By Michelle Ka Barber
Each year, thousands upon thousands of people descend on South West London's All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club (the official title of what you and I know simply as "Wimbledon") to watch the world's great tennis players vie for the coveted Champion title.
The grand-slam (one of the four major tennis tournaments in a year) Championship competition started life way back in 1877, when only men were allowed to compete. Since then, it has seen several changes; women were allowed to compete from 1884 and, up until 1922, the reigning champion only had to compete in the final, without needing to qualify. It still retains a very strict all-white dress code for the players, although some colour accenting is acceptable.
It's a grass venue (as opposed to clay or hard court) and is the only major tournament to be played on this surface. The famous Centre Court has recently had a retractable roof installed so that if rain stops play (a frequent occurrence!) the match can continue uninterrupted.
The tournament is steeped in tradition and etiquette and, up until as recently as 2009, female players were not referred to by their christian names, simply by Miss XX or Mrs XX and married women had to be referred to by their husband's names on the scoreboard, such as Chris Evert-Lloyd being referred to as Mrs J M Lloyd while she was married to John Lloyd.
Even the ball boys and girls (BBGs) have a strict uniform, which, since 2006 has been designed by Ralph Lauren.
Tickets for the competition are in extremely high demand each year and are only available by public ballot at the beginning of each calendar year. However, tickets can still be obtained for the three main show courts by queuing up (usually overnight) and is considered part of the Wimbledon experience by die-hard fans. The All England Club even provide toilet and water facilities for campers and left-luggage facilities should they be successful in obtaining a ticket to the ground.
For the last few years, the singles finals have been dominated by the same few very familiar players, namely, the Williams Sisters, Federer, Nadal and Andy Roddick who all compete for the first prize. Men receive a silver cup bearing the inscription All England Lawn Tennis Club Single Handed Championship of the World and ladies receive the Venus Rosewater Dish. Both men and ladies singles winners receive prize money of £1,100,000 each, although, up until 2007, men were awarded more money than women, presumably due to the fact they play the best of five sets versus the ladies, who play best of three sets.
For further information about Wimbledon or any other sports-related questions, head over to Blurtit.com and get an answer to any question you might have.
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