Wimbledon: 2022 again with queue and without a game-free Sunday
The All England Club has announced news about the tournament in 2022.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Oct 19, 2021, 04:59 pm
For the first time in its history, Wimbledon will offer a 14-day tournament - the All England Club announced in a press release on Tuesday. Then, as already reported , the traditional play-free "Middle Sunday" will also be dropped. So far, Wimbledon was the only Grand Slam tournament that had a day off in the middle of the tournament.
The official reasons for the abolition of the game-free Sunday are "various", it is said that in the end one wants to reach broader audience groups. In fact, the Sunday without games was often annoying for viewers: of all days, on a weekend day when many people were free, no tennis was running - a nuisance even for TV fans. An unofficial reason, however, could also be a rather banal one: an extra day also promises an extra day of ticket sales and other sales.
This is one of the reasons why the French Open moved the tournament start to a Sunday a few years ago, making it the only Grand Slam tournament in Paris to play the main field tournament over 15 days.
Wimbledon 2022: The queue returns
With the end of the game-free Sunday, "Manic Monday" also ends, the games of the fourth round are no longer played on the crowded Monday of the second week, but are divided up. The quarter-finals will also be mixed up on Tuesday and Wednesday of the second week. So far, the women's quarter finals have been held separately on Tuesdays and the men's quarter finals on Wednesdays.
For the first time there will also be a U14 tournament in 2022, which will start in the second week of the game.
The famous "Queue" will also return in 2022. This year, due to the risk of infection with COVID-19, it was discontinued in favor of a regular ticket order option. A "ballot", i.e. the possibility of applying for tickets online and being selected via the lottery drum, will no longer apply in 2022.