Roger Federer won his fourth consecutive Wimbledon title, defeating
Rafael Nadal in what was to be the first of three consecutive Wimbledon finals played between the pair.
Venus Williams was unsuccessful in her title defence, losing in the third round against
Jelena Janković.
Amélie Mauresmo won her second Grand Slam title, and first and only Wimbledon title, defeating
Justine Henin-Hardenne in the final in three sets. Mauresmo thus became the first Frenchwoman since 1925 to win the Wimbledon title.[3] It was Henin-Hardenne's second of three Grand Slam final defeats of 2006, having lost the
2006 Australian Open final to Mauresmo earlier in the year; on that occasion, Henin-Hardenne retired due to a stomach virus.
Notable stories
American performance and Serbian breakthrough
Jelena Janković knocked Venus Williams out of Wimbledon in the third round.
For the first time since
1911, no American player reached the quarter-finals at Wimbledon, and for the first time since the
1976 Australian Open, no American player reached a Grand Slam quarter-final.[4]Shenay Perry was the only American player to reach the fourth round; she was defeated 6–2, 6–0 by
Elena Dementieva after losing the last ten games of the match.[5] Her defeat also meant that no American woman reached the Wimbledon final for the first time since
1998.
Venus Williams' third round defeat by
Jelena Janković of Serbia (on its first Grand Slam appearance as a newly established independent nation from the former
Serbia and Montenegro) caused the earliest exit by a defending women's champion at Wimbledon since
Steffi Graf lost in the first round in
1994 and meant that neither of the
Williams sisters (
Serena Williams withdrew due to injury) would be represented in a Wimbledon final for the first time since
1999.[6] These championships were also the first to feature three Serbian players in the fourth round of any Grand Slam tournament: along with Janković,
Ana Ivanovic[7] and
Novak Djokovic[8] also reached the fourth round, the former losing to
Amélie Mauresmo and the latter losing to
Mario Ančić.
Li Na's run to the quarter-finals
China's
Li Na became the first player from her country to ever be seeded or reach the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam tournament. She upset the recent French Open finalist
Svetlana Kuznetsova in the third round[9] and followed it up with a win over World No. 10
Nicole Vaidišová in the fourth round,[10] before losing her quarter-final to second seed
Kim Clijsters.[11] Li would not reach another Grand Slam quarter-final until the
2009 US Open, where again she was defeated by Clijsters.[12]
Streaker incident
Midway during the ladies' quarter-final match between
Maria Sharapova and
Elena Dementieva, a streaker ran onto the Centre Court and interrupted the match, before ultimately being arrested and brought into custody by Wimbledon security guards.[13] The streaker was later revealed to be Dutch DJ
Sander Lantinga, who carried out the stunt as part of the Dutch television show Try Before You Die.[14]
Point and prize money distribution
Point distribution
Below are the tables with the point distribution for each discipline of the tournament.
Senior points
Event
W
F
SF
QF
Round of 16
Round of 32
Round of 64
Round of 128
Q
Q3
Q2
Q1
Men's singles
1000
700
450
250
150
75
35
5
12
8
4
0
Men's doubles
0
—
—
0
0
Women's singles
650
456
292
162
90
56
32
2
30
21
12.5
4
Women's doubles
0
—
—
0
0
Prize distribution
The total prize money for 2006 championships was £10,378,710. The winner of the men's title earned £655,000 while the women's singles champion earned £625,000.[15][16]