The Championships were first played under the control of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in 1877 at a ground near Worple Road, Wimbledon; the only event held was Gentlemen's Singles. In 1884, the All England Club added Ladies' Singles and Gentlemen's Doubles. Ladies' Doubles and Mixed Doubles were added in 1913. The Championships moved to their present location, at a ground near Church Road, in 1922. As with the other three Grand Slam events, Wimbledon was contested by top-ranked amateur players until the advent of the open era in tennis in 1968. Britons are very proud of the tournament but it is a source of national anguish and humour — no British man has won the singles event at Wimbledon since Fred Perry in 1936, and no British woman since Virginia Wade in 1977. The Championship was first televised in 1937.

Events

There are five main events held at Wimbledon: Gentlemen's Singles, Ladies' Singles, Gentlemen's Doubles, Ladies' Doubles and Mixed Doubles. In addition, four events are held for juniors: Boys' Singles, Girls' Singles, Boys' Doubles and Girls' Doubles. (The Mixed Doubles event is not held at the junior level.) Finally, four invitational events are held: the 35 and over Gentlemen's Invitation Doubles, the 45 and over Gentlemen's Invitation Doubles, the 35 and over Ladies' Invitation Doubles and the Wheelchair Gentlemen's Invitation Doubles.

Matches in the Gentlemen's Singles and Gentlemen's Doubles competitions are best-of-five sets; matches in all other events are best-of-three sets. Most events are single-elimination tournaments; in other words, a player who loses a single match is immediately eliminated from the tournament. However, the 35 and over Gentlemen's Invitation Doubles and the 35 and over Ladies' Invitation Doubles are both round-robin tournaments.

Up through 1921, the winners of the previous year's competition (except in the Ladies Doubles and Mixed Doubles) were automatically granted byes into the final round (then known as the challenge round). This led to many winners retaining their titles for successive years, as they were able to rest while their opponent competed from the start of the competition. From 1922, the title holders played through from the start of the championships.

Each year, the tournament begins on the Monday falling between 20 and 26 June (six weeks before the first Monday in August). It is held two weeks after the Queen's Club Championships, which are considered the major warm-up period for Wimbledon for male players. Another important warm-up tournament for the men is the Gerry Weber Open, which is held in Halle, Germany at about the same time as the Queen's Club Championships. The other grass-court male tournaments before the Championships are currently 's-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands (which also organises an event for women), and Nottingham in Britain. To adapt to the fast green surface there are also two more competitions for women, the places to host these are Birmingham and Eastbourne (both in the UK). Wimbledon usually lasts for two weeks; the main events span both weeks, but the junior and invitational events are for the most part held during the second week. Traditionally, there is no play on the "Middle Sunday", which is considered a rest day. However, rain has forced play on the Middle Sunday three times in the Championship's history: in 1991, 1997, and 2004. On each of these occasions, Wimbledon has staged a "People's Sunday", with unreserved seating and readily available, inexpensive tickets, allowing those with more limited means to sit on the show courts. Additionally, if the tournament is not completed by the end of the second Sunday, all the remaining matches are postponed until "People's Monday". The grass-court season comes to an end each year after the Championships, when the short tournament of Newport invites male players to its grounds in the U.S.

Players and seeding

A total of 128 players feature in each singles event, 64 pairs in each single-sex doubles event, and 48 pairs in Mixed Doubles. Players and doubles pairs are admitted to the main events on the basis of their international rankings, with consideration also given to their previous performances at grasscourt events. Currently (since 2001) 32 male and female players are given seedings in the Gentlemen's and Ladies' singles while 16 teams are seeded in the doubles events.

The Committee of Management and the Referee evaluate all applications for entry, and determine which players may be admitted to the tournament directly. The committee may admit a player without a high enough ranking as a wild card. Usually, wild cards are players who have performed well during previous tournaments, or would stimulate public interest in Wimbledon by participating. The only wild card to win the Gentlemen's Singles Championship was Goran Ivaniševic (2001). Players and pairs who neither have high enough rankings nor receive wild cards may participate in a qualifying tournament held one week before Wimbledon at the Bank of England Sports Ground in Roehampton. The singles qualifying competitions are three-round events; the same-sex doubles competitions last for only one round. There is no qualifying tournament for Mixed Doubles. No qualifier has won either the Gentlemen's Singles or the Ladies' Singles tournaments. The furthest that any qualifier has progressed in the main draw of a Singles tournament is the semi-final round: John McEnroe in 1977 and Vladimir Voltchkov of Belarus in 2000 (Gentlemen's Singles), and Alexandra Stevenson in 1999 (Ladies' Singles).

