British stars Emma Raducanu and Andy Murray are among the British players to kick off their Wimbledon campaigns at Center Court today, marking the first day of this year’s highly anticipated tennis championships.
For any tennis player, a match on Center Court is a highlight of the annual calendar – it is not only the biggest stage of the world’s most prestigious tennis tournament, but also an opportunity to perform for distinguished guests, including the royal family.
But whether it’s the best place to land a win for homegrown tennis stars is another matter.
Researchers at IBM, the official technology partner of The Championships, have scoured 21 years of data to find the Wimbledon court with the best British win rate yet this century.
The data covers all men’s and women’s singles matches on all Wimbledon courts dating back to 2000, when IBM’s records begin, captured using the IBM Watson AI software†
Court 8 and the now retired Court 19 were revealed as the ‘luckiest’ courts, as they have the highest win rates of multiple UK matches (60 per cent and 66 per cent respectively).
Center Court is not far behind, however, with a win rate of 57.6 percent.
Wimbledon scientists reveal the court with the best UK win rate since 2000. The data covers all men’s and women’s singles matches on all Wimbledon courts dating back to 2000, when IBM’s records begin, including two retired courts (Court 13 and Court 19, locations marked in pink)
Is Center Court really the best place for a British win? Scientists scour 21 years of Wimbledon data to find the happiest job for homegrown players. Pictured is Center Court (left) and Court 1 (right)
For a British tennis player, it is possible that the pressure of playing on Wimbledon’s Center Court could negatively affect their performance.
On a smaller court, such as Court 8, a player may be less distracted by the crowd and can concentrate better on their game.
Conversely, British players are believed to have benefited from a vociferous supportive home crowd in the past, such as Andy Murray when he won the Championships in 2013 and 2016.
Jo Durie, former UK number 5 and two-time semi-finalist at Wimbledon, told MailOnline that the course a UK player plays on usually depends on whether he is seeded or a wildcard – someone who is invited to play even if his rank is not Enough.
“Usually about six Brits get wildcarded and their rankings wouldn’t bring them in, so whoever they play is meant to beat them,” Durie said.
“If they play at a pretty high level and they’ve never really experienced much at Wimbledon, they’re usually put on lane 2 or 3.
“That’s why those percentages are probably a bit lower.”
Durie also said he was surprised that the UK win rate at Center Court is as high as it is (57.6%), as British players don’t often get to the very sharp end of the tournament.
Because Center Court is usually prioritized for matches involving UK players, it has a much higher share of UK results compared to the other courts, many of which are mostly used for practice, although they do host competitive matches.
The results show that Court 9 has a 100 per cent British victory record; however, only one UK match has been staged since the IBM records began, so it can’t be considered really lucky just yet.
This match at Court 9 was Aljaž Bedene (who played British national from 2015 to 2017) against Frenchman Corentin Moutet in the first round of 2021.
British stars Emma Raducanu and Andy Murray are among the tennis players to kick off their Wimbledon campaigns at Center Court on Monday. Pictured is Murray on Center Court during his first round match against Alexander Bublik (Kazakhstan) in 2017
Meanwhile, the most unlucky courts turned out to be Court 5 and Court 15, both of which have zero win rates.
Court 5 is generally the most unlucky – it has played nine matches involving British players since 2000, but they were all British losses.
One of the notable losses at Court 5 was when Daniel Evans lost in four sets to Germany’s Florian Mayer in 2011.
Interestingly, there has been only one match between two British players since 2000: Naomi Broady vs. Anne Keothavong at Court 12 in the first round in 2011.
Both were included in the data, but were essentially mutually exclusive and thus had no impact on Court 12’s win rate.
Today there are 18 competitive courts active at Wimbledon. But two former courts were also included in the data: court 19, which was right next to court 1, and court 13, which is now court 2.
Win rates from the different courts also change when the data from the UK men’s and women’s Wimbledon matches is viewed separately.
For example, Center Court only has a win rate of 23.1 for female players.
Meanwhile, Court 19 has a 100 percent win rate for the British ladies, although it has only hosted two matches.
For the British gentlemen, Center Court has a decent win rate of 65.8 percent, while Court 5, Court 7, Court 11 and Court 19 all have zero win rates.
Researchers from the IBM Match Insights team said some courts have moved or changed names since the records began in 2000, while others no longer exist.
| British men since 2000 | British ladies since 2000 |
|---|---|
| Center Court: W73; L38; 65.8% Court 1: W20; L16; 55.6% Court 2: W10; L18; 35.7% Court 3: W7; L15; 31.8% Court 4: W1; W4; twenty% Court 5: W0; L4; 0% Court 6: W2; L2; %0% Court 7: W0; L1; 0% Court 8: W2; L1; 66.6% Court 9: W1; L0; 100% Court 10: W1; L1, 50% Court 11: W0; L2; 0% Court 12: W1; L5; 16.7% Court 13: W2; L8; twenty% Court 14: W5; L4; 55.6% Court 15: No matches Court 16: W1; L3; 25% Court 17: W2; L8; twenty% Court 18: W4; L8; 33.3% Court 19: W0; L1; 0% |
Center Court: W6; L20; 23.1% Court 1: W10; L11; 47.6% Court 2: W6; L13; 31.6% Court 3: W3; L13; 18.8% Court 4: W1; L5; 16.7% Court 5: W0; L5; 0% Court 6: W1; L4; twenty% Court 7: W1; L2; 33.3% Court 8: W1; L1; fifty% Court 9: No matches Court 10: W0; L1; 0% Court 11: W2; L2; fifty% Court 12: W6; L9; 40% Court 13: W1; L11; 8.3% Court 14: W4; L9; 30.8% Court 15: W0; L3; 0% Court 16: W3; L2; 60% Court 17: W2; L4; 33.3% Court 18: W4; L12; 25% Court 19: W2; L0; 100% |
For example, the old number 2 Court, also known as the Graveyard of Champions because many former champions lost there, used to be where Court 3 is now.
IBM’s AI system, Watson, is used each year at Wimbledon to provide visitors with match insights – including who is most likely to win upcoming matches, based on factors such as past performance.
Watson is also used to search audio and video of Wimbledon matches to decide which points were worth including in a highlights pack, based on factors such as crowd noise and players’ expressions.