1877 Wimbledon Championship
The 1877 Wimbledon Championship was a men's tennis tournament held at the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club in Wimbledon, London. It was the world's first official lawn tennis tournament, and was later recognised as the first Grand Slam tournament or "Major". The AEC & LTC had been founded in July 1868, as the All England Croquet Club. Lawn tennis was introduced in February 1875 to compensate for the waning interest in croquet. In June 1877 the club decided to organise a tennis tournament to pay for the repair of its pony roller, needed to maintain the lawns. A set of rules was drawn up for the tournament, derived from the first standardised rules of tennis issued by the Marylebone Cricket Club in May 1875.
1877 Wimbledon Championship
A Sphairistikè lawn tennis court as designed by Major Wingfield in 1874. The hourglass shape was retained in the 1875 MCC rules but replaced by a rectangular court in the AELTC rules which governed the first Wimbledon Championship.
A lawn tennis racket from 1876 with its characteristic slightly lopsided head
Henry Jones played a pivotal role in initiating and organising the first Championship.
Wimbledon is a district and town of south-west London, England, 7.0 miles (11.3 km) southwest of the centre of London at Charing Cross; it is the main commercial centre of the London Borough of Merton. Wimbledon had a population of 68,187 in 2011 which includes the electoral wards of Abbey, Wimbledon Town and Dundonald, Hillside, Wandle, Village, Raynes Park and Wimbledon Park.
Wimbledon town centre
Remains of the ditch between the two main ramparts of the Iron Age hill fort
St Mary's Church
Wimbledon Hill Road, looking north-west from Wimbledon Bridge