Wimbledon’s importance in World Tennis
Wimbledon has come a long way through the centuries. It originated in the 12th century from a French game called paume, meaning palm. We can see from the history of tennis that it began as a court game where the players struck with the hand. The game then evolved and there was an appearance of rackets on the tennis court.
Early tennis was played on courts different from the ones used today. After some time, Croquet courts were introduced for playing tennis. In 1877, the first Wimbledon tournament was held by the All England Club and thus began the epic game that is immensely popular around the globe. This is when a new code of laws was drawn up. In 1884, the Men's Doubles was started and also the first Women Singles was held. In the nineteenth century, Open Tennis was introduced as there were many overseas players competing at Wimbledon and other tournaments throughout the world.
Let’s now talk about some rules of this game. The first rule is that the court has the dimensions of a rectangle with 78 feet in length and 27 feet in width. Secondly, the tennis ball should have an even and uniform outer surface and the color must be white or yellow. The third rule states that the ball should be in the range of 6.35 cm in diameter and 6.67 cm. The tennis rule for the racket states that it should be flat and consisting of a pattern of crossed strings connected to a frame and bonded where crossed. There should not be any kind of object attached with the racket and the dimension for the tennis racket frame should not be more than 81.28 cm in overall length.
Moving forward, let’s go through some simple tips for this game. The first tennis tip given by any coach would be to maintain your confidence even after making some errors on court. No matter if the things do not seem to be going right, a tennis player should learn to hit at a steady pace and play with lots of patience. Any coach would give a tennis tip on placing or positioning a shot in the opponents’ court. Whether to hit crosscourt or close to the net is a matter of judgment that every tennis player has to master over a period of time.
Let’s now review the career highlights of some eye-catching players in the history of Wimbledon Tennis. Roy Emerson is an Australian right-handed tennis player who is known for his agility within the court. He won a record 12 men's Grand Slam singles titles between the years 1961–67. Emerson also won 16 Grand Slam doubles titles, and was a member of the Australian team that won the Davis Cup eight times between 1959 and 1967. Stefan Edberg, a Swedish tennis player, won eight major titles, six of them in the singles competition. He won the Australian Open in 1985 and repeated this feat in 1987. Other Grand Slam single titles to Edberg’s name include Wimbledon in 1988 and 1990 and the US Open in 1991 and 1992.
Jimmy Connors, a US tennis player who won the Wimbledon singles title in 1974 and 1982, and subsequently won ten Grand Slam events is also an important member of the international tennis fraternity. He was one of the first players to popularize the two-handed backhand as he won 78 career titles. Andre Agassi is a U.S. tennis player who won 4 Grand Slam Titles. Agassi is known for his ability to hit sharp winners from the baseline. In 1995, he became the world number one in international rankings and held it for a total of 30 weeks.
Roger Federer, a Swiss professional tennis player is the current world number one since 2004. Federer has a versatile, all-court playing style and can hit all the fundamental shots with a high degree of proficiency. In 2008, he was named ‘Laureus World Sportsman of the Year’. Federer has won twelve 12 Grand Slam Singles Titles (3 Australian, 5 Wimbledon, 4 US), 4 Tennis Masters Cup and 14 ATP Masters Series Titles. Rafael Nadal is a Spanish Professional Tennis Player. Nadal's playing style is best tailored for clay courts. He has won 4 Grand Slam Singles Titles and 11 ATP Masters Series Singles Finals.
In the 21st Century Wimbledon is acknowledged to be the number 1 tennis tournament in the world and the priority of The All England Lawn Tennis Club, to maintain its leadership. Wimbledon is now an international event, seen by millions on television worldwide. As the world has changed over the years, the Wimbledon tournament continues to remind everyone that old is always gold.
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