On Monday the world’s oldest tennis tournament takes place in London for its 125th year. Coverage in this part of the world will make much of Andy Murray, the British number one, who, at 24, is chasing his first Grand Slam title. He is the fourth seed and in good form, having won the Aegon Championships at Queen’s Club last week.
The defending women’s champion, Serena Williams, has been seeded seventh, 19 places above her world ranking, despite missing nearly a year of competition because of injury and illness. Kim Clijsters, the 28-year-old US Open and Australian Open champion, has withdrawn because of an ankle injury.
This year an “undesirables” blacklist has been given to the tournament organisers following an investigation into Austrian Daniel Koellerer. The former world number 55 was fined €70,000 and banned for life last month after being found guilty of three offences relating to match-fixing.
This will be the first Wimbledon where the singles finals are broadcast in 3D. Scheduled for July 2nd and 3rd, the finals will see the contenders battling it out for first prizes of £1,100,000 (€1,250,000). Last year’s victory by Rafael Nadal (pictured) over Tomas Berdych in the men’s final was watched by an average audience of 5.6 million BBC viewers; 2.3 million watched Williams win her fourth title.
