Since Wimbledon 2001, 16 male players and 16 female players are given seedings in the Gentlemen's and Ladies' singles. The purpose of seeding is to make sure that the best players don't meet until later competition. For the doubles events, 16 teams are seeded. You can learn more about seeding here.

If you are ranked in the top 16, you are admitted to the tournament directly. However, you can still participate in Wimbledon even if your ranking is not high enough. There are two ways: (1) earn a wild card or (2) win the qualifying competition.

Wild cards are given by the Wimbledon Committee of Management to players who can attract public interests or have played well in the past.  Goran Ivanišević is the only wild card to win Wimbledon men's singles back in 2001.

The Wimbledon Qualifying competition is held the week before Wimbledon at Roehampton, London. Players entering the singles events must play and win all three rounds to get qualified. At the end of the competition, 16 male players and 12 female player will progress to the Wimbledon singles's events. So far, there is no qualifier has won the single's titles.

If you want to know more about wimbledon qualification, check the following sites:
aeltc2010.wimbledon.com/en_GB/about/guide/qualifying.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Championships,_Wimbledon

Updated: 25/07/17