British pride and anguish - Wimbledon Championship

Added: 12/19/2005

Roger Federer and Sisters Williams have dominated at the Wimbledon Championship during the past years, having caught multiple championship titles. Other recent Wimbledon champions include Lleyton Hewitt, Goran Ivanisevic, Pete Sampras in men?s singles and Maria Sharapova, Linsday Davenport and Jana Novotna in women?s singles. Learn more interesting facts about the Wimbledon Championship and its history.

The Wimbledon championship is the oldest, and perhaps, the most important event in the modern tennis. Held every summer, the event is the third Grand Slam championship played annually. Wimbledon historically is preceded by the French Open and the Australian Open and is followed by the US Open. The championship (by the way, the only one of the Grand Slam tournaments played on grass tennis courts) lasts for two weeks, is subject to extensions due climate. Separate championships are at the same time held for Women?s Singles, Men's Singles, Women's Doubles, Men?s Doubles, and Mixed Doubles. Youth championships - Girls' Singles, Boys' Singles, Girls' Doubles and Boys' Doubles - are held as well. Furthermore, special invitational competitions are held: 45 and over Gentlemen's Doubles, 35 and over Ladies' Doubles, the 35 and over Gentlemen's Doubles, and wheelchair tennis doubles.

Wimbledon Championship History

The Wimbledon championship was first held under the auspices of All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club in 1877 at land near Worple Road, Wimbledon with the only being Men's Singles. In 1884, the Women?s Singles event was added as well as men's Doubles. Mixed Doubles and Women's Doubles were introduced in 1913. In 1922, the Wimbledon championship moved to its current site, at a land near Church Road. As with the rest of the Grand Slam events, Wimbledon championship featured top-ranked amateurs until the beginning of the tennis? open era in 1968. British people are very proud of the Wimbledon competition although it is a source of national humor and anguish - no British male player has been the winner of the singles event at the championship from the time when Fred Perry made it in 1936, and no British female player since 1977.

All the way through the Wimbledon championship history less prize money has been awarded in the women's events than in the men's events. The French Open also provides bigger prize money for men, but the U.S. Open and the Australian Open provide parity. The sums awarded to the winners of each of the main events in 2005 are as follows (the amounts shown for the doubles events are per pair):

Wimbledon Players and Seeding

128 total players compete in each of the singles events; 48 pairs play in Mixed Doubles and 64 pairs in every single-sex doubles event. Doubles pairs and players qualify for the main events based on the international rankings. The Committee seeds the top pairs and players (16 pairs in every major doubles event, and 32 players in every major singles events) according to their rankings. Normally, but not always, the defending champion is seeded first. Most of the contestants are not seeded. There have been just two unseeded athletes who won the men's singles events: Goran Ivanisevic and Boris Becker. None of the unseeded female players has won the Women?s Singles title; Venus Williams, who won the title in 2005, was the lowest seeded champion ever with the fourteenth seed. There have been a large number of occasions when the unseeded pairs caught the doubles titles.

Wimbledon championship.

Wimbledon championship. Wimbledon championship.

Wimbledon championship history.

wimbledon players and seeding.

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