This year’s Wimbledon Championships was attended by a record 515,164 people, up on the previous record attendance of 511,043 in 2009, according to the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC).

The increase in attendance is largely attributable to the event having being extended by one day to 14 days, with an extra day of play happening on the middle Sunday.

While the Grand Slam tournament attracted the highest number of visitors in the event’s 145-year history, the number of ground pass sales was less than expected.

AELTC chief executive Sally Bolton told the Telegraph that while demand for show court tickets was as high as ever, demand for ground passes was “softer” than in previous years.

“It’s ground tickets that would usually be sold from lunchtime onwards,” she said. “The world has changed. All of our behaviours have changed.

“For many years we were challenged with excessive numbers of people joining the queue and being able to accommodate them in the park. We have this delicate balance of promoting the queue but not finding ourselves where we are turning people away.”

Separately, AELTC said plans are under way to accelerate collaboration and explore new opportunities between the four Grand Slams tennis events, with the aim of increasing the success and appeal of the sport.

It said the Grand Slam CEOs and chairs had met to discuss opportunities to better co-ordinate collective efforts on a number of key projects include improving the player and media experience, exploring new content and joint commercial opportunities, and expanding the range of products featuring all four Grand Slam logos that was first launched in Australia in January this year.