Wimbledon Facts - 100 Interesting Facts about Wimbledon Championship

Wimbledon is considered to be the most prestigious tennis tournament in the world. It is the oldest Grand Slam tournament that is played on grass, the original surface of tennis game. With its rich history and regal traditions, the wimbledon tournament has a popular following all across the globe. If you are a fan of Wimbledon, these facts and figures will hold great importance for you. You would love these interesting and curious facts about Wimbledon that you may not have known about the event. Read on to explore interesting facts of Wimbledon Tennis Championship.

Wimbledon Facts and Figures

Here is a list of Wimbledon Facts with collection of 100 interesting facts about Wimbledon in this article.

1. The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club was founded in 1868.
2. It was originally just the 'The All England Croquet Club', Lawn Tennis was introduced at the club in 1875.
3. Wimbledon always starts on the sixth Monday before the first Monday of August.
4. Wimbledon starting dates for the 3 years were: June 18, 2012; June 24, 2013; June 23, 2014.
5. First Played in 1877, the tournament featured Men's singles play. It was then followed by Women's singles and Men's Doubles in 1884; and Women's Doubles & Mixed Doubles in 1913.
6. The first singles event at Wimbledon was won by Spencer Gore in 1877.
7. Maud Watson became the first ladies' singles champion in 1884.
8. The first foreign champion at Wimbledon was May Sutton of U.S.A who won the ladies' singles in 1905. Norman Brookes of Australia became the first non-British gentleman's champion in 1907.
9. The men's singles champion receives a silver cup with a pineapple top. The ladies' champion receives the "Venus Rosewater Dish", also made of silver.
10. All players participating in the tournament have to wear white clothing.
11. Anna Kournikova was ordered to change in 2002 when she was caught practicing in black shorts.
12. The 2006 guide for competitors was updated to warn players that they risked being defaulted if they broke the tournament's code of almost entirely white and most certainly decent clothing.
13. The Chair Umpire for the match decides whether players are dressed appropriately.
14. The Duke of Kent, Prince Edward is the President of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.
15. The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club is on Church Road, Wimbledon, London SW19 5AE.
16. The tournament is third on the Grand Slam calendar, and is played in the months of June and July.
17. Apart from the five main events (men's singles and doubles, women's singles and doubles, mixed doubles), there are four junior events and four invitation events
18. John Isner and Nicolas Mahut played the longest tennis match at Wimbledon in 2010. Isner won 6-4, 3-6, 6-7(7-9), 7-6(7-3), 70-68, in a match that lasted 11 hours and five minutes. The match was played over three days.
19. Willie Renshaw and Pete Sampras (7) have won the most number of singles titles. Amongst the ladies, Martina Navratilova has nine "Venus Rosewater dishes" in her kitty.
20. The last British man to win Wimbledon was Fred Perry in 1936. He was a three-time Wimbledon champion.
21. The last British woman to win Wimbledon was Virginia Wade in 1977, after sixteen tries.
22. Bjorn Borg became the first player in the Open Era to win the gentlemen's singles title five times in a row. Roger Federer has duplicated the former's feat by winning the title from 2003-2007.
23. Goran Ivanisevic was the first wildcard to win the singles title in 2001.
24. At 17, Boris Becker was the first unseeded player to win Wimbledon in 1985.
25. Todd Woodbridge (9) has won the most number of doubles titles at Wimbledon. He won six titles with Mark Woodforde and three with Jonas Bjorkman.
26. Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal played the longest final in Wimbledon history in 2008. The match lasted 4 hours and 48 minutes.
27. American Bill Tilden won the Wimbledon singles title at the age of 38
28. Eating strawberries and cream is a tradition at Wimbledon. 28,000 kilos of the fruit and 7,000 litres of cream are consumed at the tournament.
29. Strawberries that are served at Wimbledon are sourced from Kent, and are picked just a day before.
30. 312,000 bottles of water were consumed, along with more than 14,000 bottles of champagne, at Wimbledon in 2002.
31. Althea Gibson was the first African-American to win Wimbledon in 1957
32. Chris Evert was the last married woman to win Wimbledon in 1981.
33. Venus Williams' serve at Wimbledon 2008 was recorded at 129 mph, the highest by a female player at the tournament.
34. In 1995, Tim Henman was suspended from the men's doubles event after he struck a ball girl with a ball in anger.
