REVIEW OF THE 2003 CHAMPIONSHIPS

Youth dominated the singles honours at the 117th Championships with both titles falling to 21-year-olds. Roger Federer (5th seed) became the first Swiss to capture the men's crown while Serena Williams retained her women's title, once again defeating her older sister Venus in the final.

After losing in the first round on three of his four previous visits to Wimbledon, Federer arrived this year with the best record of any man, four titles in his pocket and 49 of his 58 matches won. In the semi-finals and final, Federer destroyed the 2 biggest servers in tennis, Andy Roddick and Mark Philippoussis.

The top seed and defending champion, Lleyton Hewitt, did not get past the first day, being overpowered by the 6ft 10 in Croatian, Ivo Karlovic.

For the second year, the women's final was an all-Williams family affiar, with Serena again defeating her older sister Venus to retain the title. This year's was a final of drama, most of it off-court, with Venus's ability to take part being in doubt until the last moment because of a recurrence of a stomach muscle strain she suffered in her semi-final agaainst Kim Clijsters.

There was a record-making performance in the men's doubles, wehre Todd Woodbridge equalled the record of the Doherty brothers, Hugh and Reggie, by wining his 8th Wimbledon title. The eighth came in harness with Sweden's Jonas Bjorkman, with whom he captured the title last year.

In the women's doubles, there was consolation for Clijsters after her semi-final exit in the singles competition when she teamed with Sugiyama to defeat the top seeds, Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain and Argentina's Paoola Suarez.

Martina Navratilova proved her championship qualities are enduring at the age of 46 when she won the mixed doubles title with India's Leander Paes by defeating the unseeded pairing of Israel'sAndy Ram and the Russian, Anastassia Rodionova, in straight sets. It was a wonderful conclusion to The Championships, since Navratilova has now drawn level with Billie Jean King as winner of 20 Wimbledon titles.

THE 2004 WIMBLEDON CHAMPIONSHIPS
Monday 21st June - Sunday 4th July

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