Wimbledon ! Wimbledon Tennis ! Wimbledon Tennis 2005 ! Wimbledon Champion

Wimbledon

The All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club, which is responsible for staging the world's leading Tennis tournament, is a private club founded in 1868 originally as The All England Croquet Club, and its first ground was situated off Worple Road, Wimbledon. The first meeting of The Lawn Tennis Championships in 1877 enjoyed a garden party atmosphere, and attracted a few hundred spectators. Situated since 1922 at Church Road, The Championships is the only Grand Slam tennis event still held on grass. As a highly professional tournament, it attracts an attendance of nearly 500,000 people and through press, radio and television a following of hundreds of millions throughout the world.

Membership of the Club

There are 375 full members of The Club, plus a number of honorary members, including past singles champions, of various nationalities, who have rendered distinguished service to the game. In addition, there are about 100 temporary members, who are elected from year to year, and active players who are in a position to make regular use of The Club and to play in Club matches during their period of membership.

Club Colours

The present Club colours, dark green and purple, were introduced in 1909, following the discovery that the previous colours of the Club were almost identical with those of the Royal Marines, which were blue, yellow, red and green. The decision as to why dark green and purple were chosen is not stated in the Club's records.

The Wimbledon Merchandising programme was started by The All England Lawn Tennis Club in 1979 and has three objectives: to increase awareness of Wimbledon throughout the world; to enhance further the image of The Championships and to provide additional funds for the development of lawn tennis. The All England Lawn Tennis Club has 28 licensees in 7 countries. The principal products licensed are tennis and casual wear, footwear, tennis rackets and bags and tennis balls. In addition, the Club licenses a select range of luxury products such as towels, fine leather goods, sunglasses, crystal, chinaware, jewellery and luxury food products. In the UK, there are Wimbledon 'Shop in Shops' in Harrods and Lillywhite as well as duty free outlets at Heathrow and Gatwick airports. The trademark of the Wimbledon crossed rackets and flying 'W' are registered in some 42 countries. Wimbledon merchandise is now available at shop.wimbledon.org Use of Courts Apart from the Centre and No.1 Courts, the courts are used all year round by the Club members and LTA sponsored players. The grass courts are in play from May to September, except Centre Court and No.1 Court which are used only for The Championships. The courts are occasionally used by a number of clubs and organisations, for the staging of various events and tournaments.

The Wimbledon Championships begin each year six weeks before the first Monday in August; the championships last for two weeks or however long it takes to complete all matches. The 2005 event will take place between June 20th and July 3rd. The tournament is considered the most prestigious among all the Grand Slam events and is marked by typical British tradition and precision.

Anna made her debut at Wimbledon in 1997, aged 16. She became only the second woman, after Chris Evert in 1972, to reach the semifinals on her debut. Anna Kournikova route to the semi finals was impressive: she drubbed Chanda Rubin, 6-1, 6-1; beat Barbara Rittner, 4-6, 7-6, 6-3; and defeated Anke Huber, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the following two rounds. Anna prevailed over Helena Sukova in the fourth round 2-6, 6-2. At the quarterfinals, she beat Iva Majoli, 7-6, 6-4. But Martina Hingis finally beat her in the semi finals, 3-6, 2-6.
Skipping the event the following year, she made the fourth and second rounds in 1999 and 2000, respectively. In the 1999 tournament, she beat Barbara Schwartz 7-6, 4-6, 6-2; in the second round, she beat Maria Vento 7-5, 6-4. She handed a third round defeat to Ines Gorrochategui with a score of 7-5, 3-1 before the latter retired. Finally, Kournikova met Venus Williams in the fourth round where the Russian was ousted 6-3, 3-6, 2-6.

Her 2000 showing at Wimbledon was quite dismal. In the first round, Anna defeated Sandrine Testud, 7-5, 5-7, 6-4, before losing to Anne Gaelle-Sidot, 3-6, 4-6. Injuries forced her to pull out again in 2001, and in 2002 she could not get past the first round, losing to Tatiana Panova, 1-6, 6-4, 4-6. This has been her last appearance at Wimbledon thus far, as her career has been sidelined due to persistent injuries and surgeries.