Inspirational Woman of Wimbledon
As teenage tennis sensation Cori Gauff otherwise known as ‘Coco’ continues to stun the audiences of the world and as a company predominantly operated by female’s we thought that here at Choc on Choc we would focus on some of the important roles and achievements that female tennis players have had throughout the history of Wimbledon.
So, where’s better to start than the beginning, the opening of the prestigious tournament known as Wimbledon started in 1877, however this only included men’s singles tournaments. It wasn’t until 1884 (a whopping 7 whole years later) that ladies’ singles were included into the tournament and then it took another 29 years for the tournament to include ladies’ doubles and mixed doubles in 1913!
Once the ladies did get the chance to compete in 1884, the first ever winner of ladies’ singles was Maud Edith Eleanor, at the very young age of 19. Her win came only 3 years into her career of competitive tennis! Impressive!
For her tremendous win Maud was presented with a round platter named a salver made prior to the Wimbledon tournament in 1864. All female winners to this day are presented with the same salver, which stays in the All England Club’s museum.
The current all-time record holder for the most ladies’ singles titles is Martina Navratilova, claiming victory 9 times at Wimbledon! Additionally, in 2003 she remarkably won the mixed doubles match at 46 years old! On the other end of the inspirational scale we have Martina Hingis the youngest ever female winner at Wimbledon (at the moment!), claiming her win at 15 years old in 1996! Wimbledon woman inspiring woman of all ages!
A massive achievement for the woman of Wimbledon and, still-contentious topic in many sports, came in 2007 when they were finally awarded the same amount as males for their cash prizes. Venus Williams, known for her feminist advocacy, first publicly mentioned the need for Wimbledon to award equal prize money across both genders in 1998. Meaning it took almost 10 years to enforce this change! Additionally, it’s game set match as prefix titles are resigned to history. Brought to light by Serena Williams after her marriage, the All England club states that it would like to “achieve consistency” between the sexes. Result girls!
In the words of Venus Williams “the message I like to convey to women and girls across the globe is that there is no glass ceiling”.
