The 2007 Qualifying competition is held from June 18th - 21st at the Bank of England Sports Club at Roehampton. The Official Wimbledon Web Site will be following the Qualifying event from the Bank of England Sports Ground at Roehampton, with live point-by-point scores and regular news updates.
Players entering the singles events have to play three rounds on grass in the week before The Championships with the prize on offer being entry into the main Wimbledon draw.
Unlike The Championships, there is no single 'winner' of Qualifying. Instead the players who win all three rounds - sixteen in the Gentlemen's Singles and twelve in the Ladies' Singles - will progress, along with four pairs in each of the Ladies' and Men's Doubles events.
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From 1919 the entries for The Championships were so numerous that it was necessary to restrict the numbers accepted. The entries fell into categories, one consisting of the players nominated by their national associations, the other of individual entries. The former were accepted without question, but the latter were subjected to a careful scrutiny by a Sub-Committee of five, including the Referee.
In 1925, a Qualifying competition for the five Championship events was held for the first time, during the week before, at the Roehampton Club, London. For many years the Qualifying stage was split between the North and South of England in order to reduce the travelling pressures on players who, in those days, were amateurs. That separation was discontinued in 1966 and Qualifying is now held at Roehampton in South-West London, with all players entering the Qualifying competition receiving prize money.
Pre-Qualifying
From 1983 to 2003 The Lawn Tennis Association held Wimbledon Pre-Qualifying singles events two weeks before The Championships with entries restricted to British players: ie those qualified to represent Great Britain under rule 35 of the “Rules of the L.T.A.”. In the early years the number of players accepted in the Competition varied from year to year. From 1993 to 1998 the entry was restricted to 48 gentlemen and 32 ladies. In 2004 the events were discontinued and amalgamated with the LTA Wild Card Play-off competitions.
In 2007 the LTA chose a number of British players based on their world rankings awarding them wild-cards into the Wimbledon Singles Main Draw.
The British players who did not get chosen will play in a Wimbledon Qualifying Wild Card Play-offs Event which takes place between 12th - 15th June at the AELTC Sports Ground in Raynes Park, London with the chance to earn a place in the Qualifying draw.
Successful Qualifiers
Although for many qualifiers, reaching the main event at Wimbledon is an achievement in itself, some players go on to thrive in the main draw. John McEnroe rose to prominence in 1977 when, as an eighteen-year-old qualifier, he reached the Semi-Finals of the Men's Singles, only to lose to Jimmy Connors.
More recently in 2000, Vladimir Voltchkov of Belarus also reached the Semi-Final round of Wimbledon, where he lost to the eventual Champion, Pete Sampras. In the Ladies' Singles, Alexandra Stevenson of the USA beat another qualifier, the Yugoslav Jelena Dokic, in the Quarter-Finals in 1999. Stevenson lost in the Semi-Finals to Lindsay Davenport, who went on to win the title that year.
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