Wimbledon expansion plan goes into legal tie-break

LONDON :Wimbledon fans will have eyes only for the tennis this week but for those who run the world’s oldest and most prestigious Grand Slam, the real high-stakes contest will unfold not on their grass, but in London’s Royal Courts of Justice.

On one side of the legal net is the campaign group Save Wimbledon Park, while facing them in a judicial review of their ambitious expansion plan on Tuesday and Wednesday will be the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTC).

It is the latest stage of a long-running fight that has split the south-west London "village", which has been home to the Championships since 1877.

Last September the AELTC secured planning permission from the Greater London Authority (GLA) to treble the size of the main site to include 39 new courts including an 8,000-seat show court by redeveloping a former golf course on parkland land it already owns.

The 200-million-pound ($272.92-million) expansion aims to increase daily capacity to 50,000 people from the current 42,000, upgrade facilities and move the qualifying rounds on site to mirror the Australian, French, and U.S. Opens.

The plans have the backing of several leading players, including Novak Djokovic, and 62 per cent of 10,000 residents in Merton and Wandsworth, the London boroughs that share the new site, also support the scheme, according to the AELTC.

“Our confidence in the development and the proposals that we’ve been working on for many years is as strong as it ever has been,” Wimbledon tournament director Jamie Baker told Reuters.

“For the championships to continue to be in the position that it is and to deliver all the benefits to stakeholders including the local community it is vital that we are able to stage the tournament on one site and