Women at Wimbledon

Ana Ivanovic © WTA

Women at the Championships
Women's events first featured at Wimbledon in 1884, seven years after the first tournament (men's doubles were also added at the same time). British ladies dominated the event until the early-20th century, when French and then American players began to dominate. Althea Gibson became the first black champion in 1957. The youngest women's champion is Swiss player Martina Hingis, who won the ladies' doubles in 1996 at the age of 15. The last British ladies' champion was Virginia Wade back in 1977 (the last men's champion was Fred Perry in 1936).

Glamour girls on the WTA tour  
The image of women's tennis has evolved dramatically in recent years. Even as late as the 90s, the women's game wasn't seen as glamorous and Dutch player Richard Krajicek infamously dubbed female tennis players 'fat lazy pigs' (at Wimbledon, in June 1992. Incidentally he never won another Grand Slam). 

The WTA tour boasts a string of ambassadors for the women's game who are as powserful and hard-working as they are glamorous and marketable. It just goes to show you really can have it all! Ladies such as the Williams sisters, who combine careers in tennis and fashion design, and long-legged beauties such as Maria Sharapova, Daniela Hantuchova, Anastiasia Myskina, Maria Kirilenko, Elena Dementieva and Nicole Vaidisova have upped the glamour stakes and improved the image of the women's game for all.