Wimbledon added the Ladies' Singles competition in 1884.
The event was introduced at the eighth Wimbledon Championships, still held at the club’s original Worple Road site. Maud Watson won the inaugural ladies’ singles title, defeating her sister Lillian Watson in the final, 6–8, 6–3, 6–3. Thirteen women entered the competition, whose winner received a prize valued at 20 guineas.
The 1884 Championships also introduced the gentlemen’s doubles competition to Wimbledon. That event had previously been hosted by the Oxford University Club, while the ladies’ singles competition had originally been planned by the London Athletic Club. Both were added after the gentlemen’s singles competition had been completed.
This date is sometimes confused with 1877, the year of the first Wimbledon tournament. That inaugural edition contained only gentlemen’s singles. Wimbledon’s ladies’ doubles and mixed doubles competitions came much later, in 1913, so the 1884 date specifically marks the arrival of the ladies’ singles event.