35. The area used to watch Wimbledon matches on a giant TV screen in the All England Club grounds is referred to as "Henman Hill". Since Tim Henman's retirement, it has been renamed as Murray Mound after British No.1 Andy Murray.
36. Goran Ivanisevic won Wimbledon as a wildcard in his fourth final in 2001. He was the runner-up in 1992, 1994 and 1998.
37. The practice of bowing to the royal box was stopped at the insistence of the Duke of Kent in 2003.
38. The first official colour broadcast in the UK was that of Wimbledon in 1967 on the BBC.
39. The All England Club issues debentures to fans to raise funds for its expenditure. Investors are given match tickets in return.
40. In 2009, a retractable roof was added to Centre Court to prevent rain delays
41. Wimbledon is special because it is the only Grand Slam played on grass, the original surface of tennis. Let's not forget that the game was originally referred to as lawn tennis.
42. Matches in the gentlemen's singles and doubles are best-of-five sets. The rest of the events are best-of-three sets.
43. Wimbledon begins on a Monday and ends on a Sunday.
44. American legend Andre Agassi skipped Wimbledon on a few occasions because of the dress code. He refused to play Wimbledon from 1988 to 1990 because of the all-white dress code and what he regarded as the stuffy atmosphere.
45. Since 1877, Wimbledon has been halted twice by the World Wars. They lost four years during WWI, and six during WWII. No championships were held between 1915-1918 and 1940-1945 because of WWI and WWII.
46. Martina Hingis was the youngest player to win a Wimbledon title, when she won the doubles title in 1996.
47. A film titled 'Wimbledon' starring Paul Bettany and Kirsten Dunst was released in 2004. The story was about a struggling British tennis player who wins Wimbledon in his swansong.
48. Ball girls were first seen at Wimbledon in 1977.
49. The year 1986 saw yellow balls being introduced at Wimbledon.
50. Wooden rackets were last used at Wimbledon in 1987.
51. Wimbledon is played on grass courts made of rye grass.
52. Wimbledon 2011 is the 125th edition of the tournament.
53. Venus Williams fought for equal prize money to be paid to female winners. In 2007, the All England Club announced the change.
54. At 15, Charlotte Dod became the youngest woman to win Wimbledon in 1887.
55. Wimbledon is the only Grand Slam tournament where fans without tickets can queue up and get seats. Fans are known to queue up overnight for tickets.
56. The US has provided the most number of winners at Wimbledon. American players have won 33 men's singles titles and 54 women's singles titles.
57. Wimbledon is the oldest Grand Slam tournament that is played on grass.
58. Centre Court seats 13,813 people and the Club grounds hold 34,500 spectators.
59. The highest recorded attendance was also in 2001, with 490,081.
60. The highest recorded attendance for normal 13 days was also in 2001, with 476,711.
61. The highest recorded attendance for a single day was in June 26th, 2002 with 42,457 visitors.
62. Court 2 is nicknamed "The Graveyard", because this is where many seeded players are knocked out.
63. Media operation at Wimbledon are conducted out of the Millennium Building, and play host to a press corps of over 750 journalists and photographers from around the world.
64. Two of the most highly held traditions of Wimbledon are the rule that the players must wear predominantly white, and that the players are referred to as "Mr", "Mrs" and "Miss".
65. The Ladies' Singles Trophy is a silver salver, 18 -inches in diameter, referred to as the 'Rosewater Dish' or 'Venus Rosewater Dish'. It was first won by the Champion when the challenge round was introduced in 1886.
66. The Men's singles trophy is a silver gilt cup and cover, standing 18- inches high and has a diameter of 7- inches. It is inscribed "The All England Lawn Tennis Club Single Handed Champion of the World." The lid is shaped with a pineapple on top and a head covered with a winged helmet beneath each handle. There are two decorative borders with floral work and oval styled moldings on the bowl of the Cup and on the handles.
67. The Gentlemen's Doubles Championship trophy is a silver challenge cup, which was presented to the All England Club in 1884 by the Oxford University Lawn Tennis Club who sponsored the original doubles play in 1879. The Gentlemen's Doubles was played at Oxford University from 1879-1883 but moved to Wimbledon in 1884.
68. The Ladies' Doubles Championship is an elegant silver cup and cover, known as 'The Duchess of Kent Challenge Cup', presented to the Club in 1949 by HRH the Princess Marina, President of the All England Club.
69. The Mixed Doubles Championship trophy is a silver challenge cup and cover presented to the All England Club by the family of the late S.H. Smith, who won the doubles title in 1902 and 1906.
70. Since 1949 all champions have received a miniature replica of the trophy, measuring 8 inches tall or 8 inches in diameter.
