Records set and broken at Wimbledon 2022 ft. Novak Djokovic & Elena Rybakina

The 2022 Wimbledon Championship was unique for many reasons. The 135th edition saw a celebration of 100 years of Centre Court. A lot of firsts were witnessed in the at the Championships this fortnight, which is rather unusual for the tournament given its tryst with history and tradition.

The 2022 edition of the grasscourt Major withnessed a 10-point deciding set tiebreak for the first time. Additionally, players were allowed to practice on Centre Court before the tournament began for the first time. In the same vein, the grasscourt Major also scheduled play on mid-Sunday, which led to the demise of Manic Monday.

There were no ranking points for SW19 this year, a decision which came following the ban of Russian and Belarusian players from the tournament. Invitational doubles matches made a return along with the introduction of mixed doubles in the format. For the first time since 2019, the tournament returned to full capacity seating. A special ceremony on the middle Sunday to commemorate 100 years of Centre Court featured past champions of the grasscourt Slam in the Open Era.

The BBC's online coverage set a viewing record of 53.8 million for the 2022 Wimbledon Championships. Since we are on the topic of the BBC, one cannot forget that this year marked the last year of Sue Barker's incredible broadcast journey, which spanned three decades.

Barker became synonymous with Wimbledon with her voice. A champion of the 1976 Wimbledon Ladies singles title, Barker received a resounding ovation on Centre Court during the centenary celebrations.

We take a look at a few other remarkable stories from the Championships this year which highlighted records that were broken with immense perseverance.

John Isner breaks all-time record for aces

John Isner

During his third-round match against Jannik Sinner at the Championships this year, John Isner served an ace in the third game of the first set that took his ace count to 13,729. Isner thus became the player with the most aces since the ATP began counting aces in 1990, breaking Ivo Karlovic's record of 13,728.

As of 13th July 2022, Isner has struck 13,750 aces in 737 tour level matches in his career. Karlovic struck 13,728 aces in 694 matches. In third spot is Roger Federer, who has hit 11,478 aces in 1462 matches.

Diede de Groot's 15th singles Major

Diede de Groot

Diede de Groot continued her stunning run in Grand Slams, winning a seventh consecutive singles Major title. She completed the calendar-year Grand Slam in 2021 and has now won the the first three Slams of 2022.

The Dutch won her fourth SW19 title and has 15 singles Slam titles to her name. In the finals, she defeated maiden Wimbledon finalist Yui Kamiji in straight sets. Kamiji was aiming to complete the career Grand Slam at SW19 this year and had reached the semifinals of the event consecutively between 2017-2019.

Since 2017, de Groot has made the finals every time she has participated and lost only once in 2019. She stands second in the list of most wheelchair women's singles titles, the leader being her compatriot, Esther Vergeer, who won 21 singles Slams in her career.

Shingo Kunieda completes the Super Slam

Shingo Kunieda

Top seed Shingo Kunieda completed a career Slam with his first ever Wimbledon title in the wheelchair men's singles category. The Japanese won his 28th Slam in the process. Alfie Hewett served for the match four times in the final, but Kunieda broke his serve each time.

Kunieda has now achieved the Super Slam by winning all four Majors, winning the Olympic gold medal and the year-ending championships at least once in his career.

The 38-year-old has won the first three Slams of the year and will look to complete the calendar year Slam at the US Open.

Elena Rybakina's maiden Wimbledon title

Elena Rybakina

Elena Rybakina became the first Kazakh and the third player from an Asian country to win a Slam title with her Maiden win at SW19 this year against Ons Jabeur in the final. She became the youngest Wimbledon champion since Petra Kvitova's triumph in 2011. She became the 17th active women's tennis player to win a singles Slam.

It was the first time since 2009 that both the Wimbledon ladies singles finalists were non-Europeans. She became the seventh woman to win the grasscourt Major when seeded outside the top-8.

Rybakina's win also meant that a sixth different Wimbledon champion was crowned in as many events in succession, which is an Open Era record. Ons Jabeur also made history by becoming the first Arab and first North African woman to make the finals of a Slam.

Novak Djokovic wins seventh Wimbledon

Novak Djokovic and Nick Kyrgios at the trophy ceremony

Novak Djokovic won his seventh Wimbledon title, tying William Renshaw and Pete Sampras' tally at SW19. He is now one title short of Roger Federer's record tally of eight Wimbledon titles. Djokovic won his 21st Slam title overall and became the fifth player in the Open Era to win four consecutive SW19 titles. He became the first player to record at least 80 match wins in every Major.

The former World No. 1 has now reached the most singles Slam finals (32). After his quarterfinals win against Jannik Sinner, he recorded 34 five-set matches in the Majors, the highest by any player.