Wimbledon
Wimbledon Championships is one of the 4 Grand Slam tennis tournaments, and this year it runs from 30th June until 13th July, making it the third in the series. Top tennis players from around the world will compete in the prestigious tournament in men’s and women’s singles and doubles, mixed doubles and wheelchair competitions. The tournament is organised by the All-England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in collaboration with the Lawn Tennis Association and has been held since 1877, play taking place on grass courts. The main court, or Centre Court, is surrounded by 17 other grass courts, but there are also practice courts and clay courts on site. The finals of each competition are on the Centre Court.
Background
The first championship was held in 1877 and played on grass courts. This is still the case today, and it is the only Grand Slam played on grass. Back then, the only event was the men’s singles competition, but in 188,4 women’s singles and men’s doubles were introduced.
The tournament was initially only open to top amateur players, but in 1968, Grand Slam tournaments agreed to open up to professional players, beginning what is known as the Open Era.
Traditions
Unlike other tennis tournaments, Wimbledon has a strict dress code for competitors. They must wear all white clothing, including undergarments, caps, socks, headbands, bandanas and wristbands.
Children from local schools provide ball girls and boys to collect fallen balls from the courts. Around 170 are chosen from hundreds of applicants. Training begins in February, and the children are organised into teams of 6 to cover all the courts. Until 1976, only ball boys were used, but the following year, 1977, ball girls were introduced.
The tradition of serving strawberries and cream goes all the way back to the first tournament in 1877 but it is not clear as to how it began. However, the tradition probably came about due to the seasonal availability of strawberries reaching its peak at the same time the tournament took place.
Slazenger has provided the balls for the tournament since 1902. This is the world’s longest-running sports sponsorship.
Changes
Wimbledon has seen many changes since the first championship. One of the biggest has been the introduction of the retractable roof over the Centre Court in 2009. The British weather is always unpredictable, and even in summer, there can be a lot of rain. In the past, this delayed play forced matches to be played late into the evening. Covers were rolled out over the courts, and play would be suspended until the rain stopped. Now the roof can be closed, and play can continue no matter what the weather. A second retractable roof was installed over No. 1 court in 2019.
In 2025, after 147 years, Wimbledon will replace all line judges with automated electronic line calling (ELC). The technology will be in place for all qualifying and main draw matches and will replace the judges who were responsible for calling shots “out” and “fault” on a serve.
In 1973, the US Open became the first of the Grand Slams to award equal prize money to men and women. Previously, the prize money for women was less. It was only in 2007 that the Wimbledon Championships awarded equal payments to both. They had previously argued that the men’s game drew bigger tv audiences and played best three-of-five sets instead of two-of-three, as the women did. By 200,7, the difference in prize money was so small that it made sense to create parity.
In 1997 a giant tv screen was erected for people without show court tickets to watch the tennis matches live on a giant screen at the side of No.1 Court. Fans sat on the grassy slope nearby, and at the time, Tim Henman was the British No. 1 ,and the slope became known as Henman Hill.
Wimbledon heroes
Over the years, Wimbledon has seen many tense and hard-fought matches between some giants of tennis.
In the 1970s and 80s fans were excited to watch men such as Jimmy Connors, Bjorn Borg, Boris Becker and the fiery-tempered John McEnroe and women such as Billie Jean King, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova and Stefi Graf.
In the 1990s, we cheered on Pete Sampras, Stefan Edberg, Andre Agassi, Martina Hingis and Jana Novotna.
The 2000s saw Venus and Serena Williams dominate the women’s game, whilst the men’s game saw Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic,c and of course Britain’s very own Andy Murray dominate.
British Successes
Many British players didn’t quite make it all the way at Wimbledon – think Sue Barker, Annabel Croft, Andrew Castle, Heather Watson and Tim Henman, there are too many to mention. Year on year the crowds got behind them, but they couldn’t make the final push to win at the championships. A few British players have managed to do so.
In 1936, Fred Perry won the men’s singles title, and it took until 2013 before Andy Murray claimed the title, a gap of 77 years.
Since the Open Era began, the women’s singles title has been won twice by British women – Ann Jones in 1969 and Virginia Wade in 1977.
For the past 2 year,s a British man has been one of the winning finalists in the men’s doubles, but you have to go all the way back to 1956 to find a British winner of the women’s doubles final. In 2021 and 2022 there was a British win in the mixed doubles final for Neal Skupski and his partner Desirae Marie Krawczyk.
Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid are 2 of our most successful male wheelchair tennis players, racking up several wins in recent years in singles and doubles finals. Jordanne Whiley is the only British female wheelchair tennis champion, being a women’s doubles winner from 2014 to 2017 and again in 2021.
This year we can dream again of another British win, but if it doesn’t happen, the players will at least know that the crowd and tv audience is right behind them. Best of luck to Emma Raducanu, Katie Boulter, Jack Draper and Cameron Norrie!
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By Vivienne Hamilton
photo by Shep McAllister
