How to see matches for free on the BBC – and via Eurosport and YouTube – plus details of tickets, seedings and injuries – including whether Andy Murray will be fit to play...
As the tennis season moves into summer, we come to the year’s biggest tournament – Wimbledon. The most coveted of the four Grand Slams, the Championships – held at the All England Tennis Club – attract the best of the world’s tennis talent, from new French Open champions Simona Halep and Rafael Nadal to Roger Federer and Serena Williams.
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But who will lift the trophy? And will fellow Brit hopefuls Kyle Edmund and Johanna Konta make it to the latter stages of the competition? As usual, the BBC will be screening the Championships for the full two weeks. Here are all the details you need on how to watch live on TV and online, the Wimbledon draw and seedings and the daily court schedules…
When is Wimbledon 2018?
This year’s Championships are held from Monday 2nd July – Sunday 15th July, with the women’s final taking place on 14th July followed by the men’s final on 15th July. Qualifying was held at the Bank of England Club from Monday 25th June – Thursday 28th June with Brit Dan Evans, who recently served a year-long drugs ban, missing out on a place in the main draw. (More details on the players who did make it through below).
The men’s and women’s (or gentlemen’s and ladies’, in Wimbledon speak) tournaments begin on 2nd July, with the doubles starting on 4th July and mixed doubles from 5th July. The juniors, wheelchair and invitational matches commence on Saturday 7th July.
How can I watch Wimbledon 2018 on TV and online?
Wimbledon 2018 will as usual be screened by the BBC who are showing the tournament in Ultra HD for the first time. Sue Barker is back, fronting a team presenting live matches during the day on BBC1 and BBC2 from 11:30am (11am on day one) with commentators including Andrew Castle and John Inverdale. There will also be insight from tennis legends including John McEnroe, Martina Navratilova, Boris Becker, Billie Jean King, Tracy Austin, Pat Cash, Kim Clijsters and Tim Henman (read more about Tim’s top male players to watch).
The BBC will also broadcast an evening round-up – Today at Wimbledon – hosted by Clare Balding on BBC2, reflecting on the day’s best action.
As for online, all Centre Court matches will be available in Ultra HD on BBC iPlayer, with up to 16 live HD streams also available on BBC Sport online, BBC iPlayer and via the Red Button.
But there will be one crucial difference this year. The cameras that capture all the action have been taken in-house, as of 2018, with the All England Club, rather than the BBC, choosing the footage to be shown on our TV screens for the first time.
If you have Eurosport, you can also watch a highlights package, airing daily from 10-11:30pm, with the broadcaster owning exclusive rights to countries like Belgium, Russia, the Netherlands and Sweden.
If you don’t have Eurosport, Amazon Prime subscribers can watch via Amazon Channels.
And finally, Wimbledon nuts can tune into YouTube where they will find a live stream throughout the fortnight on the Wimbledon YouTube channel, featuring interviews, live snippets of play, match analysis and behind-the-scenes action.
This is a tricky one. The vast majority of tickets for Centre Court, No.1 Court, No.2 Court and No.3 Court are distributed via a public ballot which is open from 1st September to 31st December. Prices range from £25 to £210. If you were successful in the ballot, you would have heard back before the end of February 2018. Click here for more information and details of how to apply for tickets next year.
There are two alternative to ballot tickets: firstly, each day Ticketmaster sells several hundred tickets online for the following day’s play – you’ll need to register at MyWimbledon to be the first to get details. And secondly, there’s the Queue. Here you can line up for a limited allocation of tickets for Centre Court, No.1 Court, No.2 Court and grounds passes. Access to Wimbledon via the Queue often involves an early start – and sometimes an overnight camp.
Who are the top seeds playing at Wimbledon?
Roger Federer may have relinquished his number one ranking to Rafael Nadal in the lead-up to Wimbledon, but the All England Club have decided to award him the top seeding for the Championships, followed by Nadal at number two and Cilic third. Novak Djokovic is seeded in 12th, with British number one Kyle Edmund 21st, bumped up a place following Roberto Bautista-Agut’s withdrawal.
Read more about the top male players here
The women’s seedings are topped by French Open champion Simona Halep followed by Caroline Wozniacki in second and defending champion Garbine Muguruze in third. But – crucially – Wimbledon has chosen to seed Serena Williams at 25th. The seven-time champion is currently ranked 183rd after an absence from the tour to give birth to her first child but remains a formidable opponent on any surface, especially grass. Her sister Venus is seeded ninth with British number one Johanna Konta 22nd.
