The Championships, Wimbledon

A broken roller, a shilling entry fee, and the birth of the most imitated tournament in sport.

The All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club, seeking funds to repair a broken pony roller, organised a lawn tennis competition at its grounds on Worple Road, Wimbledon. Twenty-two gentlemen entered. Spencer Gore, a rackets player from Wandsworth, won the inaugural title in front of around 200 spectators, each paying one shilling. The rules were drawn up specifically for the occasion, establishing the rectangular court and the modern scoring system still used today.

Maud Watson won the inaugural ladies' title aged nineteen, defeating her own sister, in a full-length dress and corset.

Seven years after the first men's competition, the Ladies' Singles was introduced alongside the Gentlemen's Doubles. Maud Watson, a 19-year-old vicar's daughter from Berkswell, defeated her elder sister Lilian in the final to become the first female champion. The addition marked a significant step for women's sport in Victorian England, though competitors played in full-length dresses, corsets, and hats.

A horseshoe sketched in 1922 became the most famous outline in sport.

After 45 years at Worple Road, the Championships relocated to a purpose-built ground on Church Road, the site the tournament still occupies. King George V attended the opening, and the new Centre Court held 13,000 spectators. The move was driven by the sport's surging popularity following the First World War. The grounds were designed by Captain Stanley Peach, whose horseshoe-shaped Centre Court became one of the most recognisable arenas in sport.

Before the world was watching, London already was.

The BBC broadcast live coverage from Wimbledon for the first time, making it the first Grand Slam tournament to appear on television. The cameras were positioned on Centre Court, and the broadcast reached a small but fascinated audience across London. This early adoption of television would prove transformative. By the 1960s, Wimbledon had become appointment viewing for millions, and the BBC's coverage remains one of the longest-running sports broadcasts in the world.

The amateurs stepped aside in 1968; Laver and King promptly showed everyone what they had been missing.

For decades, Wimbledon had been restricted to amateurs, a rule that excluded many of the world's best players. In 1968, the All England Club opened the Championships to professionals, ushering in the Open Era. The impact was immediate. Rod Laver and Billie Jean King won the first Open titles, and the standard of play rose sharply. Prize money was introduced, and the tournament's commercial potential began to be realised.

Seven match points saved, yet still the wrong man won the tiebreak; Borg's fifth consecutive title was that ruthless.

Björn Borg and John McEnroe contested what many consider the finest Wimbledon final in history. McEnroe saved seven match points in a legendary fourth-set tiebreak, winning it 18-16, but Borg prevailed in five sets to claim his fifth consecutive title. The contrast in styles and temperaments, Borg's glacial calm against McEnroe's volcanic intensity, captivated a global audience and cemented Wimbledon's place at the heart of sporting drama.

A hundred million pounds and ten minutes to close; a century of rain delays, gone.

After more than a century of rain interruptions, a retractable roof was installed over Centre Court at a cost of around £100 million. The translucent structure takes approximately ten minutes to close and transformed the scheduling of the tournament's showpiece matches. Andy Murray and Stanislas Wawrinka played the first match under the closed roof on 29 June 2009. A second retractable roof was later added to No.1 Court in 2019, further insulating the Championships from the British weather.

Seventeen million Britons held their breath as Murray ended a 77-year wait on a sunlit Centre Court.

Andy Murray defeated Novak Djokovic in straight sets to become the first British man to win the Wimbledon singles title since Fred Perry in 1936. The weight of expectation had been immense, and Murray's victory on a sunlit Centre Court was watched by a peak television audience of 17.3 million in the UK. He won the title again in 2016, and his achievements at SW19 secured his status as one of the most significant figures in British sporting history.

At twenty, Alcaraz dethroned a four-time defending champion; Becker's record had stood since 1986.

Twenty-year-old Carlos Alcaraz defeated Novak Djokovic in a five-set final to claim his first Wimbledon title, ending Djokovic's run of four consecutive Championships. Alcaraz became the youngest men's champion since Boris Becker in 1986. He successfully defended his title in 2024, beating Djokovic again in straight sets, confirming the arrival of a new era at the All England Club. The tournament continues to evolve, with prize money reaching £50 million for the first time in 2024.