The Wimbledon Championship is one of the most famous sporting events on the globe, but plenty of secrets are lurking around (and indeed beneath) the courts. Here, we serve up some of our favourites.
Beneath Wimbledon are stashed thousands of rackets, shirts and tennis-themed artworks.
It might have been called the Sphairistike Championships
When Major Walter Clopton Wingfield pioneered lawn tennis in 1874 — as a game for the middle/upper classes that came in a boxset and could be easily set up to play in their ample gardens — it was also widely known as 'sphairistike' (the Greek for 'skill in playing at ball'). The original courts were also hourglass shaped, as opposed to rectangular. Both of these quirks, however, were soon straightened out. Sphairistike itself was made possible by the concurrent invention of two things: vulcanised rubber (which the balls were made from) and the lawn mower.
Wimbledon only came about because of a broken roller
