When does it take place, when is the draw, daily schedule, TV channels, prize money

This year marks the 136th edition of The Championships, Wimbledon, and we give you all the important information you need to know ahead of the grass-court Grand Slam.

When does Wimbledon 2023 take place?

Wimbledon will kick off on the first Monday in July – that is July 3 if you are not sure – and will come to a conclusion a fortnight later with the gentlemen’s final on Sunday, July 16. This year will mark the 129th version of the Ladies’ Singles event with the final being staged on Saturday, July 15 on Centre Court.

The 2023 edition is also the 55th time that Wimbledon has been hosted in the Open Era.

Please tell us more about the venue for the only grass-court Grand Slam in tennis…

Since the inaugural edition in 1877, the venue for Wimbledon has been the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Church Road, Wimbledon, London.

Centre Court – which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2022 – is the main attraction and has a capacity of 14,979 and a retractable roof, which was opened in 2009 and cost a cool £100 million to build.

No. 1 Court – which can host 12,345 spectators – is also quite spectacular following its upgrades with its own retractable roof opening in 2019 after £70m renovations. No. 2 Court has a capacity for 4,000 people.

What is different about this year’s tournament?

After last year’s Russian and Belarusian ban resulted in Wimbledon being stripped of ATP and WTA Ranking points, it’s back to “normal” this year as players from the two countries will be allowed to compete as “neutral” athletes. Players will also have to sign a declaration stating that they do not support Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine.

It means the likes of Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev, Aryna Sabalenka, Victoria Azarenka and Daria Kasatkina will all be in this year’s main draw.

This year will also mark the second time that Wimbledon will have play on all 14 days following AELTC’s decision to do away with the traditional day of rest on the middle Sunday of the tournament.

Who are the defending champions?

There were no surprises last year in terms of who was the final player standing in the men’s tournament as Novak Djokovic won a fourth consecutive title to take his Wimbledon tally to seven.

Of course, the biggest surprise was the fact that Nick Kyrgios was the man opposite Djokovic in the final – and he even won the first set, but the Serbian eventually secured a 4–6, 6–3, 6–4, 7–6 (7–3) victory to move to 21 Grand Slams.

The women’s final also had a surprise finalist as not too many people expected Elena Rybakina to come through the field, but a year later the Kazakh player has proven over and over why she was a worthy winner.

Rybakina defeated Ons Jabeur – who would also go on to finish runner-up at the US Open – 3–6, 6–2, 6–2 to lift her maiden title and become the first tennis player from Kazakhstan to win a singles Grand Slam title.

Who are absent from this year’s tournament?

Rafael Nadal, who reached the semi-final last year before withdrawing due to an abdominal injury, became the biggest casualty when he pulled out of Wimbledon because of his long-standing hip problem.

Karen Kachanov, who was due to be seeded 11th, former finalist Marin Cilic, rising British star Jack Draper and Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta are some of the other stars absent from the men’s draw.

Emma Raducanu has endured a difficult 2023 and would likely have needed a wildcard to enter, but she was still expected to be a star at Wimbledon this year. However, surgery on both her wrists and her ankle resulted in her withdrawal.

Former champion Simona Halep remains sidelined due to her provisional suspension following a failed drugs test while Amanda Anisimova is taking an extended break and Ajla Tomljanovic is injured.

What about the seeds for the 2022 event?

Carlos Alcaraz has only gone and done it again as just like at Roland Garros where he claimed the top seed status just before the tournament, he pulled off a similar trick ahead of Wimbledon. The Spaniard won the Queen’s Club Championship to snare the world No 1 ranking from Novak Djokovic.

Alcaraz and Djokovic are followed by Daniil Medvedev, Casper Ruud, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Holger Rune, Andrey Rublev, Jannik Sinner, Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe.

Cameron Norrie is the highest-seeded Brit (12) with Dan Evans (28) also seeded.

Iga Swiatek wrapped up the world No 1 ranking on the back of her title at Roland Garros and she will be followed by Aryna Sabalenka, Elena Rybakina, Jessica Pegula, Caroline Garcia, Ons Jabeur, Coco Gauff, Maria Sakkari, Petra Kvitova and Barbora Krejcikova.

More about qualifying…

The qualifying tournament kicked off at Roehampton on Monday, June 26th and will run until Thursday, June 29th and 16 players from the men’s section and 16 players from the women’s section will get a ticket into the main draw.

More about said main draw…

The main draw will take place on Friday, June 30 at 10:00 BST and just a reminder that Venus Williams and Elina Svitolina are in the women’s draw as they have been handed wildcards.

What is the daily schedule of play?

Play starts at 11:00 BST every day on the outside courts while the action on No.1 Court gets underway at 13:00 before the main attraction on Centre Court starts at 13.30. Matches on No.1 Court will start at 11am on finals weekend while the women’s and men’s finals start at 14:00 on Centre Court on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

Which TV channels and streaming services will broadcast the tournament?

The BBC is Wimbledon and BBC One, BBC Two, BBC iPlayer and the Red Button will have all your coverage while you can also listen on BBC Radio 5 live sport.

Eurosport UK will also air the singles tournament daily on Eurosport 1 while they will also have highlights. Don’t forget you can also access the Eurosport coverage via Discovery + and Eurosport’s on-demand streaming platform.

Most European countries will also be able to catch Wimbledon via Eurosport along with beIN Sports (France), Sky Deutschland (Germany), Sky Italia (Italy), Sport TV (Portugal), SRG/SSR TV (Switzerland) and Telefónica/Movistar + (Spain)

ESPN and Tennis Channel will once again air Wimbledon in the United States, TSN Canada/RDS (French) will have coverage in Canada, Nine Network is the go-to channel in Australia, Canal Plus International (Afrique) will service Africa and SuperSport will broadcast the tournament in South Africa.

ESPN will service Latin America, TV Globo/ESPN will air the tournament in Brazil while Eclat is the main broadcaster in Asia although China (CCTV5, IQIYI), India (Star Sports) and Japan (NHK, WOWOW) have their own suppliers.

What about the prize money?

There has been a nice 10.78% increase in the Wimbledon prize money with this year’s tally totalling £44,750,000. Last year the winners received a £2m cheque and this time around they will walk away with a cool £2,350,000 for their efforts.