Wimbledon is the most prestigious tennis tournament in the world and is the oldest Grand Slam tournament that is played on grass. This year’s event is scheduled to start on June 23rd and finish on July 6th. Here are some fun facts about Wimbledon:
- The “All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club” was founded in 1868
- The club started off as the “All England Croquet Club”. Lawn tennis was introduced at the club in 1875.
- The first tournament was played in 1877. It featured men’s singles play and Spencer Gore came up as the event’s first winner.
- The women’s singles and men’s double events were added in 1884. The women’s doubles and mixed doubles events were added in 1913.
- Maud Wilson became the first ladies’ singles champ in 1884.
- May Sutton of the US became the first foreign champion when she won the ladies’ singles in 1905.
- All players in the tournament have to wear white clothing.
- Anna Kournikova was ordered to change in 2002 when she got caught practicing in black shorts.
- The longest match at Wimbledon was played by John Isner and Nicolas Mahut in 2010. It lasted 11 hours and five minutes.
- Martina Navratilova is the event’s winningest player with nine ladies’ singles titles.
- The last British man to win the event was Fred Perry in 1936. He was a three-time champ.
- Willie Renshaw and Pete Sampras both have seven men’s singles titles.
- Althea Gibson was the first African-American to win in 1957.
- The last married woman to win was Chris Evert in 1981.
- Wooden rackets were last used at Wimbledon in 1987.
