Celebrating a special tennis centenary

One hundred years ago today, 15 May 1921, the last competitive tennis match was played at the All England Club's original Worple Road grounds. The championships then moved to the Church Road site; Wimbledon High School took over the land and it became the school's Nursery Road playing fields for hockey, netball, athletics, cricket, as well as tennis. 

The site is still complete with the original pavilion and beautiful entrance gate (seen below with some of our students as ballgirls a few years back). And of course the sporting spirit lives on - our very own Road to Wimbledon tennis tournament takes place tomorrow, 15 May, and as we have reported previously, we have a GB tennis player in our midst - Hannah in Year 7 - and we couldn't be more proud of that.

The photos below - with thanks to AELTC for sharing them with us - include Suzanne Lenglen, the best women's player of the era, who won every Wimbledon Championship between 1919 and 1923 (except 1921). In 1921, after losing the first set and two points into the second, Lenglen retired from the match for her only singles loss after WWI. 

These days our pavilion holds a club room, class room, kitchen for match teas and two refurbished changing rooms. We look forward to welcoming parents back to watch fixtures when we are able!