Wimbledon Tennis Information and History
The Wimbledon Championships, often reffered to as simply, Wimbledon, is the oldest tennis tournament in the world, and is widely considered as the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in the London suburb of Wimbledon since 1877. It is the oldest of the the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, and the only one still played on grass courts.
The tournament runs annually for 13 days from late June to early July, , with the climax being the men's singles final, scheduled for a Sunday. As of the 2008 tournament, five major events are contested, as well as four junior events and four invitational events.
Wimbledon is third in the annual Grand Slam season. The hard court Australian Open and clay court French Open precede Wimbledon. The hard court U.S. Open follows. The grass court Queen's Club Championships also in London is a popular warm up tournament forWimbledon.
Wimbledon traditions include the eating of strawberries and cream, Royal partronage, strict dress code for competitors, and ball boys and girls. A much unloved tradition, "rain stops play" calls leading to schedule over-runs, is set to be reduced with the fitting of a retractable roof to Centre Court from 2009. The 2008 men's final, already the longest at nearly 5 hours of play, was extended to over 7 hours due to rain, finishing as the light faded.
History of Wimbledon
The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, which is responsible for staging the world's leading tennis tournament, is a private club founded in 1868, originally as 'The All England Croquet Club'. Its first ground was situated off Worple Road,Wimbledon.
In 1875 lawn tennis, a game devised by Major Walter Clopton Wingfield a year or so earlier and originally called 'Sphairistike', was added to the activities of the Club. In the spring of 1877 the Club was re-titled 'The All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club' and signalled its change of name by instituting the first Lawn Tennis Championship. A new code of laws (replacing the code until then administered by the Marylebone Cricket Club) was drawn up for the event. These laws have stood the test of time and today's rules are similar except for details such as the height of the net and posts and the distance of the service line from the net.
The only event held in 1877 was the Gentlemen's Singles which was won by Spencer Gore, an old Harrovian rackets player, from a field of 22. About 200 spectators paid one shilling each to watch the final.
The lawns at the Ground were arranged in such a way 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 the present site in Church Road, although not a true description of its location. However, in 1980 four new courts were brought into commission on the north side of the ground, which meant the Centre Court was once more correctly defined. The opening of the new No. 1 Court in 1997 emphasised the description.
By 1882 activity at the Club was almost exclusively confined to lawn tennis and that year the word 'croquet' was dropped from the title. However, for sentimental reasons, it was restored in 1889 and since then the title has remained The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.
In 1884, the All England Club added Ladies' Singles and Gentlemen's Doubles. Ladies' Doubles and Mixed Doubles were added in 1913. Until 1922, the reigning champion had to play only in the final, against whoever had won through to challenge him. As with the other three Grand Slam events, Wimbledon was contested by top-ranked amateur players until the advent of the open era in tennis in 1968. Britons are very proud of the tournament, though it is a source of national anguish and humour – no British man has won the singles event at Wimbledon since Fred Perry in 1936, and no British woman since Virginia Wade in 1977, although Annabel Croft and Laura Robson have won the Girls' championship in 1984 and 2008 respectively. The Championship was first televised in 1937.
Wimbledon in the 21st Century
Wimbledon is acknowledged to be the premier tennis tournament in the world and the priority of The All England Lawn Tennis Club, which hosts The Championships, is to maintain its leadership into the twenty-first century. To that end a Long Term Plan was unveiled in 1993, which will improve the quality of the event for spectators, players, officials and neighbours.
Stage one of the Plan was completed for the 1997 Championships and involved building in Aorangi Park the new No. 1 Court, a Broadcast Centre, two extra grass courts and a tunnel under the hill linking Church Road and Somerset Road.
Stage two involved the removal of the old No. 1 Court complex to make way for the new Millennium Building, providing extensive facilities for the players, press, officials and Members, and the extension of the West Stand of the Centre Court with 728 extra seats.
Stage three continues. The construction of a new Championships entrance building, housing Club staff, museum, bank and ticket office at Gate 3 has left the Centre Court east side empty and will allow development to provide better facitilies for the public, increase the seating capacity from 13,800 to 15,000 and erect a retractable roof.
Schedule of the Championship at Wimbledon
Each year, the tournament begins on the Monday falling between 20 and 26 June, which is six weeks before the first Monday in August.
Wimbledon begins two weeks after the Queen's Club Championships, which is one of the men's major warm-up tournaments for Wimbledon. Another important men's warm-up tournament is the Gerry Weber Open, which is held in Halle, Germany during the same week as the Queen's Club Championships. Other important men's grass-court tournaments before Wimbledon are Nottingham, England, and 's-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands, which also includes women's events. Two other women's warm-up tournaments for Wimbledon include Birmingham and Eastbourne, both of which are in England.
