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Wimbledon 2022: Djokovic opens bid for No. 7 at Centre Court

WIMBLEDON, England (AP) — A glance at Wimbledon, the third Grand Slam tennis tournament of 2022:

SURFACE

Grass courts

SITE

The All England Club

SCHEDULE

Play begins Monday at what will now be a scheduled 14-day tournament for the first time, because there will be play on the middle Sunday, traditionally a day of rest. There are no night sessions, unlike at the other three Grand Slam tournaments. The women’s singles final is Saturday, July 9; the men’s singles final is Sunday, July 10.

LOOKAHEAD TO MONDAY

Wimbledon gets started Monday with top-seeded Novak Djokovic facing 75th-ranked Kwon Soon-woo of South Korea in the tournament's first Centre Court match. Djokovic begins his bid for a fourth consecutive title at Wimbledon and seventh overall. He also can claim his 21st career Grand Slam trophy. A victory would be Djokovic's 80th at the All England Club, which would make him the first man or woman to have won at least that many matches at each of the four major tournaments. The rest of the Centre Court schedule will delight the locals: Britain's Emma Raducanu, who won the U.S. Open at age 18 last September, will face Alison Van Utyvanck of Belgium, before Britain's Andy Murray, a three-time major champion, including at Wimbledon in 2013 and 2016, meets James Duckworth of Australia. Other past Grand Slam title winners slated to play on Day One include Angelique Kerber, Stan Wawrinka and Jelena Ostapenko.

MONDAY'S FORECAST

Rain. High of 66 degrees Fahrenheit (19 Celsius).

SEEDINGS

Iga Swiatek is seeded No. 1 in the women’s draw; Djokovic is seeded No. 1 in the men’s draw. The seedings follow the WTA and ATP rankings. That is why Serena Williams, who has won seven of her 23 Grand Slam singles championships at Wimbledon, is not seeded — her ranking is outside the top 1,200 because she has not played a singles match since a year ago at the All England Club. Djokovic is ranked No. 3, and Rafael Nadal is ranked No. 4, but they moved up to 1-2 in the seedings because the top two men in the rankings, Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Zverev, are not in the field. Medevev is Russian and all players from that country and Belarus were barred from participating by the All England Club over the war in Ukraine; Zverev tore ligaments in his right ankle at the French Open.

RANKING POINTS

There will be no ranking points awarded for players at Wimbledon this year. The two professional tennis tours made the unprecedented decision to drop points from the event in response to the All England Club’s decision to bar players from Russia and Belarus.

2021 WOMEN’S SINGLES CHAMPION

Ash Barty, Australia (she retired in March and so is not in the field this year)

2021 MEN’S SINGLES CHAMPION

Novak Djokovic, Serbia

KEY STATISTICS

Zero — Number of Centre Court matches played by Raducanu before Monday.

13-0 — Murray's record in first-round matches at Wimbledon.

82 — Career match wins on grass courts for 2018 Wimbledon champion Kerber, a total that trails only Serena Williams and Venus Williams among active players.

PRIZE MONEY

Total: A record total of 40.3 million pounds (about $50 million) in player compensation includes 38.9 million pounds ($48.8 million) in prize money. The women’s and men’s singles champions will each earn 2 million pounds ($2.5 million), which is 14.9% less than in 2019, the last pre-pandemic edition of the tournament.

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More AP Wimbledon coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/wimbledon and https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports