Wimbledon 2014: SW19 Tennis Championships in Numbers

The Wimbledon Championships gets underway on Monday with Andy Murray looking to become the first Britain since Fred Perry in 1936 to retain the men's single title at the All England Club.

The grand slam tournament, which has been held since 1877, with breaks for the intervening World Wars, takes place over two weeks and is heralded as one of sport's most traditional bastions, enforcing strict dress codes and eschewing courtside sponsorship and advertising boards.

First televised in 1937, Wimbledon is now beamed to 380 million people across the world with 17.3m tuning in from the UK last year to watch Andy Murray defeat Novak Djokovic to claim the men's title becoming the first British chapmpion in 77 years .

Here is the tournament in numbers:

• 15,000 - the number of seats at Centre Court
• 10 - minutes it takes to close Centre Court's retracting roof
• 290 million - the numbers of tennis balls that could fill Centre Court with the roof closed
• 41 - the number of grass courts at the All England Club
• 8mm - the length of the grass

• 50mm and 100mm - all line are 50mm wide, except base lines which are 100mm
• 148mph - the fastest serve ever recorded at the Wimbledon Championships by US player Taylor Dent
• Over 50,000 - plants supplied each year
• 11 hours, 5 minutes - the longest match ever played at the Championships was in 2010 when John Isner (USA) beat Nicolas Mahut (France) 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (7), 7-6 (3), 70-68
• 660 - the number of matches over the fortnight

• 28,600 - the number of Wimbledon-branded towels sold in 2013
• 757 - players that competed in 2013
• 250 - ball boys and girls
• £1.70 - the price of a punnet of strawberries and cream in 1993 - in 2013 it was £2.50
• 7 - tournaments since 1922 not interrupted by rain (1931, 1976, 1977, 1993, 1995, 2009, 2010)

Food, glorious food - refereshments consumed during Wimbledon

300,000 cups of tea and coffee

250,000 bottles of water

207,000 meals served

200,000 glasses of Pimm's

190,000 sandwiches

150,000 bath buns, scones, pasties and doughnuts

135,000 ice creams

130,000 lunches are served

100,000 pints of draught beer and lager

32,000 portions of fish and chips

30,000 litres of milk

25,000 bottles of champagne

15,000 bananas

20,000 portions of frozen yoghurt

12,000kg of poached salmon and smoked salmon

7,000 litres of dairy cream

6,000 stone-baked pizzas

Source: www.wimbledon.com