The Championships, Wimbledon - 2009 (Preview)

I'm sorry I'm pretty late in publishing on this, will cover day today updates in time :)

Wimbledon is the oldest of the tennis tournament (since 1877) , and only grand slam to be played in grass. This is the 3rd grand slam of the year and is played from late June to early July. The draw looks like this

Men's
Singles - 128
Doubles - 64
Invitational Doubles - 8 pairs (round robin)
Sr. Invitational Doubles - 8 pairs (round robin)
Wheel Chair Doubles - 4 pairs (round robin)

Women's
Singles - 128
Doubles - 64
Invitational Doubles - 8 pairs (round robin)
Wheel Chair Doubles - 4 pairs (round robin) - Event introduced from this year
Mixed Double's - 64

Juniors
Boy's Singles - 64
Girl's Singles - 64
Boy's Doubles - 64
Girl's Doubles - 64

Wimbledon is generally interrupted by rain, but this year a retractable roof is in place in the Centre Court. This roof was inaugurated on 17th May 2009.

Seeding in Wimbledon is done different, its based on last year's performance and past 12 month's performance of the player.

Defending Champions

Event Type	Name	Country
Men’s Singles	Rafael Nadal	Spain
Women’s Singles	Venus Williams	USA
Men’s Doubles	Daniel Nestor / Nenand Zimonjic	Canada Serbia
Women’s Doubles	Serena Williams / Venus Williams	USA USA
Mixed Doubles	Bob Bryan / Samantha Stosur	USA Australia
Boys Singles	Grigor Dimitrov	Bulgaria
Girls Singles	Laura Robson	United Kingdom
Boys Doubles	Cheng-peng Hsieh / Tsung-hua Yang	Chinese Taipei Chinese Taipei
Girls Doubles	Polona Hercog / Jessica Moore	Slovenia Australia
Men's Invitational	Donald Johnson / Jared Palmer	USA USA
Women's Invitational	Jana Navotona / Kathy Rinaldi	Czech Republic USA
Wheelchair Men's	Robin Ammerlan / Ronald Vink	Netherlands Netherlands
Senior Men's Invitational	Ken Flatch / Robert Seguso	USA USA

Nadal has opted out of this years tournament, which means there will be no top seeded player in the draw. Roger Federer would be looking for his 6th title, and also break Pete Sampras record of 14 Grand Slam titles. Andy Murray is the local favourite and would be vying for the title with a good warm up tournament at Queen's Club which he won. Novak Djokovic had a tough tournament at Halle where he struggled to reach the finals and eventually losing to Tommy Haas. Others who would be looking to have their hands on the trophy would be Andy Roddick, Juan Martin del Potro. Grigor Dimitrov who is last year junior champion is a person for a look out in this championship.

William sisters will be strong contenders for this year’s title, provided they are fit. The Russian girls would be the giving a tough fight. The women's draw is not as predictable as men's as no one plays pretty consistent.


- data from www.wimbledon.org & www.atpworldtour.com