History Of Wimbledon

Wimbledon, one of the 4 grand slam events on the tennis calendar, is hosted every year at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in London, a private club founded in 1868.

The inaugural tennis event was held in 1877 with a men's singles. The first ladies'singles was held in 1884 as was the first men's doubles. Ladies doubles and mixed doubles were added in 1913.

By 1905, foreigners were competing in the championships and the success of British players in the championships has been a topic of great disappointment to British tennis fans. Since 1907 only two men, Arthur Gore and Fred Perry, have won the men's singles and Perry last won  in 1936. Five British women have managed to win since 1922, the last being Virginia Wade in 1977.

Yellow balls were allowed for the first time in 1986.

Wimbledon is the only slam which schedules no play on the middle Sunday. Only 3 times in tournament history  the last in 2004)  has play had to be held on this day to catch up because of previous rainouts.

At the present time, Wimbledon is the only grand slam event played on a grass surface, a surface which lends itself to big serving, volleys, and relatively shorter points than on other surfaces.

At one time in the tennis world, three of the four grand slams were played on grass and the style of play that is favored on grass was seen amongst the top male players.

Now, the Australian Open and the US Open are held on hard courts and the brand of serve and volley tennis that once dominated the tennis world is a rare sight.

To read more about the actual type of grass used at Wimbledon click here Actual Wimbledon Grass.

Pete Sampras holds the men's record for most singles championships in the modern era with 7. However W. C. Renshaw also won 7 in the 1880's.

Roger Federer may be making a case to approach Sampras’ record as he has four Wimbledon’s in a row.

Martina Navratilova holds the record for most ladies's singles titles with 9.  Amazingly, Martina just retired from competition on the tour after winning the mixed doubles title at the US Open in 2006.