Wimbledon 2022: Everything you need to know

Another British summer means another sensational two weeks of one of the world's most famous tennis competitions!

Yes, Wimbledon is back, bringing some of the most famous players on the planet to battle it out to be crowned the winner of The Championships.

But if you've never watched the Championships at Wimbledon before, don't you worry - we've got you covered.

Here's our guide to everything you need to know about the game of tennis and our predictions for which players you need to keep an eye out for this year.

What is Wimbledon?

It is one of the most famous and important tennis tournaments in the world.

The official title for the competition is The Championships, but it is often just referred to as Wimbledon as that's where it takes place!

The first Championships took place in 1877 at the All England Club in London, where it's still held today.

This year, Wimbledon celebrates 100 years at its home on Church Road, famously known as Centre Court.

Wimbledon takes place over two weeks and it's the only major championship still played on grass!

But enough about the history... understanding tennis and all its different phrases can be a job in itself!

Read on to find out more about how the game works.

There are five main events with prizes for the overall winners:

• Women's singles

• Men's singles

• Women's doubles

• Men's doubles

• Mixed doubles

Players can either take part in singles games where they play one-on-one, or doubles where there are two players against two.

Typically players can only play against people of the same gender, apart from in mixed doubles where a man and a woman can team up against another man and woman.

There are 128 places available in the draw for both men and women. Out of these 32 are ranked - or seeded as it's known - for the purposes of a draw.

These seeded players are seen as the best players in the draw and they're kept apart so that they don't meet until later in the competition.

In addition there are up to eight wild cards - players who are given a chance to play even though their world rankings are low - and several qualifiers.

The match is divided up into sets. In men's tennis you have to get three sets to win. For women it's two.

To win a set you have to win six games - but you also have to get two more games than your opponent.

So you can take the set 6-4, but not 6-5. In that case, you'd continue until someone won 7-5.

If you get to 6-6 first, you play a tiebreak. The first person to get to seven points or more by two clear points wins the tiebreak and the set.

To win a game you need to win four points. But rather than going up from one to four they go in this order: fifteen, thirty, forty, game.

If you are tied on forty-all this is called deuce, and then you have to win by two clear points.

But there will not be any more marathon matches because a tie-break in the final set was introduced at Wimbledon in 2019.

The first Ladies' Championship was held in 1884, before that women weren't allowed to take part in Wimbledon.

Since 2007 women have been given the same amount of prize money as men.

Now, the only division between men's and women's tennis is the number of sets they have to get to win.

Who should we look out for this year?

There are some famous faces who have played at Wimbledon for years and years!

These sporting greats attract audiences from all over the world to watch their incredible performances on Centre Court.

Many of them have won multiple Grand Slams - a Grand Slam is when a player wins all four major tennis tournaments - Wimbledon, the French Open, the Australian Open and the US Open - in one year.

This can either be as a singles player, or as part of a doubles team.

You might recognise their names?

Serena Williams - An American tennis player who has won a record 23 Grand Slam titles - the highest record for any tennis player in the world!

Novak Djokovic - A Serbian tennis player who has won a record 9 Australian Open championships and 20 Grand Slam men's singles titles.

Iga Swiatek - A Polish tennis player who is currently ranked the best women's player in the world by the Women's Tennis Association.

Coco Gauff - An American tennis player who is the youngest to rank in the top 100 women's players in the world.

Rafael Nadal - A Spanish tennis player who has won 22 men's Grand Slam titles - the most of any man in history!

There are a couple of British players to keep an eye out for as well - Emma Raducanu who became one of the youngest players ever to win the women's singles event at US Open last year, and Andy Murray - who has won the men's singles event at Wimbledon twice!

But what do all those tennis terms mean?

Seeds - The people expected to do well in a tournament.

Set - The main sections of a tennis match (see how to score, above).

Straight sets - When someone wins a match without losing a set, e.g. winning three sets to love.

Love - A tennis word for zero.

Forehand - When you hit with the palm of your hand facing to the front.

Backhand - A shot with the back of your hand facing front.

Deuce - This is another way of saying forty-all. It comes from the French word "deux", meaning two, when two people are on the same point.

Baseline - This is the line at the far end of the court.

Cyclops - The machine that goes beep to tell if the ball has hit the net on a serve (which means the serve has to be taken again).

Serve - When the player hits the ball over the net to start the game.

Let - Play the point again.

Tiebreak - When the set is drawn at six-all (see how to score, above).

Ace - When a player wins a point after serving an unstoppable shot.

Smash - A very fast shot hit by a player.

Volley - Hitting the ball before it bounces.

Double fault - Serving twice out of the court and losing the point.

Umpire - The person who decides, like a referee.

Spin - Hitting the ball so it spins and bounces so it's hard for the other player to hit (as in 'top spin', 'back spin').