Wimbledon Championships

Introduction

byname of  All-England Championships 

      internationally known tennis championships played annually in London at Wimbledon.

 The tournament, held in late June and early July, is one of the four annual “Grand Slam” tennis events—along with the Australian (Australian Open), French (French Open), and U.S. Opens (United States Open Tennis Championships)—and is the only one still played on natural grass. The first Wimbledon championship was held in 1877 on one of the croquet lawns of the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club (since 1882 the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club). In 1884 a women's championship was introduced at Wimbledon, and the national men's doubles was transferred there from Oxford. Mixed doubles and women's doubles were inaugurated in 1913.

  In 1920 Suzanne Lenglen (Lenglen, Suzanne) of France became the first person to win three Wimbledon championships (in singles and doubles events) in a single year; in 1937 Don Budge (Budge, Don) of the United States became the first man to win three Wimbledon championships in a single year. (In 1938 he repeated that feat, and he also won the other three championships of the Grand Slam.) In 1980 Björn Borg (Borg, Björn) of Sweden won the men's singles for a fifth consecutive year; this was a feat not achieved since the winning streaks of William Renshaw (Renshaw brothers) (1880s) and Laurie Doherty (Doherty brothers) (1900s), which were held under the old challenge-round system that gave an advantage to defending champions. Martina Navratilova (Navratilova, Martina) of the United States won six consecutive women's championships (1982–87), eclipsing the record of Lenglen (1919–23). In 1990 Navratilova captured her ninth single's title to break the record set by Helen Wills (Wills, Helen). Later notable players at Wimbledon include Pete Sampras (Sampras, Pete) of the United States, who in 2000 won his seventh title to tie Renshaw, and Roger Federer (Federer, Roger) of Switzerland, whose fifth consecutive title in 2007 equaled Borg's streak.

      The Wimbledon Championships, originally played by amateurs, were opened to professional players in 1968; Rod Laver (Laver, Rod) of Australia and Billie Jean King (King, Billie Jean) of the United States won the singles events that year. The current championships, in addition to men's and women's singles and doubles and mixed doubles, include events for junior boys and girls. The Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum chronicles the history of the sport.

Wimbledon singles champions

       All-England (Wimbledon) Tennis Championships-singles All-England (Wimbledon) Tennis Championships-singlesA list of Wimbledon singles champions is provided in the table.

Wimbledon doubles champions

       All-England (Wimbledon) Tennis Championshipsdoubles All-England (Wimbledon) Tennis ChampionshipsdoublesA list of Wimbledon doubles champions is provided in the table.

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