Tennis is a game loved all our the world, and the UK is no different. It’s said that at any one time there are over 700.000 people playing tennis regularly in the UK.

PLAYING AND FOLLOWING

My passion for playing tennis started at a young age, when with two friends, we decided to make some rackets out of old furniture. We began playing on some waste ground next to a block of flats and spent many days of our summer holidays here. My passion for following the game came from the fact that the UK is host to one of the four Grand Slams – Wimbledon.

I’m not sure what it’s like in other counties, but the UK has a list of sporting events that by law must be available on regular TV, giving access to anyone that wants to see it, and this includes Wimbledon. The BBC does a great job of covering Wimbledon live, all day across two channels. When I was younger, I would often take a few days holiday during the second week, so that I didn’t miss any of the action from the quarter or semi finals.

Experience more: check how great does the LivematchPro widget cover tennis!

A LITTLE HISTORY

Since the first Wimbledon Championship held in 1877 that consisted of a men’s championship only, there have been a lot of changes. In 1884 they introduced both the Men’s doubles and Women’s Singles competitions. Not too many people will know that the championships were held at a different location before 1922 when they were moved from Warple Road to Church Round, where they can still be found.

I have already mentioned the BBC and their coverage, but did you know that Wimbledon coverage was first broadcast via radio in 1927? Indeed, there was no TV coverage until 1937, which was of course black and white, colour TV coverage was not seen until 1967. The biggest changes I can remember in recent years were the retractable roof they added to Centre Court in 2009 and of course the announcement made a few weeks ago that from 2019, there will be a fifth set tiebreaker when players get to 12-12.

Enjoy some shots from the early TV coverage of Wimbledon.

A FEW INTERESTING WIMBLEDON STATS

Aces

The most aces by a man – 214 John Isner (2018)

The most by a women – 102 Serena Williams (2012)

Balls

Slazenger has been the official ball suppler since 1902

Capacity

The grounds can hold up to 39,000 people

Grass courts

40 in total, 18 plus Centre Court used for the championship

Fastest Serves

Men’s – 147mph Milos Raonis CAN

Women’s – 125mph Serena Williams USA

Longest match

John Isner vs Nicolas Mahut – 11 hours 5minutes

Dress code

Predominately white

The most single titles (Open Era)

Men’s – Roger Federer 8

Women’s – Martina Navratilova 9

Attendance 2018

The total attendance across the 13 days was – 473,169

Food and Drink

Wimbledon is said to be the largest single annual sporting catering operation carried out in Europe.

This is just a taste of Wimbledon and I’ve not even mentioned any of the great players and matches that I have seen here over the years that I’ve been watching this great competition. For sure, tennis will be revisited!

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