Wimbledon Championships on High Alert as Russian Hacking Threat Looms Large Over the Event

Wimbledon is the greatest tennis tournament of all time. The grass-court Grand Slam is an important part of the tennis calendar for both ATP and WTA. Although it’s a different story this time around, as the tournament will not carry ranking points.

The tournament banned Russian and Belarusian players from competing in the championship. Notably, the All England Club took the decision in wake of the ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia. Tennis governing bodies, ATP and WTA, acted swiftly to discard the ranking points from the prestigious tournament. However, going forward, the tournament has another threat to counter.

Wimbledon at risk of hacking

While a lot of players opposed the decision from organizers regarding the ban, the tournament is all set to kick start on the 27th of June, with no ranking points on offer. However, there’s another problem that Wimbledon might face. Wimbledon is on high alert for cyberattacks aimed at manipulating the tournament’s scoring system.

Reportedly, the Russian hackers might look for avenging the ban imposed by organizers. In a similar incident from the 2016 Rio Olympics, Russian hackers attacked the organization in retaliation for the ban imposed on state-organized doping.

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However, IBM, the cybersecurity provider for Wimbledon, has assured of the smooth proceeding of the tournament. As they are confident to deal with any enhanced threat to the system used for recording scores, schedules, and statistics.

Record prize money for players

Since there will be no ranking points on the offer, the organizers have raised the prize money to lure the participants to the Grand Slam event. Record prize money of 40.3 million pounds ($50.5million) will be up for grab. Both men’s and women’s singles champions will receive 2 million pounds each.

The prize money last year was over 35 million pounds, with the winners Novak Djokovic and Ash Barty earning 1.7 million pounds each.

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While the grass-court tournament is not too far away now, there’s a sigh of relief for the organizers that no big-name has withdrawn from the tournament. We look forward to a brilliant and competitive Wimbledon Championship this year.