Wimbledon 2021: Courts
Sports · Tennis · Wimbledon 2021
Courts
The whole fortnight happens at the All England Club in London SW19 — eighteen championship courts inside one set of gates, from Centre Court down to the outer rows where the early rounds grind. The plan below draws every court where it actually sits, to scale, from surveyed footprints — and each one opens to exactly which matches were played on it.
Centre CourtMen's FFinalWomen's FFinalMen's Doubles FFinalWomen's Doubles FFinalMixed Doubles FFinal14,97938 matches
The principal court since the club moved to Church Road in 1922, and the stage for every singles final since. It is played on for barely two weeks a year — the grass is kept tournament-perfect and otherwise left alone. A German bomb tore through one stand in October 1940 and the seats weren’t fully restored until 1949; the retractable roof arrived in 2009, retiring the rain delay as Centre Court’s signature drama. The Royal Box has held the club’s invited guests since 1922, and the building now seats 14,979.
Novak Djokovic
Matteo Berrettini
Skupski / 
Krawczyk
Ashleigh Barty
Karolína Plíšková
Mektić / 
Granollers / 
Zeballos
Hsieh / 
MertensShow 33 earlier matchesHide 33 earlier matches
Denis Shapovalov
Hubert Hurkacz
Krawietz / 
Rojer / 
Klepač
Márton Fucsovics
Roger Federer
Ons Jabeur
Cristian Garin
Richard Gasquet
Kevin Anderson
Nikoloz BasilashviliNo.1 CourtMen's Doubles SFSemi-finalWomen's Doubles SFSemi-finalMixed Doubles SFSemi-final12,34534 matches
The second stage, and the plan’s giveaway shape — the one true circle among the grounds’ angular hulls. The original No.1 Court of 1924 stood pressed against Centre Court’s wall and was prized by players for its cramped, echoing intimacy; it came down after the 1996 Championships, and this free-standing bowl opened in 1997 on the club’s old practice ground. A retractable roof and an extra tier followed in 2019, lifting capacity to 12,345 and taking the second court out of the rain entirely.
Zhang
Aoyama / Show 31 earlier matchesHide 31 earlier matches
Melo
Sorana Cîrstea
Elina Svitolina
Stefanos TsitsipasNo.2 CourtMen's Doubles SFSemi-final4,00030 matches
Opened in 2009 on the ground where Court 13 used to stand — which is why the numbered courts skip from 12 to 14. The design is deliberately self-effacing: the playing surface sits about three and a half metres below ground level, so a 4,000-seat stadium reads from the outside as a low pavilion that doesn’t crowd Centre Court’s skyline. Its predecessor — the old No.2, on the ground No.3 now occupies — was the notorious “Graveyard of Champions”; this politer building has mostly declined to inherit the reputation.
Cabal / 
Marach / Show 25 earlier matchesHide 25 earlier matches
Bopanna / 
Polášek
Mikael YmerNo.3 Court2,00029 matches
Opened in 2011 on the footprint of the old No.2 Court — the “Graveyard of Champions,” where seeded names went out early for decades. It’s where Pete Sampras, seven times the champion here, lost his last Wimbledon match to the world No.145, George Bastl, in 2002. The rebuild kept the location and shed the name, the ghosts, and most of the reputation. With 2,000 seats it’s the smallest of the four show courts, and through the first week it runs a steady card of seeded singles.
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Elena Rybakina
Anastasija Sevastova
Kontinen / 
Grigor Dimitrov
Clara TausonCourt 4—16 matches
Behar / 
Daniell / 
Kanepi / Show 8 earlier matchesHide 8 earlier matches
Pedro SousaCourt 5—22 matches
Escobar / Zvonareva
QureshiShow 13 earlier matchesHide 13 earlier matches
Kwon SoonwooCourt 6—19 matches
González / Show 12 earlier matchesHide 12 earlier matches
Court 7—16 matches
Albot / Show 8 earlier matchesHide 8 earlier matches
Court 8—20 matches
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Court 9—18 matches
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Court 10—20 matches
Brkić / Show 12 earlier matchesHide 12 earlier matches
Ruud
Berankis / 
Arneodo / Court 11—13 matches
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Court 121,73626 matches
Rebuilt for 2011 in the same master-plan pass that produced the new No.3 Court nearby, and at 1,736 seats it holds more than twice the crowd of any other numbered court. In practice it’s the fifth show court: big enough for seeds and five-set epics, small enough that a ground pass gets you in — if you’re at the Championships without a reserved-court ticket, this is where the best tennis-per-queue-minute usually is.
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Court 14—24 matches
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Court 15—21 matches
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Court 16—17 matches
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Court 17—24 matches
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Court 1878226 matches
Where the longest match in the history of tennis happened. John Isner beat Nicolas Mahut 70–68 in the fifth set of a first-round match in 2010 — 11 hours and 5 minutes across three days, so far past all precedent that the electronic scoreboard froze at 47–47 and the final set alone ran longer than any complete match ever played before it. A plaque by the entrance marks the spot. That all of this unfolded on a 782-seat side court in the grounds’ north-west corner is the most Wimbledon detail of all.
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Why is there no Court 13?
The numbered courts run 4 through 18 — and there is no Court 13. Not superstition, demolition: the 2009 grounds redevelopment built the new No.2 Court on the site of the old Court 13, and the number left the grounds with the court it belonged to. The old No.2 was rebuilt as today’s No.3 in 2011, which is how both of the southern show courts ended up newer than their names suggest.
The four show courts are named, not numbered — Centre Court and No.1, No.2, and No.3 Courts — and they are the only championship courts with published seat counts of any size. Among the outer courts, Court 18 earned its plaque the hard way: Isner d. Mahut, 70–68 in the fifth set, 11 hours and 5 minutes across three days in 2010 — the longest match ever played, on one of the smallest courts on the grounds.
The pale courts at the top of the plan are Aorangi Park — the practice ground. They host no championship matches and carry no numbers on the public plan, which is why they stay unlabelled here too.
The grounds plan is drawn from OpenStreetMap building footprints (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL).