The eyes of the sporting world will be back on the world’s most famous grass courts as the All England Lawn Tennis Club host The Championships, Wimbledon for the 128th time.
British No.1 Andy Murray returns to the scene of his historic triumph twelve months ago while Marion Bartoli’s retirement means that for the first time since 1997 the women’s draw will be without the defending champion.
Here we profile the British players who will be in action on the lawns of SW19 this year.
Men’s Singles
Sunday July 7th 2013; when Novak Djokovic’s final backhand found the net Wimbledon’s Centre Court erupted as Andy Murray ended a 77 year wait for a British Men’s Singles winner at the Championships.
The hard fought 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 victory after over 3 hours gave Murray his second Grand Slam title following the 2012 US Open in addition to his Gold Medal from London 2012.
This year Murray will have the traditional honour as defending champion of opening play for the Championships on Centre Court at 1pm as the 27 year-old begins his quest for a second Wimbledon crown.
In 2014 Murray has been a quarter-finalist at the Australian Open falling to Roger Federer and recently in Paris reached his second French Open semi-final where he was stopped by Rafael Nadal.
The British No.1 has reached the second week at The Championships for the last seven years and will be looking to create more history at SW19 this year.
British No.2 Dan Evans will make his third main draw appearance and will look to replicate his performance at last year’s US Open where, as a qualifier, he defeated 11th seed Kei Nishikori and Bernard Tomic to reach the 3rd round.
The 24 year-old from Birmingham reached his career high ranking of 123 in February after reaching his first ATP World Tour semi-final in Zagreb.
At Roland Garros James Ward became the first British man to qualify in Paris for 40 years before falling to 17th seed Tommy Robredo in four hard fought sets, having also qualified for January’s Australian Open.
Ward reached the 2nd round at Wimbledon in 2012 with a five-set victory over Pablo Andujar before a memorable five-set battle against 10th seed Mardy Fish on No.1 Court.
Dan Cox will appear in the main draw for a second time after falling to Roger Federer’s 2013 conqueror Sergiy Starkhovsky in 2011. The 23 year-old is at a career high ranking of 214 after winning a round in qualifying at Roland Garros.
Kyle Edmund made his main draw debut 12 months ago where he fell to eventual semi-finalist Jerzy Janowicz. This year the 19 year-old returns having broken into the top 300 having won two titles on the Futures circuit.
Dan Smethurst will be making his first main draw appearance this year after 3 years of competing in the qualifying draw. The 23 year-old has reached a career best ranking of 240 in 2014 on the back of 8 Futures finals with 3 titles.
Men’s singles – Qualifying
Ed Corrie will be in the qualifying draw for a third time having bean edged out by Ukraine’s Illya Marchenko 6-4, 5-7, 7-5 in the opening round 12 months ago. Corrie cracked the top 300 in January and has reached 2 Futures finals in 2014.
Former US Open junior champion Oli Golding will make his debut in qualifying after reaching a career high of 327 in April and winning a Futures title in Portugal and reaching a final in Qatar.
David Rice has broken into the top 300 in 2014 and reached back to back Futures finals in January, winning in Sheffield. The 25 year-old progressed to the 2nd round of qualifying in 2013.
Alex Ward will make a third appearance in qualifying having narrowly lost to Ryan Harrison in a thriller three years ago. This year the 24 year-old has won 2 Futures titles from 4 finals and has blogged about his experiences.
Marcus Willis will line up in the qualifying draw for the first time in 5 years. The 23 year-old has won 2 Futures titles from 3 finals in 2014 and reached a career high ranking of 327 in May.
Women’s Singles
British No.1 Heather Watson leads the home challenge in the women’s singles after a strong first half of the year which has seen the 22 year-old rise back into the top 100.
Watson has claimed two $100K titles on the ITF circuit in 2014 as well as reaching the second round of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells. In the majors she qualified at Roland Garros, where she reached the second round for a 3rd time, and also came through qualifying at the Australian Open in January
It will be a fifth main draw appearance for the 2009 US Open junior champion with her best performance coming in 2012 when she eventual finalist Agnieszka Radwanska stopped her in round three.
2008 junior champion Laura Robson will be missing from the women’s draw a year after reaching the fourth round as she continues rehab from wrist surgery. Listen about for Robson in the BBC commentary team.
Johanna Konta will make a third main draw appearance after falling to Jelena Jankovic 12 months ago and missing out after an epic against Christina McHale in 2012.
The 23 year-old has been on the verge of the top 100 in 2014, reaching 102 in May. Her best performance at a major came at the 2012 US Open where she qualified and reached the 2nd round.
Naomi Broady has reached a career high ranking of 163 in 2014 on the back of winning a $50K ITF title in Fukouka and a further 2 titles from 3 finals.
The tall 24 year-old will be making her third main draw appearance. 12 months ago she was edged out 7-6(6), 7-6(3) by rising star Caroline Garcia in the second round of qualifying.
Tara Moore will make a 2nd main draw appearance after battling against eventual quarter finalist Kaia Kanepi in the first round 12 months ago before falling 7-5, 5-7, 7-5.
The 21 year-old won a title in Glasgow on the ITF circuit in January after coming through qualifying.
Samantha Murray will be appearing in the main draw for a second time. The 26 year-old fell to big hitting Italian Camila Giorgi on her debut 12 months ago and earlier this year came through qualifying to reach the semi-finals in Edgbaston on the ITF circuit.
Women’s singles - Qualifying
Katie Boulter will make her first senior Grand Slam appearance courtesy of a wild card into the qualifying draw. The 17 year-old from Leicestershire has broken into the top 600 of the WTA rankings in 2014 and has reached 3 ITF finals in Egypt.
Katy Dunne will play in the qualifying draw for a second year. The 19 year-old recently scored her first top 100 win over former Wimbledon semi-finalist Mirjana Lucic-Baroni at the Aegon Trophy and is at a career high ranking of 440.
Jade Windley reached a career high ranking of 279 in April and will make her fourth appearance in qualifying. Last year the 24 year-old won a round and in 2011 she fell to 2013 quarter finalist Sloane Stephens.
Men’s Doubles
A strong British challenge in the men’s doubles will be led by Dominic Inglot with his regular partner Treat Huey from the Philippines. Inglot broke into the top 20 earlier this year and he and Huey have been quarter finalists at both the US Open and Australian Open in the last 12 months.
Former mixed doubles champion Jamie Murray continues his strong partnership with Australia’s John Peers and will be buoyed by a win over the Bryan Brothers at the Aegon Championships.
The duo were quarter-finalists at last year’s US Open and won their 4th ATP World Tour title together earlier this year in Munich where they defeated Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins.
Fleming and Hutchins will make their third appearance together at Wimbledon after reaching the quarter finals in 2011. Munich was their 6th appearance in an ATP World Tour final
2012 doubles champion Jonny Marray returns to the scene of his greatest triumph and will partner Australia’s John-Patrick Smith. Marray was a finalist earlier this year in Marseille with Paul Hanley.
Brothers Ken Skupski and Neal Skupski will make their first team appearance at Wimbledon. The duo reached their first ATP World Tour final together in Moscow last year and this year reached the semi-finals in Nice and a final and two semi-finals on the ATP Challenger Tour.
Dan Evans and James Ward will team up for the first time at Wimbledon. It will be a second appearance in the doubles draw for Evans and a fourth for Ward who won a round partnering Alex Bogdanovic in 2009.
Women’s Doubles
Joceyln Rae and Anna Smith have been in fine form in 2014 and will pair up at Wimbledon for the first time. The pairing have won 5 titles together in 2014 including a victory at the Aegon Trophy in Nottingham.
Johanna Konta and Tara Moore will make a first appearance together in the doubles while Naomi Broady partners Greek former World No.14 Eleni Danilidou.
Samantha Murray and Jade Windley will aim to come through the qualifying draw. 12 months ago they fell in three sets to Flavia Pennetta and Andrea Petkovic in the 1st round of the main draw.
A number of British pairs will also line up in the mixed doubles event.
Juniors
The Junior main draw events will run from June 28th until July 6th and full details of all British entrants will be available closer to the time.
Wheelchair
There will be three British representatives in this year’s Wheelchair doubles events with Jordanne Whiley, Lucy Shuker and Gordon Reid all in action.
Whiley and Japanese partner Yui Kamiji will be aiming to win a third Grand Slam in 2014 after victory in Melbourne in January and a thrilling win recently in Paris.
Three-time Wimbledon finalist Shuker will partner Germany’s Sabine Ellerbrock while Reid teams up with Dutch 2012 champion Tom Egberink.
Follow how all the Brits do at the Championships, Wimbledon when qualifying begins on Monday 16th June on Twitter @BritishTennis and Official British Tennis on Facebook
Share