How are Wimbledon wildcards decided?
Wildcard places are extra spots given to players who did not qualify automatically for a tennis tournament.They have been awarded at Wimbledon since 1977 and are at the discretion of the committee of the All England Lawn Tennis Club.Places are often awarded to players based on their previous performances at Wimbledon, or to increase British participation in the competition.Since 2003, some wildcard spots for singles events have been decided by 'play-off' tournaments.Two years prior to that, Goran Ivanisevic famously won the men's singles title as a wildcard entry while Serena and Venus Williams twice won the women's doubles from the same starting point.The most recent wildcard winners at Wimbledon were Jonathan Marray and Frederik Nielsen in the men's doubles in 2012.Last year, Andy and Jamie Murray were handed wildcard entries into the men's doubles, but were knocked out in the first round.This article is the latest from BBC Sport's Ask Me Anything team.
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Ask Me Anything is a service dedicated to answering your questions.We want to reward your time by telling you things you do not know and reminding you of things you do.The team will find out everything you need to know and be able to call upon a network of contacts including our experts and pundits.We will be answering your questions from the heart of the BBC Sport newsroom, and going behind the scenes at some of the world's biggest sporting events.Our coverage will span the BBC Sport website, app, social media and YouTube accounts, plus BBC TV and radio.
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