This coming Monday marks the start of the third Grand Slam tennis event of the calendar, on the lush green grass courts of All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London.
This will be the 129th edition of The Wimbledon Championships which is the oldest tennis tournament in the world, and widely considered the most prestigious.
Last year saw the Serbian Novak Djokovic defeat Roger Federer in an epic 5 set match to lift the men’s title, whilst the Czech Republic’s Petra Kvitova easily beat Eugenie Bouchard in straight sets to lift the women’s. Interestingly enough that was both Djokovic and Kvitova’s second time winning the title, having both won it in 2011.
There are 14 trophies on offer over the fortnight of action, with the winner of both the men’s and women’s tournaments taking home just shy of a nice tidy £1.9 million each.
After his excellent last 12 months Novak Djokovic enters the tournament as Number 1 seed, and Serena Williams remains the womens - a position she seems to have held forever. Williams is still the favourite with the bookies too, as even though she suffered a surprise third round defeat last year she has still been in 7 of the last 15 finals there (winning 5 and losing 2), and has won both (Australia & French) Grand Slams this year.
Naturally all British eyes and hopes will be pinned on Andy Murray, as the nation crosses it’s collective fingers that he can repeat his success of 2013 where he lifted the trophy as the first British winner in 77 years.
Also lets not rule out the legend that is Roger Federer, who is still searching for that 8th Wimbledon trophy that will make him the greatest ever male player to grace the grass of SW19 as he is currently tied on 7 wins with Pete Sampras and fellow Brit William Renshaw.
For more information please see the official website here.