Wimbledon is scheduled for 13 days, beginning on a Monday and ending on a Sunday. The five main events span both weeks, but the youth and invitational events are held mainly during the second week. Traditionally, there is no play on the "Middle Sunday", which is considered a rest day. However, rain has forced play on the Middle Sunday three times in the Championship's history: in 1991, 1997, and 2004. On each of these occasions, Wimbledon has staged a "People's Sunday", with unreserved seating and readily available, inexpensive tickets, allowing those with more limited means to sit on the show courts. Additionally, if the tournament is not completed by the end of the second Sunday, all remaining matches are postponed until "People's Monday".
Players and seeding
A total of 128 players feature in each singles event, 64 pairs in each single-sex doubles event, and 48 pairs in Mixed Doubles. Players and doubles pairs are admitted to the main events on the basis of their international rankings, with consideration also given to their previous performances at grasscourt events. Currently (since 2001) 32 male and female players are given seedings in the Gentlemen's and Ladies' singles while 16 teams are seeded in the doubles events.
The Committee of Management and the Referee evaluate all applications for entry, and determine which players may be admitted to the tournament directly. The committee may admit a player without a high enough ranking as a wild card. Usually, wild cards are players who have performed well during previous tournaments, or would stimulate public interest in Wimbledon by participating. The only wild card to win the Gentlemen's Singles Championship was Goran Ivanišević in 2001. Players and pairs who neither have high enough rankings nor receive wild cards may participate in a qualifying tournament held one week before Wimbledon at the Bank of England Sports Ground in Roehampton. The singles qualifying competitions are three-round events; the same-sex doubles competitions last for only one round. There is no qualifying tournament for Mixed Doubles. No qualifier has won either the Gentlemen's Singles or the Ladies' Singles tournaments. The furthest that any qualifier has progressed in the main draw of a Singles tournament is the semi-final round: John McEnroe in 1977, Vladimir Voltchkov in 2000 (Gentlemen's Singles), and Alexandra Stevenson in 1999 (Ladies' Singles).
Players are admitted to the junior tournaments upon the recommendations of their national tennis associations, on their International Tennis Federation world rankings and, in the case of the singles events, on the basis of a qualifying competition. The Committee of Management determines which players may enter the four invitational events.
The Committee seeds the top players and pairs on the basis of their rankings. However, the Committee does also change the seedings due to a player's previous grass court performance. A majority of the entrants are unseeded. Only three unseeded players have ever won the Gentlemen's Singles Championship: Boris Becker in 1985, Richard Krajicek in 1996 and Goran Ivanišević in 2001. (In 1985 and 1996 there were only sixteen seeds - Becker was ranked 20th at the time, Krajicek was ranked in the world's top 16, but missed out on the seedings; Ivanišević, however, was as low as 125th.) No unseeded player has captured the Ladies' Singles title; the lowest seeded female champion was Venus Williams, who won in 2007 as the twenty-third seed, beating her own record from 2005, when Williams won as the fourteenth seed. Unseeded pairs have won the doubles titles on numerous occasions; the 2005 Gentlemen's Doubles champions were not only unseeded, but also (for the first time ever) qualifier. They give many wildcards to players from Britain. This is in part to help boost the quality and profile of British tennis, but prinicpally to attract interest in The Championships in England, with players who are not good enough to qualify on merit.
Trophies and prize money
Wimbledon Prizes
The Ladies' and Gentlemen's singles trophies.The Gentlemen's Singles champion receives a silver gilt cup 18.5 inches (about 47 cm) in height and 7.5 inches (about 19 cm) in diameter. The trophy has been awarded since 1887 and bears the inscription: "The All England Lawn Tennis Club Single Handed Champion of the World." The Ladies' Singles champion receives a sterling silver salver commonly known as the "Venus Rosewater Dish", or simply the "Rosewater Dish". The salver, which is 18.75 inches (about 48 cm) in diameter, is decorated with figures from mythology. The winners of the Gentlemen's Doubles, Ladies' Doubles, and Mixed Doubles events receive silver cups. The runner-up in each event receives an inscribed silver plate. The trophies are usually presented by the President of the All England Club, The Duke of Kent, and by his sister, Princess Alexandra, the Honourable Lady Ogilvy.
Prize money was first awarded in 1968, the first year that professional players were allowed to compete in the Championships.
In 2008, the prize money for the main events is as follows (the amounts shown for the doubles events are per pair):
Gentlemen's Singles and Ladies' Singles Winners £750,000 (approx US $1,470,000)
Gentlemen's Doubles and Ladies' Doubles Winners £229,000 (approx US $448,000)
Mixed Doubles Winners £90,000 (approx US $176,000)
In 2008 £11,812,000 (approx $23,500,000) will be awarded in total as prize money.
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