The Championships, Wimbledon, commonly known simply as Wimbledon or The Championships
Wimbledon is the oldest tennis tournament in the world.
It has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London, since 1877 and is played on outdoor grass courts, since 2009 with a retractable roof over Centre Court, and since 2019 over No. 1 Court.
The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club is a private club founded on 23 July 1868, originally as "The All England Croquet Club". Its first ground was at Nursery Road off Worple Road, Wimbledon
The inaugural 1877 Wimbledon Championship started on 9 July 1877 and the Gentlemen's Singles was the only event held. 22 men paid a guinea to enter the tournament, which was to be held over five days. The rain delayed it four more days and thus, on 19 July 1877, the final was played. Spencer Gore, an old Harrovian rackets player, defeated William Marshall 6–1, 6-2 and 6–4 in 48 minutes. Gore was presented with the silver challenge cup, valued at 25 guineas and donated by the sports magazine The Field, as well as prize money of 12 guineas. About 200 spectators paid one shilling each to watc
54,250 tennis balls are used during the Championships period and swipe up to know more facts
Tennis balls of the 'optic yellow' colour, were not introduced into Wimbledon until 1986. Before this, they were most often white.
At the start of each day, 48 tins of tennis balls are taken onto Centre and No.1 Courts and 24 on all outside courts.
All of the tennis balls are refrigerated or warmed to keep them at a constant 20°C until they’re used.
That’s because new tennis balls have pressurised air inside them, giving the ball its bounce.
Wimbledon is the largest single annual sporting catering operation in Europe
Serving 330,000 cups of tea and coffee, 234,000 meals, 29,000 bottles of champagne, 191,930 portions of English strawberries, 10,000 litres of dairy cream,... makes it the biggest catering event in Europe, carried out by 3.000 staff.
Wimbledon is the only Grand Slam that is played on grass courts. And during the event, the grass is cut to a height of exactly 8 mm.
The Wimbledon tournament is considered as one of the most important competitions of the tennis season. It is also the only Grand Slam to be played on grass courts. The grass is tended to year-round. And during the event, it´s cut to a height of exactly 8 mm
2010, Court 18, played over 3 days
The Match Facts
Scaring away the birds for fifteen years,
Rufus the Hawk is a Harris's Hawk used by the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club to keep pigeons away from their venue.
Described as an "important member of the Wimbledon family", Rufus has been scaring away the birds for fifteen years, taking over from the previous hawk, Hamish.[
The record for fastest men’s serve at Wimbledon belongs to US player Taylor Dent
Taylor Phillip Dent (born April 24, 1981) is a retired professional tennis player from the United States.
He reached a career-high singles ranking of World No. 21, winning 4 singles titles.
Venus Williams holds the record for the fastest women’s serve after smashing a tennis ball at about 205 km/h
Venus Ebony Starr Williams (born June 17, 1980) is an American professional tennis player.
A former world No. 1 in both singles and doubles, Williams is generally regarded as one of the all-time greats of women's tennis.
With 49 WTA singles titles, Williams trails only her sister Serena Williams among active players on the WTA Tour with most singles titles
The loudest known grunt during Wimbledon came from Russia’s Maria Sharapova in 2009
Maria Yuryevna Sharapova (born 19 April 1987) is a Russian former professional tennis player.
Although she played under the banner of Russia with the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), she has lived in and been a United States permanent resident since 1994.
Sharapova became the world No. 1 for the first time on 22 August 2005, at the age of 18, becoming the first Russian female tennis player to top the singles rankings, and last held the ranking for a fifth time for four weeks from 11 June 2012, to 8 July 2012.
She won five Grand Slam titles
During the course of the Wimbledon fortnight, the repairs team string about 2,000 rackets & use more than 40 miles of string.
Championships stringing team string on average over 2,000 rackets comprising 60% for men, 40% for women. In total, this adds up to over 40 miles of string.