The 2022 Wimbledon Championships was a Grand Slam tier tennis tournament that took place at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom. Novak Djokovic successfully defended his gentlemen's singles title to claim his 21st major title, defeating Nick Kyrgios in the final.[1][2] Ashleigh Barty was the reigning ladies' champion, but did not defend her title after retiring from professional tennis in March 2022.[3] The ladies' singles title was won by Elena Rybakina, who defeated Ons Jabeur in the final.[4]
This year, the AELTC barred Russian and Belarusian players from competing because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In reaction, the WTA, ATP, and ITF withdrew ranking points from the tournament.
The tournament was played on grass courts, with all main draw matches played at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, Wimbledon from 27 June to 10 July 2022. Initial wild card entries were first announced on 14 June 2022.[5] Qualifying matches were played from 20 June to 23 June 2022 at the Bank of England Sports Ground in Roehampton.[citation needed]
The 2022 championships were the 135th edition, the 128th staging of the ladies’ singles championship event, the 54th in the Open Era, and the third Grand Slam tournament of the year. The tournament was being run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and included in the 2022 ATP Tour and the 2022 WTA Tour calendars under the Grand Slam category, as well as the 2022 ITF tours for junior and wheelchair competitions respectively. The tournament consisted of men's (singles and doubles), women's (singles and doubles), mixed doubles, boys' (under 18 – singles and doubles, under 14 – singles), girls' (under 18 – singles and doubles, under 14 – singles), which were a part of the Grade A category of tournaments for under 18, and singles & doubles events for men's and women's wheelchair tennis players. This edition marked the return of the gentlemen's and ladies' invitational doubles competitions for the first time since 2019, along with the introduction of a new mixed invitational doubles draw.[citation needed]
This was the tournament's first edition with a scheduled order of play on the first Sunday during the event, dubbed "Middle Sunday". Prior to the 2022 edition, the tournament had seen only four exceptions to the tradition of withholding competition on Middle Sunday to accommodate delayed matches during championships that were heavily disrupted by rain.[6] Additionally, this was the first edition of the tournament to have a champions tie break rule in the final set. Unlike in 2019 and 2021, which had a standard seven-point tie break at 12 games all in the final set, this tie break was played up to 10 points when a match reaches 6 games all, to be won by two clear points to win the match. [7]
To commemorate the centenary of the opening of Centre Court in 1922 and to mark the inauguration of middle Sunday play, several former singles champions were invited to a special celebration on Sunday 3 July 2022. The event was hosted by Sue Barker and Clare Balding with John McEnroe, who paid tribute to Barker's thirty years as the BBC's Wimbledon presenter. The champions were presented first by the number of singles titles won and then chronologically within that category from furthest to most recent winners. In order of presentation the champions were: one-time winners – Angela Mortimer, Ann Jones, Stan Smith, Jan Kodeš, Patrick "Pat" Cash, Conchita Martínez, Martina Hingis, Goran Ivanišević, Lleyton Hewitt, Marion Bartoli, Angelique Kerber and Simona Halep; two-time winners – Stefan Edberg, Rafael Nadal, Petra Kvitová and Andy Murray; three-time winners – Margaret Smith Court, John Newcombe, Chris Evert and John McEnroe; four-time winner Rod Laver; five-time winners Björn Borg and Venus Williams; six-time winners Billie Jean King and Novak Djokovic; and eight-time winner Roger Federer. The only nine-time singles champion, Martina Navratilova, cancelled her appearance after contracting COVID-19 on the morning of the event. British former player Tim Henman was also presented to reminisce about his matches on the court as a member of the Wimbledon Committee of Management.[8]
The Wimbledon Championships total prize money for 2022 is a record £40,350,000, an increase of 15.23% compared to 2021 and 6.18% vs 2019 when the event was last played with a full capacity crowd.[9]
Event | W | F | SF | QF | Round of 16 | Round of 32 | Round of 64 | Round of 1281 | Q3 | Q2 | Q1 |
Singles | £2,000,000 | £1,050,000 | £535,000 | £310,000 | £190,000 | £120,000 | £78,000 | £50,000 | £32,000 | £19,000 | £11,000 |
Doubles * | £540,000 | £270,000 | £135,000 | £67,000 | £33,000 | £20,000 | £12,500 | — | — | — | — |
Mixed Doubles * | £124,000 | £62,000 | £31,000 | £16,000 | £7,500 | £3,750 | — | — | — | — | — |
Wheelchair Singles | £51,000 | £26,000 | £17,500 | £12,000 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Wheelchair Doubles * | £22,000 | £11,000 | £6,500 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Quad Singles | £51,000 | £26,000 | £17,500 | £12,000 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Quad Doubles * | £22,000 | £11,000 | £6,500 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
*per team
In April 2022, the AELTC announced that players representing Russia or Belarus would not be allowed to enter the upcoming Championships as a consequence of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, stating that "it would be unacceptable for the Russian regime to derive any benefits from the involvement of Russian or Belarusian players",[10] and citing guidance given by the British government.[11] The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) also banned players representing Russia and Belarus from other tennis tournaments taking place in the UK.[12] Outside of the Davis Cup and the Billie Jean King Cup, players from these countries were allowed to compete in other tournaments, including at the Grand Slam level at the year's French Open and US Open, as neutral players without national flags.[13]
The ban attracted criticism from many players, including from defending and six-time champion Novak Djokovic, who described it as "crazy".[14] Andrey Rublev, one of the players affected by the ban, accused the AELTC of making an "illogical" and "discriminatory" decision.[15] Others, such as Ukrainians Marta Kostyuk and Sergiy Stakhovsky, came out in support of the ban.[16] The three international governing bodies of tennis—the ATP, WTA, and ITF—criticised the decision, and on 20 May 2022 they stripped the tournament of its ranking points, on the bases that participation should be based on merit rather than nationality and that the unilateral decision by the AELTC contrasts with the remainder of the tour.[17] This decision received criticism as well, with two-time men's singles champion Andy Murray commenting that the removal of ranking points will likely not affect participation in the event and has frustrated players.[18]
The WTA and the ATP each levied $1 million in fines against the AELTC and the LTA as a consequence of the ban.[19][20]
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