Wimbledon Live
The most prestigious tournament in professional tennis is June 22nd through July 5th from the All England Club in Wimbledon, UK, as it has every year since 1877. This Grand Slam tournament's history dates back over 100 years, and is the most highly anticipated and most watched professional tennis tournament in the world, and the only of the Grand Slam events to be played on grass.
The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club was founded in 1868, originally known as just a croquet club, with lawn tennis being introduced in 1875. Two year later, they changed the name to it's present form to include this new sport. The only event being held back then, was the men's singles – originally called the Gentleman's Singles and the 1877 event was won by Spencer Gore, in front of 200 spectators, each of which paid a shilling to watch the event. The ladies weren't introduced to Wimbledon until 1884, when Maud Watson became the first champion.
This is the third grand slam of the year, with the Australian Open and the French Open already having been held this year, and the last Grand Slam is the US Open in August. This year, a major change came the the Centre Court at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, with a retractable roof being fitted that can close in under two minutes, so that a stray rainstorm won't cause more than a few seconds delay.
The first of the Grand Slams, the Australian Open, was played from January 19th through February 1st of this year, from Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. Serena Williams grabbed her fourth Australian Open title then as well as her tenth Grand Slam title, taking the women's singles title, then going on to partner up with her sister Venus, and winning the women's doubles as well. It came as no surprise when Rafael Nadal took the men's singles title for 2009, even against the legendary Roger Federer. This was a year for Nadal to make his country proud as he became the first Spaniard to have won the Australian Open. The men's doubles title was taken home by brothers Bob and Mike Bryan.
In the second Grand Slam it was Roger Federer who got to claim a Grand Slam title for 2009, winning the men's singles against Robin Soderling. The doubles champions were Lukas Dlouhy and Leander Paes. For the ladies, it was Svetlana Kuznetsova taking home the women's singles while Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual took charge and won the women's doubles against Victoria Azarenka and Elena Vesnina with an incredible two set win 6-1, 6-1. The French Open was May 24th through June 7th and it was held in Paris, at Stade Roland Garros. This was the 108th edition of the Roland Garros Grand Slam event.
The schedule of play won't be released until June 14th for this year's Wimbledon Championship, but let's take a look back at last year's tournament which was held June 23rd through July 6th, 2008, with much of the entire world watching as the greatest men's and women's professional tennis players in the world made history.
Day 12 had the women's singles final held at Centre Court between sixth seed Serena Williams and seventh seed Serena Williams. This was the third time the sisters had met in a Wimbledon final, and Serena was looking to add to her title collection including those from 2002 and 2003. Venus won in 2000, 2001, 2005 and 2007. The ladies had competed in seven Grand Slam finals, with Serena winning five times, and Venus only twice. In this final, Serena started strong but her sister came back after getting her groove, taking the first set 7-5. The second set, Venus again had some trouble with her serve, but again was able to recover in time, and took the final title from her sister after two sets, with a final of 7-5, 6-4.
The next Centre Court event was the men's doubles and it happened between former world number one Jonas Bjorkman, who had tucked away three Wimbledon doubles championships earlier in his career. He was paired with Kevin Ullyett and they faced off with Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic. The game went for two and a half hours and took four sets to decide. The first set won by Nestor and Zimonjic 14-12, with Bjorkman and Ullyett taking the second 7-3. The third and the fourth were nearly identical and finally ended with Nestor and Zimonjic taking the 2008 Men's Doubles Championship with a final of 7-6, 6-7, 6-3, 6-3.
The last final of day 12 was the women's doubles, played between Serena and Venus Williams, with Venus still flush from winning the women's singles crown. They challenged 16th seed Lisa Raymond and Samantha Stosur, the 2002 champion, with the Williams sisters making a strong showing as they had all day, ending the women's doubles final after only fifty eight minutes of gameplay with a final of 6-2, 6-2 with Venus and Serena Williams taking home the Women's Doubles Championship title for Wimbledon 2008.
The men's final took place the next day, on day 13 of Wimbledon, and the Centre Court was the stage of champions for Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. Federer was a master of the grass and had previously taken a Wimbledon title five times throughout recent years, and he was looking to add one more to his resume, equaling William Renshaw's record of six consecutive. However, both men had to wait to show what they had, as rain delayed the match for thirty five minutes, a dellimna solved this year, with the addition of the retractable roof. Finally, the match resumed and Rafael Nadal surprised everyone by beating Federer, and winning his first Wimbledon title in a match lauded as “the greatest match ever played” by some.
The excitement of Wimbledon is just a little over ten days away, and you can watch it live by getting your membership. Just click on any of the banners on this page and you'll be given access to our huge network of live streams and feeds that will all be live from Wimbledon 2009. You can record matches, switch between different feeds or different courts with the highest quality live feeds and streams available on the Internet. Don't miss Wimbledon 2009 June 22nd through July 5th.
Tags: Wimbledon, Grand Slam, Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Wimbledon 2009 Posted: 22nd June 2009 Wimbledon » Wimbledon Live |
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