Wimbledon Championship: A short overview
Since the Wimbledon Championship is about to start, I thought it would be nice to let you in into some interesting facts about the Tennis Championship:
In 1875 the common game of lawn tennis, originally called 'Sphairistike' was introduced to The All England Croquet Club was added to the regular activities of the club, soon it became so popular that in the spring of 1877 the Club was re-titled The All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club. This was the beginning of what we know now as the Wimbledon Championship when they instituted the first Lawn Tennis Championship. There was only one match in 1877: the Gentlemen's Singles which was won by Spencer Gore; only 200 people paid one shilling each to watch the final. He was the first Wimbledon champion sort of speak.
A fun fact taken from the Wimbledon official website is that the principal court was situated in the middle with the others arranged around it, hence the title 'Centre Court', which was retained when the Club moved in 1922 to its present site in Church Road.
The first Ladies' Singles was played in 1884; Maud Watson became the champion. That same year, the Gentlemen's Doubles was started as well. The Wimbledon Tennis Championship takes place between late June and the beginning of July and it lasts for two weeks. All tournaments are held simultaneously: Gentlemen's Singles, Ladies' Singles, Gentlemen's Doubles, Ladies' Doubles and Mixed Doubles. Youth tournaments are: Boys' Singles, Girls' Singles, Boys' Doubles and Girls' Doubles. Wimbledon also hold additional tournaments called special invitational tournaments, among these we can find:
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The 35 and over Gentlemen's Doubles
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45 and over Gentlemen's Doubles
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35 and over Ladies' Doubles and
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Wheelchair doubles.
The championships at Wimbledon are the biggest tennis event in Europe and many actually refer to as the most prestigious tennis championship in the world. The nineteen courts used for Wimbledon are all composed purely of rye grass and the All England Club requires players to wear "almost entirely white" clothing during matches, excuse Andre Agassi in 1990 tournament to avoid playing. To get into the show courts, fans will normally have to actually wait overnight at Wimbledon. One last and interesting fact is that not only has no British player won a Wimbledon singles title since 1977, but no Brit has even been in the final since then, so don’t be surprised to see a mad acting British guy cheering for his favorite player.
