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Wimbledon Qualifying No Place for the Faint-Hearted

LONDON — Red-faced from exertion, a pony-tailed tennis player with a German accent gestured angrily at her coach before marching through the door marked "Prize Money" into a green Portakabin.

Her hopes of playing at Wimbledon dashed for another year, she had not even made it to the All England Club.

The closest she had got to the hallowed lawns was a grass court three miles away, in Roehampton: the traditional venue for the qualifying tournament.

Each year, the leafy suburb host 96 women and 128 men seeking a main spot draw at the world's most prestigious tennis tournament.