Wimbledon expansion plan approved after High Court dismisses legal challenge

Independent Singapore

4 days ago

Photo: Instagram/wimbledon
Wimbledon's plan to expand will move forward after a judge dismissed a legal challenge against it.
The plans include building 38 new tennis courts and an 8,000-seat stadium on the old Wimbledon Park Golf Club land. This will allow All England Club qualifiers to be held there instead of at Roehampton in South Lond on. However, the 'Save Wimbledon Park' campaign group challenged the Greater London Authority's decision last year to approve the permission that would nearly triple the size of the grass-court Grand Slam venue.
Justice Saini dismissed this campaign and stated: 'In short, the defendant's decision on the relevance of deliverability, applying to both the statutory trust and the restrictive covenants, was a planning judgement rationally exercised and having regard to appropriate and relevant factors.'
London's deputy mayor for planning, Jules Pipe, also originally approved this project and stated that it would 'bring significant benefits' that will 'clearly outweigh any negative impact.'
Following the High Court ruling, the campaign group admitted that it had been 'encouraged to challenge the decision.' In a statement, the group stated: 'SWP is not taking this step lightly but believes that the GLA did make a significant legal error in the way it dealt with the special legal status of the park.'
The 2025 Wimbledon tournament ended on July 13, just days before the High Court ruling. Jannik Sinner made an incredible comeback by winning this year's title, dethroning the defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in the final match. With his win, Sinner expressed: 'It's mostly emotional, because I had a very tough loss in Paris… But at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter how you win or how you lose at important tournaments; you just have to understand what you did wrong and try to work on that, and that's exactly what we did. We tried to accept the loss and just kept working. This is for sure one of the reasons I am holding this trophy here. I am just so grateful that I am healthy and have great people around me, and holding this trophy means a lot.'
Read more about Jannik Sinner's 2025 Wimbledon victory here.
Moreover, Iga Swiatek delivered a commanding win over Amanda Anisimova at the Wimbledon finals to secure the women's title. Swiatek admitted: 'The fact it's on grass, this makes it even more special and more unexpected, so the emotions are bigger. At Roland Garros, I know I can play well… Here I wasn't sure, and I had to prove that to myself. I'm not going to rank [my Grand Slams]… Here and the US Open feel better because no one expected them. It was just good tennis. There wasn't any baggage on my shoulders.'
Read more about how Wimbledon keeps surprising Iga Swiatek here. document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", () => { const trigger = document.getElementById("ads-trigger"); if ('IntersectionObserver' in window && trigger) { const observer = new IntersectionObserver((entries, observer) => { entries.forEach(entry => { if (entry.isIntersecting) { lazyLoader(); // You should define lazyLoader() elsewhere or inline here observer.unobserve(entry.target); // Run once } }); }, { rootMargin: '800px', threshold: 0.1 }); observer.observe(trigger); } else { // Fallback setTimeout(lazyLoader, 3000); } });