10 facts about Wimbledon

The All England Club hosts the iconic Grand Slam over the next two weeks

Wimbledon is back with the All England Lawn and Tennis Club set to attract 500,000 spectators across two action-packed weeks of tennis.

Novak Djokovic looks to retain his title, which would total four consecutive titles for the Serbian.

While Iga Swiatek is the favourite in the women’s singles with the world No1 triumphing at the French Open earlier this month.

British interest is propped up by Emma Raducanu, Andy Murray and Cameron Norrie, who will hope to lean on the home support to contend into the second week.

Here are 10 fun facts about the iconic Grand Slam:

1. There will be approximately 54,000 tennis balls used during the Championships across the fortnight.

2. Every day 48 tins of tennis balls will be taken to Centre Court and Court One to start each day’s play. While the outside courts will have 24 tins of tennis balls.

3. The tennis balls have only been yellow since 1986 when they replaced the traditional white tennis balls in order to serve television viewers better.

4. Wimbledon commands a global audience of one billion viewers across 200 territories.

5. The Championships will serve 140,000 portions of English strawberries and cream. That includes 33,000kgs of strawberries with 10,000 litres of cream for the traditional snack of choice.

6. Wimbledon is the oldest tennis tournament in the world, it was founded in 1877 at the All England Club when 22 players took part in the inaugural Gentlemen’s Single Championship.

7. The Wimbledon grass is manicured to an exceptional standard with the staff keeping the length to just 8mm.

8. Wimbledon is home to a Hawk called Rufus, who is tasked with scaring away pigeons each morning from the tennis courts.

9. The repair team at Wimbledon will string 2,000 rackets with 40 miles of string in total.

10. Prize money for the 2022 Championships totals £40,350,000, up 15 per cent from 2021’s pool of £35,334,000. The 2022 singles champions will pick up a cool £2,000,000, while the finalists can take home £1,050,000 as a consolation. The doubles champions win £540,000 and the runners-up will win £270,000.