A clash over the future of the Wimbledon tennis championships is being played out away from the manicured southwest London courts set to welcome the world’s best players next week.<\/p>\n
On one side sits the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC), organisers of the only grass-court Grand Slam, which wants to triple the size of its historic grounds.<\/p>\n
Its opponent: local residents, who argue the plans threaten the leafy suburban area’s natural environment.<\/p>\n
The tussle — currently working its way through England’s courts — has been ongoing for five years.<\/p>\n
The AELTC is trying to expand its storied site, where it has held a tournament since 1877, to hold qualifying rounds there.<\/p>\n
The qualifiers, which concluded for this year’s championships on Thursday, are currently held several kilometres (miles) away at a leased courts complex in Roehampton.<\/p>\n
“We need a permanent home for our qualifying,” AELTC chair Deborah Jevans\u00a0told a recent press conference.<\/p>\n
“It’s important because if you look at Roland Garros, if you look at the US Open, you look at the Australian (Open), all of them have their qualifying on-site. We’re the only one that doesn’t.”<\/p>\n
She added: “We want it to be close to the main site, like the others, and we’re unable to do so until we go through these legal challenges.”<\/p>\n
– ‘David against Goliath’ –<\/p>\n
Wimbledon Park, a green space and lake created in the 18th century and sitting opposite the tournament site, is central to the battle.<\/p>\n
Previously home to Wimbledon Park Golf Club, the AELTC wants to build 38 new tennis courts and an 8,000-seat stadium there.<\/p>\n
It comes as the Grand Slams — also held in Melbourne, Paris and New York — try to innovate to boost ticket sales for their qualifying weeks.<\/p>\n
The US Open last year controversially launched a new stand-alone mixed doubles competition held before its Grand Slam tournament and tailored to feature more singles stars.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile Australia in 2025 staged its inaugural “One Point Slam” — sudden-death contests consisting of just one point which pit professionals alongside amateurs and celebrity wildcards.<\/p>\n
But Wimbledon’s bid to use the park on its doorstep as a launchpad for its own modernisation has met fierce resistance from local residents.<\/p>\n
They have formed the “Save Wimbledon Park” (SWP) group — which currently boasts 25 members — to fight the proposals.<\/p>\n
“The campaign started five years ago, when they launched the plans,” retired lawyer Christopher Coombe, who has lived nearby for 34 years and is a regular spectator at the tennis tournament, told AFP. “We’ve got in their way.”<\/p>\n
Fellow retiree and SWP member Jonathan Morrish, a Wimbledon resident for 45 years, added: “We often use the analogy David against Goliath”.<\/p>\n
“They are destroying one of their unique selling points: the beauty of their location,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Imagine a stadium the size of the Royal Albert Hall dominating here,” Morrish added, referring to the grand 5,272-seat concert hall to the north in Kensington, as he gestured towards the threatened park.<\/p>\n
He compares Wimbledon to “a nice village”. “It’s just madness wanting to build on green areas.”<\/p>\n
– ‘Benefits’ –<\/p>\n
The quarrel mirrors the recent expansion of Roland Garros, the clay courts that have hosted the French Open for more than a century.<\/p>\n
The French Tennis Federation, which organises that annual showpiece, battled in the courts for five years to build the 5,000-seat Simonne-Mathieu stadium and several other additions.<\/p>\n
Concerns about that project centred on the impact on 19th century greenhouses in the adjacent Auteuil gardens home to rare flora and fauna.<\/p>\n
The federation eventually prevailed in 2017 and opened the new arena in 2019, increasing the size of its southwest Paris site by 50 percent.<\/p>\n
In London, the SWP campaigners argued the development should not proceed because a statutory trust exists under 19th century legislation requiring the land only be used for “public walks” or as “pleasure grounds”.<\/p>\n
Lawyers for the club countered that it was never subject to a trust and, if it was, it did not survive the club’s purchase of the freehold in 1993.<\/p>\n
In March, the High Court ruled in favour of the AELTC, though SWP has said it would ask the Court of Appeal to review the decision.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the group has also challenged the planning permission granted in 2024 by the Greater London Authority.<\/p>\n
The High Court also dismissed that claim, but the Court of Appeal is scheduled to hear that case in October.<\/p>\n
Jevans has insisted the project will bring “benefits”, including a new 27-acre park — which adds 50 percent more public space — a lake boardwalk, children’s playgrounds and new multi-sport facility.<\/p>\n
But she conceded that “depending on appeals and results, it could be a number of years before we’re able to move there”.<\/p>\n
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