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As the 125th Wimbledon Championships get under way, the man in charge of running the tournament is wondering what the weather holds in store for the next fortnight.

But Ian Ritchie, the chief executive of the All England Club, is not too concerned, as the retractable roof that has been in place on Centre Court since 2009, guarantees that no days will be a complete wash-out.

Even before the roof was built, though, the unpredictable British weather wasn’t able to dampen spirits or profits at the tournament.

Last year’s event made a £31m profit, or surplus. That is what was left over after the All England Club took out its operating expenses.

The average surplus over the last four or five years has been in the region of £25m to £30m.

All of that is passed on to the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA).

The LTA has been criticised for not doing enough to improve the state of British tennis – Andy Murray is the only British man in the world’s top 100, while only two British women make the top 100. But the All England Club refuses to get involved.

“We work on the assumption that what we do is manage the Championships and work on that. What the LTA do with that [money] is up to them,” says Mr Ritchie.

Wimbledon makes more than 50% of its gross income from selling the broadcasting rights to the tournament around the world, with the event now shown in 185 countries.

According to Mr Ritchie, Wimbledon made its biggest surplus of about £35m in the late 1980s and early 1990s, boosted by revenues from German TV, when players like Boris Becker and Steffi Graf were at their peak.

Li Na, who became the first Chinese player to win a Grand Slam with her victory at the French Open, is now generating a similar interest in China, and Asia generally.

“We’ve been in discussions with [state broadcaster] CCTV in China about coverage this year. We’ve been involved with them for some time,” says Mr Ritchie.

But he admits that the revenues generated may not have as much of an overall boost to finances as those from German TV did in the past.

“The rights fees paid in China are not as significant [as in other countries] but you get audiences of tens of millions of people,” he says.

“It is important for us to make sure Wimbledon is seen around the world.”

The second biggest portion of Wimbledon’s income comes from sponsorship, or what Wimbledon likes to call its official suppliers.

The All England Championships is the only one of the four Grand Slams that does not have advertising around its courts.

Instead, it enters into long-term agreements with brands to provide goods and services.

Its oldest official supplier is Slazenger, which has supplied balls to the Championships since 1902.

New additions to the official suppliers list this year are Sony, with whom the All England Club has worked to develop 3D coverage of both finals and the mens’ semi-finals; Jacob’s Creek, who replaces Blossom Hill in providing wine; and Lavazza, which is replacing Nescafe as the official coffee of The Championships.

For the suppliers, even if they do not get the advertising space that other tournaments offer, being associated with the Wimbledon name alone can be very attractive.

Hertz, which provides cars to transport players around during the Championships, says it is the most important corporate event it does internationally.

“It marries tradition and modernity,” says Michel Taride, president of Hertz International.

The company gets about 700 tickets for its hospitality suite and high visibility for its brand in London.

It is currently in the middle of a five-year deal and although it has been cutting costs throughout the downturn, decided this was one cost they were not going to cut.

Sometimes there is a value in the tournament which is hard to quantify but is highly important in the services industry where building relationships with clients is crucial, says Mr Taride.

Wimbledon has always insisted that revenues from tickets themselves make up a relatively small amount of the overall income.

Corporate tickets are limited to about 10% of overall ticket sales for the show courts.

The majority of tickets go through the public ballot, which Mr Ritchie describes as “the most egalitarian” system.

But there has also been anger that those who can afford a debenture ticket – which for Centre Court for 2011-2015 costs £27,750 and guarantees a ticket for every day of the Championships for those five years – can also profit from them, as it is the only ticket which can be sold on.

But profits or not, there is one key element which keeps the tournament at the top of its game year after year.

The fact that the players value the tournament so much is the real key to the success of the tournament, says Mr Ritchie.

“It is all about the players at the end of the day.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Womens’ world number one Caroline Wozniacki quizzes Novak Djokovic on how he will snap his one-match losing streak and who is his favourite female tennis player is after hijacking the Serb’s pre-Wimbledon news conference in Monaco.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

David Cameron has been accused of “ripping away” support from single parents, just hours after making a stinging attack on absent fathers.

The prime minister said “runaway dads” should be “stigmatised” in the same way as drink-drivers.

But charity Gingerbread said government proposals to charge those needing state help to obtain child maintenance would make life harder for lone parents.

Ministers said they wanted to encourage parents to settle their own affairs.

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph to mark Father’s Day, the prime minister said fathers who failed to “financially and emotionally” support their children must face consequences.

“It’s high time runaway dads were stigmatised and the full force of shame was heaped upon them,” he said.

“They should be looked at like drink-drivers, people who are beyond the pale.

“They need the message rammed home to them, from every part of our culture, that what they’re doing is wrong; that leaving single mothers, who do a heroic job against all odds, to fend for themselves simply isn’t acceptable.”

But Fiona Weir, from Gingerbread – which campaigns on behalf of single parents – criticised the prime minister.

“David Cameron is right that single mums – and indeed single dads – do a heroic job, but those same parents are about to have government support ripped away from them if they need help securing child maintenance payments from their child’s other parent,” she said.

“If the prime minister really wants to support heroic single parents, he must withdraw these damaging proposals which would limit access to the CSA [Child Support Agency].”

Since 2008 – when the much-maligned CSA was effectively axed – the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission (CMEC) has collected money from non-resident parents.

But earlier this year, the government said it wanted to encourage separating couples to organise their own payments and was proposing to charge those who did not for accessing the services of the CMEC.

They would be required to pay an upfront fee of £100 (or £50 if they claim benefits), plus an ongoing charge of between 7% and 12% of the money paid.

For Labour, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said Mr Cameron’s words were “hollow”.

