Wimbledon remains the only one of tennis’s four majors still played on grass, and the All England Club’s queue is the one route in no other major has kept.
Tennis’s only grass-court major returns to The All England Lawn Tennis Club in Wimbledon from Monday 28 June to Sunday 11 July 2027.
The All England Croquet Club was founded in July 1868 and added lawn tennis eight years later. Walter Clopton Wingfield had devised the game as an outdoor version of real tennis.
The club ran its first Championships on 9 July 1877, a gentlemen’s singles and nothing else. The ladies followed in 1884, and the club moved from Worple Road to Church Road in 1922. Slazenger has supplied the balls since 1902, the longest unbroken sponsorship in sport.
Wimbledon is the only fortnight in the year when the sport is contested on the surface it was invented for. The court changes under the players as the tournament wears it out.
The 2027 Championships mark 150 years since the first. The club keeps the rules it is known for: whites, no advertising on court, and a queue that admits people on the day.
Tickets come by public ballot, by the queue, or by debenture, the only Championships ticket that can lawfully be resold. No other major has kept a queue.