Wimbledon Wrap-Up Facts

Before Wimbledon bowed to pressure from the WTA to give equal prize money they used as an excuse the fact that they had conducted a survey which concluded there was considerably less interest in women’s tennis. There was some evidence that is still the case as the famous Queue was much shorter for the latter stages of the women’s event this year than it was for the men. Having virtual unknowns in the line-up hardly helped.

Overall attendance was 489,946, which is the second highest overall for 13 days in spite of the reduced capacity of 37,500.  All time highest of 511,043 was set in 2009 with daily capacity of 40,000. Attendance on Sunday July 4 was 32,036, a record for the final Sunday.  Attendance of 41,920 on Friday 25 June was also a day record.

And it appears the preference for the men even extends to the sale of Wimbledon towels! Figues show that 13,000 men’s towels were sold, and just 8,500 of the ladies. Other big-selling items included 18,000 mini tennis ball key rings, 8,000 twin-packs of wrist bands and 7,500 4-ball cans of tennis balls. Strawberry sales were up by 12 percent, to 31,360 kilos (nearly 70,000 lbs).

On court, 54,250 balls were used during The Championships, 123 of them during The Match between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut. A new Wimbledon serve speed record was set by Taylor Dent at 148mph (238 kph), and most aces were served by John Isner (113 in one match), closely followed by finalist Tomas Berdych with 111 in seven matches. Champion Serena Williams set a new Wimbledon ladies record with 89. And, in case you were wondering, the last time there were no rain interruptions at The Championships was 1995.