The First Wimbledon Championship Is Played

In June 1877, the committee of the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club met to address a practical equipment problem. Founded in 1868 on four acres of meadowland outside London, the club had added lawn tennis two years earlier as the new game grew in popularity. Maintaining the turf courts required constant rolling, but the club pony roller had broken down. The club resolved to stage an amateur lawn tennis tournament, announced in the sporting paper The Field, to raise funds for the necessary repairs, creating what is now recognized as the first Grand Slam tennis tournament.

Before play could begin, the organizers had to address widespread inconsistencies in how the sport was played. In 1875, the Marylebone Cricket Club had issued the first standardized rules, but those retained Major Walter Clopton Wingfield's hourglass court, high net, and rackets-style scoring system. A three-member All England championship sub-committee, whose decisions were largely the work of Henry Jones, formulated the regulations for the gathering. They abandoned the pinched court in favor of a rectangular area measuring 78 by 27 feet, introduced the traditional real tennis scoring method of 15, 30, and 40, and permitted two deliveries per serve.