71. During World War II, a bomb ripped through Centre Court at the All England Club and 1,200 seats were lost. Fortunately, they were not filled at the time! Play finally resumed in 1946 but it wasn't until 1949 that the area was back in shape.
72. Wimbledon moved to its present site in Church Road in 1922.
73. The 1973 tournament was beset by a players strike which saw 79 players including 13 of the 16 seeds withdraw because Yugoslavian player Nikki Pilic was suspended. This left Jan Kodes, the new number two seed, to take the Gentleman's Singles Championships that year.
74. The Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum was first opened in 1977. In 2006, the museum received a multi-million pound state-of-the-art transformation, making it one of the most popular tourist sites around London.
75. Over the years, assorted streakers have graced the courts. In 1996, a young woman wearing only a tiny apron dashed across the court just before the final between Richard Krajicek and MaliVai Washington. In 2002, a self-described "serial streaker" enlivened the rain delay during Lleytons Hewitts three-set victory over David Nalbandian in their final. And in 2006, a streaker performed a cartwheel on Centre Court during the quarterfinal between Russian beauties Maria Sharapova and Elena Dementieva.
76. One of the most popular items at Wimbledon is the 10 easy-grab telescopic green and purple umbrella. It's second only to its larger cousin, the 20 spectator umbrella.
77. When the rain comes, the translucent cover is pulled out. It was first introduced onto the Centre Court in 1998, and weighs 1 ton - wet and dry. It takes 17 people 30 seconds to cover the court.
78. Wimbledon Number 1 Court has large fans at either end to dry them out in case of rain.
79. Years when play extended into a third week due to rain delays: 1919, 1922, 1925, 1927, 1930, 1963, 1972, 1973, 1982, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2001.
80. Years with no rain at all: 1931, 1976, 1977, 1993, 1995.
81. IBM is the technology partner for Wimbledon.
82. Over 1,000 statistics are collected simultaneously for every match on the 18 courts, for every point, during every match, in real time for the IBM Real-Time solutions and Scoreboard.
83. The Championships used Hawk-Eye line calling for the first time in 2007.
84. Yellow balls were used for the first time in 1986 to make the speeding balls more visible for television cameras, due to pleas from BBC producers that white simply wouldn't do.
85. Slazenger has provided every tennis ball for The Championships at Wimbledon since 1902. All Slazenger balls are produced in one facility in The Philippines.
86. Wimbledon places an order for 5,000 dozen (60,000) Dunlop Slazenger balls, for use in the roughly 680 matches during the Wimbledon Championship. Only about 1,250 dozen of these balls are actually used in the tournament. The rest are sold on the grounds as souvenirs.
87. The Royal Box is used for the entertainment of guests from the Royal Family as well as the tennis world, including supporters of British tennis and other walks of life.
88. Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles have not attended the Wimbledon event since 1970.
89. Guests are invited to the Clubhouse for lunch, tea and drinks at the end of the day. The guest list is released on the same day, for security reasons.
90. Men are asked to wear suits or a jacket and tie. Ladies are asked not to wear hats, as they tend to obscure the vision of those seated behind them.
91. The shortest person to play tennis at Wimbledon was Miss C.G. Hoahing who was just 4 feet 9 inches.
92. The tallest competitor ever was and is Ivo Karlovic, at 6 feet 10 inches.
93. In 1996, Martina Hingis won the Ladies singles titles and was 15 years, 282 days old, when she won the women's doubles with Helena Sukova of Czech Republic.
94. The youngest male champion was Boris Becker who won the Men's singles title in 1985 at 17 years, 227 days.
95. The youngest ever player at Wimbledon was Mita Klima of Austria, who was 13 years old in the 1907 singles competition.
96. The youngest seed was Jennifer Capriati at 14 year 89 days at the time of her first match on 26 June 1990. She won the match, making her the youngest ever winner at Wimbledon.
97. The oldest champion was Martina Navratilova at 46 years, 8 months young when she won the Mixed Doubles title in 2003 with Leander Paes.
98. Venus Williams became the second African American woman to win the Grand Slam title at the 2000 Ladies singles title. She followed a childhood hero, Althea Gibson, who won titles in 1957 and 1958.
99. 1949 was the best ever year (weather-wise) for Wimbledon when there was sunshine during the entire championship.
100. 1976 was the hottest year on record at Wimbledon, with temps reaching to 34C (94F)

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