First Played:
Men: 1877; Women: 1884.
Location:
London, England.
Court Surface:
Grass.
Time of Year:
Late June into early July.
Sizes of Draws:
Principal Stadium or Court:
Centre Court
Wimbledon is the world's oldest and, to many, most prestigious tennis tournament. Run by The All England Lawn Tennis Club, Wimbledon has always been played on grass.
Of all outdoor court surfaces, grass is the fastest, favoring power servers, serve-and-volleyers, and players with flatter and slice groundstroke styles that both handle low-skidding balls well and make the ball skid effectively at the opponent, but that doesn't exclude topspin players, especially now that Wimbledon's grass plays slower than it used to.
Given the low, fast, and unpredictable bounces the ball took on the classic grass court and the resulting difficulty of returning serve, serve-and-volley was the perfect solution. When serving, the typical serve-and-volleyer rarely plays a bounced ball. When receiving, most serve-and-volleyers chip-and-charge, hitting just one or two groundstrokes before attacking the net. Among the great players who won multiple Wimbledons using this strategy are Pete Sampras, with seven singles titles, Martina Navratilova, with nine, and Billie Jean King, with six. No mention of great Wimbledon players should omit Bjorn Borg, though, whose topspin, baseline game makes his five consecutive singles titles all the more astonishing.
Borg's game was much more typical of a champion of the slow clay at Roland Garros, which he won six times. Grass and clay have been such opposites, only a handful of players have won both Roland Garros and Wimbledon. Now that Wimbledon's courts are somewhat slower, their contrast with clay is less extreme, much to the delight of Rafael Nadal, a heavy topspin player who, in 2008, was the first since Borg to win Roland Garros and Wimbledon back-to-back.
Wimbledon - Men's Singles Past Winners
Wimbledon - Women's Singles Past Winners
Wimbledon - Men's Doubles Past Winners
Wimbledon - Women's Doubles Past Winners
Wimbledon - Mixed Doubles Past Winners
How To Get Last Minute Tickets to Wimbledon
Men: 1877; Women: 1884.
Location:
London, England.
Court Surface:
Grass.
Time of Year:
Late June into early July.
Sizes of Draws:
- Men's and Women's Singles: 128
- Men's and Women's Doubles: 64
- Mixed Doubles: 48.
Principal Stadium or Court:
Centre Court
Wimbledon is the world's oldest and, to many, most prestigious tennis tournament. Run by The All England Lawn Tennis Club, Wimbledon has always been played on grass.
Of all outdoor court surfaces, grass is the fastest, favoring power servers, serve-and-volleyers, and players with flatter and slice groundstroke styles that both handle low-skidding balls well and make the ball skid effectively at the opponent, but that doesn't exclude topspin players, especially now that Wimbledon's grass plays slower than it used to.
Given the low, fast, and unpredictable bounces the ball took on the classic grass court and the resulting difficulty of returning serve, serve-and-volley was the perfect solution. When serving, the typical serve-and-volleyer rarely plays a bounced ball. When receiving, most serve-and-volleyers chip-and-charge, hitting just one or two groundstrokes before attacking the net. Among the great players who won multiple Wimbledons using this strategy are Pete Sampras, with seven singles titles, Martina Navratilova, with nine, and Billie Jean King, with six. No mention of great Wimbledon players should omit Bjorn Borg, though, whose topspin, baseline game makes his five consecutive singles titles all the more astonishing.
Borg's game was much more typical of a champion of the slow clay at Roland Garros, which he won six times. Grass and clay have been such opposites, only a handful of players have won both Roland Garros and Wimbledon. Now that Wimbledon's courts are somewhat slower, their contrast with clay is less extreme, much to the delight of Rafael Nadal, a heavy topspin player who, in 2008, was the first since Borg to win Roland Garros and Wimbledon back-to-back.
Wimbledon - Men's Singles Past Winners
Wimbledon - Women's Singles Past Winners
Wimbledon - Men's Doubles Past Winners
Wimbledon - Women's Doubles Past Winners
Wimbledon - Mixed Doubles Past Winners
How To Get Last Minute Tickets to Wimbledon