Players are admitted to the junior tournaments upon the recommendations of their national tennis associations, on their International Tennis Federation world rankings and, in the case of the singles events, on the basis of a qualifying competition. The Committee of Management determines which players may enter the four invitational events.

The Committee seeds the top players and pairs (thirty-two players in each main singles events, and sixteen pairs in each main doubles event) on the basis of their rankings. However, the Committee does also change the seedings due to a player's previous grass court performance. A majority of the entrants are unseeded. Only two unseeded players have ever won the Gentlemen's Singles Championship: Boris Becker in 1985 and Goran Ivaniševic in 2001. (In 1985 there were only sixteen seeds - Becker was ranked 20th at the time; Ivaniševic, however, was as low as 125th.) No unseeded player has captured the Ladies' Singles title; the lowest seeded female champion was Venus Williams, who won in 2007 as the twenty-third seed, beating her own record from 2005, when Williams won as the fourteenth seed. Unseeded pairs have won the doubles titles on numerous occasions; the 2005 Gentlemen's Doubles champions were not only unseeded, but also (for the first time ever) qualifiers.

Grounds

The order of play for all courts is displayed on boards around the grounds

The nineteen courts used for Wimbledon are all composed purely of rye grass. The speed and the low bounce of grass courts favours serve and volley players. Among women, the serve and volley strategy has been less common since around 1980.

The main show courts, Centre Court and No. 1 Court, are normally used only for two weeks a year, during the Championships, but play can extend into a third week in exceptional circumstances. The remaining seventeen courts are regularly used for other events hosted by the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. The show courts will, however, be pressed into action for the second time in three months in 2012 as Wimbledon will host the tennis events of the 2012 Olympic Games.

Wimbledon is the only Grand Slam event played on grass courts. At one time, all the other Grand Slam events were played on grass. The French Open abandoned grass for its current red clay in 1928, while the U.S. and Australian Opens stayed with grass for decades longer. The U.S. Open abandoned grass for a synthetic clay surface in 1975 and changed again to a hard surface (DecoTurf) with its 1978 move to its current venue. The Australian Open abandoned grass for Rebound Ace, a different type of hard surface, in 1988, and will switch to yet another type of hard surface, Plexicushion, in 2008.

The main court, Centre Court, was opened in 1922 when the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club moved from Worple Road to Church Road. This change of venue was due to the huge crowd pressure at Worple Road to see the French phenomenon Suzanne Lenglen, and for which it proved completely inadequate.

Due to possibility of rain during Wimbledon, a retractable roof is planned for the court, which is expected to be completed in 2009. The retractable roof is said to be designed to close/open in under 10 minutes and will be closed primarily to protect play from inclement (and, if necessary, extremely hot) weather during The Championships.^[2] Also, during the time of its opening/closing, play will be suspended. The court has a capacity of almost 14,000. At its south end is the Royal Box, from which members of the Royal Family and other dignitaries watch matches. Centre Court usually hosts the finals and semifinals of the main events, as well as many matches in the earlier rounds involving top-seeded players or local favourites.

Court No.1

The second most important court is No. 1 Court. The court was constructed in 1997 to replace the old No. 1 Court, which was adjacent to Centre Court. The old No. 1 Court was demolished because its capacity for spectators was too low. The court was said to have had a unique, more intimate atmosphere and was a favourite of many players. The new No. 1 Court has a capacity of approximately 11,000. The third-largest court, No. 2 Court, has been dubbed the "Graveyard of Champions" due to its reputation as the court on which many seeded players have been eliminated during the early rounds. Famous players who have lost on the Graveyard during early round play include John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Pete Sampras, Martina Hingis, Venus Williams, and Serena Williams. The court has a capacity of about 3,000. There are plans to build a brand new 4,000 capacity No. 2 Court where No. 13 Court currently stands in time for the 2009 Championships.

At the northern end of the grounds is a giant television screen on which important matches are broadcast. Fans watch from an area of grass officially known as the Aorangi Terrace, but more commonly called Henman Hill. The "hill" takes its name from local favourite Tim Henman, who many fans once hoped would become the first British man to win the tournament since Fred Perry did so in 1936. When other British players do well at Wimbledon, the hill attracts fans for them, and is often re-named by the press for them: Greg Rusedski's followers convened at "Rusedski Ridge", and the young Scotsman Andy Murray has had the hill nicknamed "Murray Mound", "Mount Murray", or "Murray Field" (after the Scottish rugby stadium).

Ref: Wikipedia website