
Interesting facts about Wimbledon
- In contrast to the young Boris Becker, the oldest ever Men’s Single Champion was Arthur Gore of Great Britain who won the title at the ripe (oldish) age of 41.
- Speaking of age, Jean Borota of France has had the longest Wimbledon career… He won his first Wimbledon title in 1924; was still competing in the main tournament in 1964; and at the very ripe old age of 78, played in the Wimbledon veterans’ doubles in 1977.
- The last time a married woman won the women’s singles championship was in 1981. The Mrs was Chris Evert Lloyd.
- The last time anyone played at Wimbledon with a wooden racket was in 1987.
- In 1931 Spanish player Lili de Alvarez caused quite a stir at Wimbledon by playing in “a divided skirt”, the forerunner to shorts. The sensational outfit was designed by Elsa Schiaparelli – a controversial Italian designer of the time.
- The first ever black player to win a Wimbledon singles championship was American Althea Gibson who took the title in 1957.
- Did you know that Wimbledon’s Centre Court was a victim of World War II? 5 bombs hit Centre Court during an air attack in October 1940, totally destroying 1200 seats. It took 9 years for the court to be fully restored.
- Up until 1968 only “amateur” players were allowed to take part in the tournament. At that stage sports people who were paid to play were considered second-class citizens… In 1968, Wimbledon first allowed “professionals” and so began what was known as the “open era.”
- The prize money has certainly increased since then. In 1968, the year of the first “open” championships, the male winner received £2 000 and the female winner £750. In 2011, the prize money for the men’s and women’s singles winners is £1.1 million.
- The prize money for male and female Wimbledon winners was only “equalized” in 2007, 34 years after Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs in 3 sets, to prove that women’s tennis wasn’t “inferior” as Riggs had publicly claimed.
- A challenge round system (where the defending champion automatically qualified for the next year’s final) was used from 1877 – 1921.
- Ball girls were first employed at Wimbledon in 1977 and in 1985, they were allowed on Centre Court for the first time.
- The top-selling item in the Wimbledon gift shop in 2010 was yellow mini tennis ball keyrings – she store sold 18 000 of them!
- Yellow balls were introduced in 1986 to replace the white balls, which were hard for umpires to see.
- This year, Slazenger supplied 52 200 tennis balls to Wimbledon!
As we prepare to see if Murray can play his way into Sunday’s final, a last extra piece of trivia – it has in fact been 75 years since a Brit won the Men’s Singles Tournament. But you probably knew that one already…