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Every sport has its major event that trumps all other levels of competition in size, importance, and media coverage. For football, that event is the Super Bowl, where the two top teams that year face off in a spectacle that draws millions of viewers and millions of dollars in advertising costs. College basketball culminates in March Madness, one of the nation’s most prominent sport events which takes the form of a single elimination tournament that is played throughout the titular month. But for tennis, this event is The Championships, Wimbledon, commonly referred to as just Wimbledon, and this sporting event is regarded by many to be one of the most prestigious in the entire world. Wimbledon is regarded as the most coveted championship of tennis’ Grand Slam events.

The modern sport of tennis largely developed in the middle of the 19th century, as part of a combination of separate influences. One half of tennis’s creation came in the form of two sportsmen, Major Harry Gem and friend Augurio Perera, who decided to create a game that took elements from the Basque game of pelota and the British game of rackets. The game would be played on the croquet lawn of Perera’s home, to begin with. The sport caught on rather quickly, and by 1872, with the sponsorship of two local doctors, the two friends started the world’s first tennis club. Only twelve years later, the world’s first tennis tournament was held at Shrubland Hall in 1884, marking the beginning of competitive tennis play.

Much of modern tennis terminology and the term itself originated due to the efforts of Major Walter Clopton Wingfield. He was responsible for designing a game similar to the one previously mentioned, but it differed because it was based more upon the game of indoor tennis, otherwise referred to as real test. Invented in 1873, he called his game sphairistike, which is Greek for “skill at playing ball”, but it eventually was referred to as just “sticky” by the party guests for whom it was designed. During this time, the French vocabulary and terminology for indoor tennis were applied to his game, and derivatives of those words are in use today.

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Wingfield’s creation was added to the activities of the “The All England Croquet Club” in 1875, which was then renamed to include lawn tennis in the title two years later. To denote the name change, the club organized the first Lawn Tennis Championships and drafted rules and regulations to be followed by players and participants in the tournament. To this day, these rules and regulations, except for a couple of minor details like the height of the net and the size of the field, are still used to provide the framework for Wimbledon competition. 200 spectators came out to watch the final round of the Gentleman’s Singles competition, the only available category at the time. By 1882, tennis was the only activity practiced at the club, and from then until 1899, “croquet” was dropped from the title. It was later returned for sentimental reasons and has remained since then.

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Today, Wimbledon is acknowledged as the most important tennis competition in the world, and only the most skilled tennis players even have the opportunity to participate in competition. The events are split up into categories: there are 128 players featured in single events of each gender, 64 pairs playing in the single-sex doubles event, and 48 pairs in Mixed Doubles. International standing is the main basis upon which potential competitors are judged, and consideration is given toward previous performance in other events. Potential competitors apply to compete at Wimbledon and are selected by the Committee of Management and the Referee. While some players are put directly into the competition, others without a high enough ranking may have the chance to enter as a wild card competitor. Usually, these are players that have performed well at other public tournaments or those that would promote interest in the sport and the competition for a variety of reasons.

Those that do not have the requisite rank and that are not wild cards have the chance to qualify for Wimbledon competition at a qualifying tournament held one week before Wimbledon in Roehampton. No participants in Wimbledon have ever won the competition from the qualifying round, but some in each category have reached the semi-finals. The top sixteen pairs and the top thirty two players are seeded accorded to their rankings, but there have been two Gentleman’s Singles players to win without being seeded. As far as the Ladies’ Singles title, no unseeded female competitor has ever won the competition.

There are nineteen courts upon which Wimbledon takes place, and they are all composed purely of natural rye grass. Out of all the courts, Centre Court and No. 1 Court are the two most recognizable and these are the courts that are used only two weeks out of the entire competition. Centre court is one of the most famous tennis venues in the world, with a premier box for the British Royal Family to use and room for over 13,000 specatators. It will also see use in the 2012 Summer Olympics. By the year 2009, there is expected to be a retractable roof over the court, and since 2006, the stadium has had no roof at all. Also in 2009, there are plans to add 15,000 new seats and new media facilities to replace those that were taken away for the renovations.

Because of the long history of the sport and the competition, there are plenty of traditions that are customarily followed throughout the course of Wimbledon. Dark green and purple had long been the official colors of Wimbledon, which would be worn by the ball boys, the ball girls, the chair umpire, and the linesmen. In the 2006 championships, however, all of the people involved with the competition were to wear navy blue and cream colored outfits designed by Ralph Lauren, marking the first time ever that an outside company had designed the outfits for the Wimbledon officials. Players are required to wear all white, or almost entirely white, and the dress codes are strictly enforced. Female players are referred to as “Miss” or “Mrs.” and married women are referred to by their husband’s name in a formal, traditional move. Historically, players were supposed to bow or curtsy if members of the Royal Family were present in the Royal Box, but now they must only bow or curtsy if the Queen or the Prince of Wales is present. Strawberries and cream is the traditional snack sold at the Wimbledon games.

Since the very beginning of tennis as we know it, the Wimbledon has been an extremely important event, where tennis players of the highest caliber can come together to test their skill in a highly publicized event. It is the biggest test for any serious tennis player who can manage to even get in to compete, and because of this, it is one of the most important sporting events in the world. So grab some strawberry and cream and put on your finest navy blue and cream colored outfit (or dark green and purple, whichever you happen to prefer), and watch history unfold at the Wimbledon games.

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