What year was the first Wimbledon event held?

The first Wimbledon event was held in 1877. It was the inaugural Wimbledon Championship, staged by the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club at its original Worple Road ground in Wimbledon, London.

The tournament began on July 9, 1877, and featured only a Gentlemen’s Singles competition. Twenty-two amateur players entered, each paying one guinea. Rain delayed the final until July 19, when Spencer Gore defeated William Marshall in straight sets, 6–1, 6–2, 6–4.

The event was organised partly to raise money to repair the club’s pony roller, a piece of equipment used to maintain the grass courts. The tournament also helped establish lawn tennis as a formal competitive sport. The club had added lawn tennis to its mainly croquet programme just a few years earlier.

A common mix-up is assuming that Wimbledon began with the modern range of events. Ladies’ singles and men’s doubles were not added until 1884, while the championship moved from Worple Road to its present Church Road site in 1922.