A set of rules was drawn up for the tournament and one of the croquet pitches was turned into a tennis court and the inaugural tournament drew 22 players who each paid one guinea to participate and after a three day delay for rain (obviously) 200 people watched Spencer Gore became the first Wimbledon champion and pocket a £10 winners prize.
A women's championship was started in 1884 and was won by Maud Watson and the first 34 men's championships and the initial 30 women's were all won by Brits although these days when it comes to the Wimbledon Final Weekend, there is not usually a Brit in sight and the only success we did have, Andy Murray, learnt how to play in Spain and owes his success to the Sánchez-Casal Academy more than anything he learnt here.
Canadian Greg Rusedki was never really accepted as a Brit, especially as we had 'Tiger' Tim Henman who was rubbish but was as English as afternoon tea and the Queen Mother while Greg sounded like he had just taken off his Mountie uniform and was stroking a Caribou.
A ticket for Wimbledon isn't cheap but the prices are justified by the explanation that each year the All England Club who run Wimbledon help the LTA to develop British tennis and for an idea of how successful that is, i refer you back to the previous sentence.
Wimbledon fortnight is a roaring success, as a sporting event and financially with last years tournament income making £149.2 million with the winners of the men's and ladies' singles titles each pocketing £1.76 million and the players they beat will each collect £880,000 as runners-up.
The entire prize fund for all players is £25 million which is the smallest of the prize funds of the four Grand Slams in Australia, Paris, Wimbledon and New York.
Doesn't explain why Brits suck as tennis so bad though, maybe the All England Club should dig a little deeper into it's very deep pockets and spend a bit less on the Pimm's and Strawberries.
No comments:
Post a Comment