It's time for the most famous tennis tournament in the world, as Wimbledon gets underway for 2022.
Here is everything you need to know about the third grand slam event of the year on the tennis calendar.
When is Wimbledon?
Like all grand slam tournaments, Wimbledon is a two-week event, usually held in late June and early July at the height of the English summer.
This year, Wimbledon begins on Monday, June 27 and runs until Sunday, July 10.
There are 18 championship courts — Centre Court and numbers 1 to 18. There is no court 13.
Play begins on the outside courts (courts 2 to 18) at 11am local time (8pm AEST).
Matches begin on court number 1 at 1pm in London (10pm AEST), while play on Centre Court starts at 1:30pm (10:30pm AEST).
Where is Wimbledon played?
Wimbledon has been held at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTC) in London — 11.3km south-west of the city centre — since 1877.
The only exceptions have been 1915-1918, during World War I, 1940-1945 during World War II, and 2020 when the tournament was cancelled due to COVID.
The club's postcode is SW19, so that code has become a shorthand reference to the tournament.
Who are the defending champions at Wimbledon?
The men's singles champion at Wimbledon in 2021 was Novak Djokovic. The world number one is back to defend his title this year — if he wins it will be his seventh Wimbledon singles crown, and his 21st grand slam title overall.
Eight-time winner Roger Federer will not be competing as he continues to recover from knee surgery. Rafael Nadal, who is still a chance to claim a calendar Grand Slam, having won the Australian and French Open titles will be there despite a chronic ongoing foot injury — if he wins, he will have claimed a men's record 23 slam singles titles.
There is no defending champion in the women's singles. In 2021, Ash Barty made history, as the first Australian to win the Wimbledon women's title since Evonne Goolagong in 1980.
However, Barty is not in this year's tournament following her retirement announcement in March this year. The number one seed in the women's singles draw for 2022 is Poland's Iga Świątek.
Świątek has dominated women's tennis since Barty's retirement — she is on a 35-match winning streak dating back to February.
One big name returning to Wimbledon is Serena Williams. The 40-year-old has been away from tennis, but is now back — and is attempting to equal Margaret Court's record of 24 grand slam singles titles with victory at Wimbledon.
How can I watch Wimbledon in Australia?
If you want to watch Wimbledon on free-to-air television, the tournament will be broadcast on Channel 9. Coverage will begin at 7:30pm AEST for the first eight nights — later in the tournament coverage will start at 9:30 or 10pm AEST.
For the first two days, the coverage will be on Channel 9 and 9Gem. From Wednesday onwards, coverage will be solely on 9Gem.
If you want to stream play on your tablet, computer or smartphone, you can watch Wimbledon live and on-demand on 9NOW or on Stan Sport (ad-free).
You can also keep across the action with coverage on the ABC Sport and ABC News
Which Australians are playing at Wimbledon?
There are nine Australians in the men's singles draw, and six Australians in the women's singles draw.
Alex de Minaur (19) is the only seeded Australian at this year's tournament. Nick Kyrgios is unseeded, but is on the rise following a strong grass-court season leading into Wimbledon — he reached the semi-finals in both Stuttgart and Halle.
Other Australians in the main draw include Jordan Thompson, James Duckworth, Thanasi Kokkinakis — who will attempt to recreate his Australian Open men's doubles win with Kyrgios — Alexei Popyrin and John Millman. In addition, Jason Kubler and Max Purcell have made it through qualifying.
In the women's draw, Ajla Tomljanovic is the leader of the Australian contingent post-Barty — she is ranked number 44 in the world.
Daria Saville has received a wildcard into the tournament as she continues her comeback from a bad foot injury. She has improved her ranking by 531 spots in the last three months.
There are four Australian qualifiers in the women's draw — Jaimee Fourlis, Zoe Hives, Astra Sharma and Maddison Inglis.
What has changed at Wimbledon this year?
Wimbledon is a tournament of traditions, where changes to the rules at other grand slam events take longer to introduce, if at all.
For example, unlike other major tournaments, Wimbledon rules on clothing say that: "Competitors must be dressed in suitable tennis attire that is almost entirely white" from the moment they step on court.
However this year there are a number of innovations for the tournament.
The biggest change in match conditions is the introduction of a first-to-10-points tie-break at 6-6 in the third set of women's matches and the fifth set of men's matches.
Fifth-set tie-breaks were first introduced in 2019, but only when play reached 12-12 in the final set.
Another big change is the decision to play on the tournament's middle Sunday, which has traditionally been a day off.
And while this year sees the return of full-capacity crowds after the cancellation of 2020 and limits on crowds in 2021 due to COVID arguably the biggest changes of all relate to The All England Club's stance on Russian and Belarusian athletes.
Players from those nations have been banned from the tournament due to Russia's invasion of the Ukraine include women's stars Aryna Sabalenka and Victoria Azarenka, while men's world number two Daniil Mededev will be absent as will fellow Russian stars Andrey Rublev and Karen Khachanov.
The ban also resulted in the ATP and WTA removing ranking points from this year's tournament.