“His government is making it much easier for deadbeat dads to run from their responsibilities by charging mums to use the Child Support Agency,” she said.

Mr Cameron also said he was determined to introduce tax breaks for married couples – despite Liberal Democrat opposition to the idea.

But Ms Cooper said such a policy would “reward runaway dads who remarry”.

Erin Pizzey, founder of domestic violence charity Refuge, said Mr Cameron was displaying a lack of understanding about the reality of family break-ups.

“There are a lot of reasons why [fathers are] not with their children… not least that women won’t let them,” she said.

Ms Pizzey said it was wrong to single out men, adding: “There is a vast mass of women who are equally as feckless as the men and we never talk about them.”

Bob Greig, from the single parenting website Only Dads, agreed that the prime minister’s argument was “too simplistic”.

“There are many cultural, employment, financial, [and] legal issues as well which prevent dads from having a full-on relationship with their children post-separation and divorce,” he told the BBC.

“Why that isn’t recognised in his article in the Telegraph I just don’t know.”

The Camerons have three children, Nancy, Arthur and Florence – who was born last August.

Their first child, Ivan, who was born profoundly disabled and needed 24-hour care, died in February 2009.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

There have been 281 bids to open free schools in England in the second round of applications, the Department for Education has said.

It follows 323 applications made in the first round, of which 32 are now being moved forward by officials.

Between 10 and 20 free schools are expected to open in September.

Free schools are schools which are set up by groups of parents, teachers, charities, businesses, universities, trusts, religious and voluntary bodies.

They are funded directly by central government, and are free from the control of local authorities.

The government hopes that about 100 will open next year.

Education Secretary Michael Gove said: “Our critics said it was impossible to open a school in little more than a year. Several will open this September.

“They told us that schools wouldn’t want to become academies. They are converting at a rate of two every school day.

“The rationing of good schools must end. Our reforms are about creating a generation of world-class schools, free from meddling and prescription, that provide more children with the type of education previously reserved for the rich.”

The second round of applications to set up free schools were received by the Department for Education between 17 March and 15 June.

Of the 281 bids, 227 were for mainstream schools, 20 for schools for children with special educational needs, and 34 for alternative provision schools, such as pupil referral units.

Of the 227 mainstream applications, 56% were from local groups, with 18% from independent schools wishing to move into the state sector, and 5% from existing academy schools.

The successful bidders will be announced in September.

Mr Gove is due to give a speech on the free schools programme on Monday, in which he will say there have been some “extremely promising proposals”.

The Department for Education also says that the number of new applications is in line with expectations.

The first application window ran from 18 June 2010 to 11 February of this year.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

The Russian human rights activist Yelena Bonner has died at the age of 88 after a long illness.

She married the nuclear scientist and fellow human rights activist Andrei Sakharov, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975.

Mrs Bonner became active in the human rights movement in the 1960s, and was a founding member of the Moscow Helsinki Group, a rights monitoring body.

She swiftly became one of the Soviet Union’s leading rights activists.

When her husband was sent into internal exile for his activism, it was Mrs Bonner that made sure his writing got out, and when he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975, it was his wife who collected the award on his behalf.

She was arrested for anti-Soviet agitation in 1984 and exiled to Gorki, but she was allowed to travel to the US a year later.

Sakharov died in 1989, but Yelena Bonner continued her political activism and criticism of the Russian political system.

“Until the [Communist] party truly gives up all its wealth to the people who really earned it, everything, down to the last… rouble, Stalinism will still triumph and it will still triumph until we can establish the principle of sovereignty,” she said in 1991.

“Sovereignty of the individual, sovereignty of the family and home, sovereignty of every ethnic group and every state.”

Mrs Bonner was a fierce critic of President Boris Yeltsin after he sent troops into Chechnya, says the BBC’s Stephen Rosenberg in Moscow.

Last year, she was one of the first and most prominent signatories of an online petition against Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, adds our correspondent.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Police have appealed for help in tracing a woman, missing from a hotel at a Conwy seaside resort.

Alison Manning, 58, from Market Drayton, Shropshire, has not been seen since Friday night.

She had been staying at the Risboro Hotel in Llandudno and left the hotel at around 2130 BST.

North Wales Police said she contacted a family member at around 2300 and has made no further contact.

Police and her family say they are becoming increasingly concerned for her safety and whereabouts.

She is described as white, 5ft 1ins tall, with short blonde hair which is greying slightly.

She is also described as being of quite stocky build, has blue eyes and wears black-rimmed glasses.

Ms Manning was possibly wearing a blue coloured light raincoat, brown trousers, sandals and a light coloured top.

Police have appealed to anyone who has seen her, who may know of her whereabouts or for Ms Manning herself to get in touch with police in Llandudno on 101 (if in Wales) 0845 6071001 (Welsh language line) 0845 6071002 (English language line).

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

An Atlantic grey seal has been rescued from the Hinkley Point B nuclear power station in Somerset.

The seal, which had not been harmed, had been spotted swimming around in the cooling chamber but could not escape.

Staff from EDF Energy, observed by RSPCA officials, designed a cradle made from scaffolding and netting to eventually rescue the stranded animal.

After five days they managed to capture the seal, which they called Celia, and it was released nearby.

“Celia the seal seemed in no hurry to leave as there were plenty of fish for her to eat,” a spokesman for the power station said.

After being hoisted out of the water intake Celia was checked by a vet who said she was none-the-worse for her ordeal.

Celia was released back into the sea from a beach several miles away from the power station.

“The spot was chosen as it was far enough away, and on the outgoing tide, so she was not likely to return,” the EDF spokesman added.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.