Read more about the top female players here
See the full Wimbledon seedings below:
Gentlemen’s Singles:
FEDERER, Roger (SUI) NADAL, Rafael (ESP) CILIC, Marin (CRO) ZVEREV, Alexander (GER) DEL POTRO, Juan Martin (ARG) DIMITROV, Grigor (BUL) THIEM, Dominic (AUT) ANDERSON, Kevin (RSA) ISNER, John (USA) GOFFIN, David (BEL) QUERREY, Sam (USA) DJOKOVIC, Novak (SRB) RAONIC, Milos (CAN) SCHWARTZMAN, Diego (ARG) KYRGIOS, Nick (AUS) CORIC, Borna (CRO) POUILLE, Lucas (FRA) SOCK, Jack (USA) FOGNINI, Fabio (ITA) CARRENO BUSTA, Pablo (ESP) EDMUND, Kyle (GBR) MANNARINO, Adrian (FRA) GASQUET, Richard (FRA) NISHIKORI, Kei (JPN) CHUNG, Hyeon (KOR) KOHLSCHREIBER, Philipp (GER) SHAPOVALOV, Denis (CAN) DZUMHUR, Damir (BIH) KRAJINOVIC, Filip (SRB) CECCHINATO, Marco (ITA) VERDASCO, Fernando (ESP) MAYER, Leonardo (ARG)
Ladies’ Singles:
HALEP, Simona (ROU) WOZNIACKI, Caroline (DEN) MUGURUZA, Garbiñe (ESP) STEPHENS, Sloane (USA) SVITOLINA, Elina (UKR) GARCIA, Caroline (FRA) PLISKOVA, Karolina (CZE) KVITOVA, Petra (CZE) WILLIAMS, Venus (USA) KEYS, Madison (USA) KERBER, Angelique (GER) OSTAPENKO, Jelena (LAT) GOERGES, Julia (GER) KASATKINA, Daria (RUS) MERTENS, Elise (BEL) VANDEWEGHE, Coco (USA) BARTY, Ashleigh (AUS) OSAKA, Naomi (JPN) RYBARIKOVA, Magdalena (SVK) BERTENS, Kiki (NED) SEVASTOVA, Anastasija (LAT) KONTA, Johanna (GBR) STRYCOVA, Barbora (CZE) SHARAPOVA, Maria (RUS) WILLIAMS, Serena (USA) GAVRILOVA, Daria (AUS) SUAREZ NAVARRO, Carla (ESP) KONTAVEIT, Anett (EST) BUZARNESCU, Mihaela (ROU) PAVLYUCHENKOVA, Anastasia (RUS) ZHANG, Shuai (CHN) RADWANSKA, Agnieszka (POL)
Sadly not. Andy Murray suffered a long lay-off since having an operation on his hip in January 2018. The former British – and world – number one sat out the clay court season and withdrew from a Wimbledon warm-up event in the Netherlands, before finally returning to the tour at Queen’s Club, going down in style in a three-set thriller against Nick Kygrios.
It was an encouraging first match back, and Murray played at Eastbourne, losing to Kyle Edmund in the second round, but he decided on the eve of Wimbledon that the tournament was a step too far, explaining in a statement:
“I’ve made significant progress in practice and matches over the last ten days, but after lengthy discussions with my team, we’ve decided that playing best of five set matches might be a bit too soon in the recovery process. We did everything we could to try to be ready in time.”
Serena Williams has also been a lingering injury doubt, after pulling out of the French Open quarter-finals at the start of June with an injury to her right pectoral muscle – although all signs suggest she has recovered in time for the grass court Grand Slam.
Tomas Berdych, who reached the final in 2010, and Roberto Bautista Agut have already announced they will not play.
Which players made it through Wimbledon qualifying?
Each year, 128 players take part in both the men’s and singles draws – 104 men and 108 women are given direct entry, with 8 wildcards joining each competition. The rest of the places are won through qualifying which takes place the week preceding Wimbledon. This year’s successful qualifiers are listed below (NB none of them are Brits but wildcards have been awarded to Katie Boulter, Harriet Dart, Katy Dunne, Katie Swan, Gabriella Taylor, Liam Broady and Jay Clarke):
Men’s Singles:
Grégoire Barrère (France), Stefano Travaglia (Italy), Bradley Klahn (USA), Stéphane Robert (France), Thomas Fabbiano (Italy), Jason Kubler (Australia), Norbert Gombos (Slovakia), Christian Garin (Chile), Christian Harrison (USA), Ruben Bemelmans (Belgium), Dennis Novak (Austria), John-Patrick Smith (Australia), Yannick Maden (Germany), Ernests Gulbis (Latvia), Alex Bolt (Australia), Benjamin Bonzi (France)
Women’s Singles:
Viktoriya Tomova (Bulgaria), Vitalia Diatchenko (Russia), Mona Barthel (Germany), Evgeniya Rodina (Russia), Elena-Gabriela Ruse (Romania), Antonia Lottner (Germany), Eugenie Bouchard (Canada), Vera Zvonareva (Russia), Alexandra Dulgheru (Romania), Sara Sorribes Tormo (Spain), Barbora Štefková (Czech Republic), Claire Liu (USA)
What’s the Wimbledon draw?
The Wimbledon draw is revealed several days before the tournament begins. See the full 2018 men’s and women’s singles draw here.
Wimbledon will spend a total of £34m on prize money in 2018, with the winners of the men’s and women’s singles earning equal pay – a whopping £2.25m. If players fall at the final hurdle, they can console themselves with the £1.125m that is awarded to runners up. Even those who fall in the first round of the singles events take home a fee of £39,000.
The men’s and women’s winning doubles teams, meanwhile, earn £450,000 (per pair), with the mixed doubles champions landing £110,000 (also per pair).
Click here for further details on Wimbledon 2018 prize money
Which celebrities are going to Wimbledon in 2018?
Along with the tennis, the royal box remains a focal point of the tournament. As patron of Wimbledon, the Duchess of Cambridge is expected to attend with her husband, Prince William. Celebrity regulars also include David Beckham, Bradley Cooper and Pippa Middleton – with Beyoncé and Jay Z even showing up to sit in Serena Williams’ player’s box during the 2016 final.
So far, 2018 has seen the likes of Natalie Dormer, Ellie Goulding and Sir Cliff Richard in attendance.
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Who won Wimbledon in 2017?
The defending men’s singles champion is Roger Federer who triumphed in straight sets over an injury-hit Marin Cilic. Garbine Muguruza is the incumbent ladies’ champion after seeing off Venus Williams 7-5 6-0, with pregnant sister Serena sitting out the tournament. The doubles champions were Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo (men’s doubles), Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina (women’s doubles) and Jamie Murray and Martina Hingis (mixed doubles).