The 2011 Wimbledon Championships took place at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, England, from 20 June to 3 July 2011. It was the 125th edition of the championships, and the third Grand Slam tournament of the year. It was played on grass courts and was part of the ATP World Tour, the WTA Tour, ITF Junior Tour and the NEC Tour. The championships were organised by the All England Lawn Tennis Club and the International Tennis Federation.

In the professional tournaments there were two new singles champions for the first time since 2002: Novak Djokovic and Petra Kvitová. By reaching the final Djokovic also claimed the world number one in the ATP rankings from Rafael Nadal, while Kvitová became the first Grand Slam event winner born in the 1990s. In the doubles the Bryan brothers claimed the men's title for a second time, and equalled the overall Grand Slam tournament record of 11 set by the Woodies, Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge. In the women's doubles Katarina Srebotnik won her first ladies major title after making four previous major finals. Srebotnik won alongside Květa Peschke. This was Peschke's first major title. In the mixed doubles Jurgen Melzer won his second major title, and first in the mixed doubles as he partnered Iveta Benešová to her first major title. In total, players from the Czech Republic (Kvitová, Peschke, and Benešová) were champions in three of the five main tour events in the tournament.

Coordinates: 51°26′1.48″N 0°12′50.63″W / 51.4337444°N 0.2140639°W / 51.4337444; -0.2140639

The Championships, Wimbledon, or simply Wimbledon (25 June – 8 July in 2012), is the oldest tennis tournament in the world, considered by many to be the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London since 1877. It is one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, the other three Majors being the Australian Open, French Open and US Open. Wimbledon is the only Major still played on grass, the game's original surface, which gave the game of lawn tennis its name.

The tournament takes place over two weeks in late June and early July, culminating with the Ladies' and Gentlemen's Singles Final, scheduled respectively for the second Saturday and Sunday. Each year, five major events are contested, as well as four junior events and three invitational events.

The hard court (Plexicushion) Australian Open and clay court French Open precede Wimbledon in the calendar year. The hard court (DecoTurf) US Open follows. For men, the grass court Queen's Club Championships, also in London, as well as the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany, serve as warm-up events. For women, the AEGON Classic in Birmingham and 2 joint events, the UNICEF Open in 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands and the Eastbourne International serve as warm-up events to Wimbledon.

Conor Niland (born 19 September 1981) is a former Irish professional tennis player. He was born in Birmingham, England, and grew up in Limerick, Ireland. He attended St. Nessan's National School in Mungret, Co. Limerick. He was the highest ranked Irish tennis player during his career. He played for the Ireland Davis Cup team from 2000 to 2012. He officially announced his retirement from tennis on 12 April 2012 due to a reoccurring hip injury. In a statement Niland said: "I am today sadly announcing my retirement from professional tennis. I have been suffering from labral tears in both hip cartilages and this has resulted in pain and restricted movement for the past nine months."

Niland spent most of his career on the Futures and Challenger circuits, although he has played a handful of ATP World Tour tournaments. He was the top ranked Irish player. As of 6 March 2010, he played in 25 Davis Cup matches for Ireland with a record of 15 wins & 10 losses (12–9 in singles & 3–1 in doubles). After 4 previous defeats, he won his first ever Grand Slam qualifying match on 26 August 2009 when defeating Australia's Joseph Sirianni 6–0 6–4 in the first qualifying round of the US Open, but in the end he failed to qualify for the main draw.

Simona Halep (born September 27, 1991) is a world top-50 tennis player playing on the ITF Women's Circuit and the WTA Tour, and is currently the number-two ranked women's tennis player in Romania, behind Monica Niculescu (out of 6 in the top-100).

Halep's father Stere runs a cheese and milk factory. She started playing tennis at age four, in emulation of her older brother. She has self-described her playing style as being "an aggressive baseliner," while New York Times columnist Michael Kimmelman described her as "a scrappy player from Romania, short but with potent ground strokes and a scrambler’s talent." In a post-match interview Serena Williams once commented that Halep "serves well [for] her height... She has so much power on her serve."

She started the year with a final in Nottinghill, losing to Arantxa Rus, then defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the quarterfinals at the Australian Open Junior Championships, before losing in the semifinal to Jessica Moore.

At the ITF $50,000 tournament in Bucharest, Halep eliminated former Roland Garros semi-finalist Sesil Karatantcheva in the first round, before losing in the quarterfinals to Sorana Cîrstea in three sets, 6–3, 3–6, 1–6.

Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981) is an American professional tennis player and a former world no. 1. The Women's Tennis Association has ranked her world no. 1 in singles on five separate occasions. She became the world no. 1 for the first time on July 8, 2002 and regained this ranking for the fifth time on November 2, 2009. She is the only female player to have won over $35 million in prize money.

Her 27 Grand Slam titles places her ninth on the all-time list: 13 in singles, 12 in women's doubles, and 2 in mixed doubles. She is the most recent player, male or female, to have held all four Grand Slam singles titles simultaneously and only the fifth woman in history to do so. She was also the first woman, along with sister Venus Williams, to hold all four Grand Slam doubles titles simultaneously since Martina Hingis did so in 1998. Her 13 Grand Slam singles titles is sixth on the all-time list. Williams ranks fourth in Grand Slam women's singles titles won during the open era, behind Steffi Graf (22 titles) and Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova (18 titles each). She has won more Major titles in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles than any other active player, male or female.