Summary The Wimbledon Championship is 140 years old
(Web Desk) - Wimbledon became a Google Doodle on Monday as the company celebrated the oldest tennis tournament in the world. The doodle was designed in Wimbledon’s traditional colors (green and purple) to honor the tournament and was an animated gif of two white racquets — the dress code — hitting a ball back and forth.
Wimbledon has a history of 140 years. The tournament traces it’s beginning back to the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, a private club founded on 23 July 1868 whose first ground was off Worple Road, Wimbledon. In 1876, lawn tennis was added to the activities of the club. Soon after the club was renamed "The All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club" and instituted the first Lawn Tennis Championship. A new set of rules was drawn up for the event .The first championship had only one event the Gentlemen’s Singles which was participated in only by men.
Getting in the mood for The Championships...
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 3, 2017
More on #Wimbledon s first @Google doodle: https://t.co/DJBpblmjtR pic.twitter.com/whWN8MiDdW
Later on the club added other events such as the Ladies’ Singles and Gentlemen’s Doubles competitions. In 1913, in view of changing social trends, the club also added Ladies’ Doubles and Mixed Doubles events. Until 1922, under club policy, the reigning champion had to play only in the final, against whoever had won through to challenge him/her. As with the other three Major or Grand Slam events, Wimbledon was contested by top-ranked amateur players, professional players were prohibited from participating. However all this changed with the advent of the open era in 1968.The Championship first became televised in 1937, a change that increased the events visibility in the wider public.
In the present Wimbledon consists of five main events, four junior events and seven invitation events. The championships main events are Gentlemen’s Singles, Ladies’ Singles, Gentlemen’s Doubles, Ladies’ Doubles and Mixed Doubles while junior events consist of separate singles and doubles for boys as well as girls (no mixed doubles event is held at this level).
While Wimbledon is hardly the only tennis event in the world it is certainly the most important. This year’s event will feature over 700 players participating in the competition, nearly 500,000 onlookers and more than 9.5 million viewers watching the championship from all across the world. Another bright spot for players is that this year the winners, in both the men and women’s categories, will receive 2.2 million pounds ($2.84 million) each – a substantial increase of 200,000 pounds from the last tournament.
