Wimbledon: When It All Began
It was in 1877 when the All England Club Championships at Wimbledon, UK, were inaugurated and the opening tournament was quite at odds with the two-week tennis gala we witness today. The contest was initiated in a bid to accumulate funds for the refurbishment of a roller and consisted of 22 participants in the men’s singles event.
The 1877 affair was the first systematized tennis title match in the world, where Spencer Gore was eventually crowned victor and awarded 12 guineas for his pains.
The favourable outcome of the tourney – overlooking the rain-drenched final clash – guaranteed its comeback the following year and soon became a regular feature on the sporting schedule. The women’s singles and men’s doubles events were added to the calendar soon after in 1884. And then in 1913, immediately before the start of World War I, the women’s doubles and mixed doubles made it to the roster.
Since their commencement in 1877, the Championships, as they are officially labelled, were obstructed only by the two World Wars, being suspended for the four years of World War I and for six years due to the Second.
For the first three decades, Britons had the upper hand at Wimbledon, with players like Ernest and William Renshaw and Laurie and Reggie Doherty commanding the show.
The Renshaw twins generated such a flurry of enthusiasm in the sport that the 1880s became labelled as the “Renshaw Rush”, as more and more spectators became drawn to the sport.
May Sutton from America distinguished herself as the first transatlantic Wimbledon champion after lifting the women’s trophy in 1905. Two years later, Australia’s Norman Brookes emulated Sutton’s feat by becoming the first men’s victor from abroad. Brookes’ triumph was a turning point in the men’s competition, and since then only two British males have taken the trophy.
Following the termination of activity at Wimbledon over the period of the First World War, the tournament was restarted in 1919. The recommencement period witnessed the reign of France’s Suzanne Rachel Lenglen, who landed five titles in succession; a stunning run that began in 1919.
In 1922, the Wimbledon tournaments were shifted to a new address on Church Road, the site that is recognized by tennis enthusiasts the world over today, even though it has been subjected to significant upgrades since.
The Centre Court held just short of 10,000 onlookers, providing standing for some 3600, which aided in promoting the game.
American Bill Tilden, one of the finest players to have set foot in the tennis arena, took consecutive titles in the period following the First World War. However, only a few years later, several Frenchmen took a leaf out of Suzanne Lenglen’s book to cast their mark on the event.
The “Four Musketeers” as they became known, Rene Lacoste, Jacques Brugnon, Jean Borotra and Henri Cochet together booked 5 doubles and 6 singles trophies in total, over a spell of ten years.
In what was one of the most flourishing eras for French tennis, these Frenchmen sealed every single’s trophy from 1924-29 between themselves.
Lenglen’s six title exploit was surpassed by America’s Helen Newington Wills Roark, who clinched 8 singles titles between 1927 and 1938.
However, it was Fred Perry who made waves during the period preceding the Second World War. Perry seized his initial Wimbledon trophy in 1934, the same season that Dorothy Round landed the women’s singles Venus Rosewater Dish, making it an all-British affair at the Wimbledon singles’ events that year. The talented youth from Cheshire overcame opponents in straight sets at each of the finals he played. Perry’s last Wimbledon singles title was particularly memorable, when in 1936 he made mincemeat of bitter rival, Germany’s Gottfried von Cramm, in a staggering 40 minutes.
The Englishman’s hat-trick of trophies endeared him to the home crowd, for whom it hadn’t been so good in a very long time.
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