The History of the Wimbledon

This event officially known as The Lawn Tennis Championship is considered one of four most important tournaments in Tennis. Also along with this event are the Australian Open, French Open, and United States Open. This tournament is the only one played on grass courts and takes place every year in late June and Early July. The competitions at this event include the following: men's and women's singles, men's and women's doubles, and mixed doubles (one man and one woman). The Wimbledon tournament began in 1877 at the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club in Wimbledon. It only had 22 male participants and had about 200 spectators who paid one shilling each to watch the final. Women's play didn't begin until seven years later in 1884. In 1905 American May Sutton was the first non-British champion, after his championship foreign players increasingly dominated the tournament. The tournament went from a challenge-round format to a standard draw in 1922.

Due to World War II, the Wimbledon was cancelled from 1940 to 1945 and the Centre Court was damaged in 1940 by a German Bomb. In early 1946 it was decided to resume the Championship and the newly appointed Secretary Lt. Col. Duncan Macaulay was given the huge task of organizing it. He overcame countless problems created by the rationing of almost every commodity available by license, permit or coupon. Much of the World War II damage was cleared and repairs were carried out in an attempt to get the grounds back to normal which was not accomplished until 1949 when building restrictions eased.

Professional players were barred from participation in this event until the late 1960's when it then became open to all players amateur and pro in 1968. Today annual attendances are over 450,000 people. For professional players winning at Wimbledon is the pinnacle of any career.

A sad year for Wimbledon was in 1973 when 81 members of the Association of Tennis Professionals boycotted the meeting after the earlier in the year suspension of Nikki Pilic by the Yugoslavian Lawn Tennis Association. Even then without those players attendance reached well over 300,000.

Suggested Books about the Wimbledon are:

Centre Court: The Jewel in Wimbledon's Crown (All England Lawn Tennis) by All England Lawn-Tennis Club, John Barrett and Ian Hewitt

Wimbledon: The Official History of the Championships by John Barrett

Wimbledon (Sporting Championships) by Jeff Kubik

The following Websites offer more information as well if you would like to read up on them:

http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_701509024/Wimbledon_(tennis).html

http://www.wimbledon.org/en_GB/about/history/history.htmlhttp://www.tiscali.co.uk/events/2005/wimbledon/history.html