direct acceptances, qualifiers and eight wild cards, with the Rule Book's table allowing 16, 12 or 8 qualifiers.^[9] Direct acceptance is by ranking: the Rule Book provides that “the ranking to be used shall be that dated approximately forty-two (42) days prior to the commencement of the tournament.”^[9] Qualifiers come through a separate qualifying competition, and wild cards are granted by the tournament. There are no national quotas: entry is individual. For how wild cards work across sports, see wildcards and universality places.

Why does it matter?

The measurable proxies are ranking points and prize money. The 2026 ATP Official Rulebook awards 2,000 ranking points to a Grand Slam singles champion, 1,300 to the runner-up and 10 to a first-round loser, and counts a player's results from all four Grand Slams in his ranking.^[10] The WTA's published table also gives 2,000 points to a Grand Slam singles champion, and the four Grand Slams are among the results counted in a player's ranking.^[11] For 2026 the club's published prize-money schedule sets a total of £64,200,000, with £3,600,000 to each singles champion.^[8] For 2022 the ATP, in a statement dated 20 May 2022, said that “the decision by Wimbledon to ban Russian and Belarusian players from competing in the UK this summer undermines this principle and the integrity of the ATP Ranking system”, and that “absent a change in circumstances, it is with great regret and reluctance that we see no option but to remove ATP Ranking points from Wimbledon for 2022.”^[12]

Who competes?

The singles draws are open to professional players of any nationality who meet the ranking cut or come through qualifying or a wild card; the draw sheets print a three-letter nationality code beside each name, as for the 2026 champions (ITA and CZE).^[2][3] Men and women compete in separate singles draws of 128. The ATP's 2022 statement described the ban on Russian and Belarusian players as applying to that summer; the wider position across sports is set out under national suspensions and neutral athletes. The WTA also publishes a year-by-year list of past ladies' singles winners.^[5]