The most prestigious tennis event, the Wimbledon Championships started 133 years ago and is the oldest tennis tournament on the tour. The Championships is held at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in the town of Wimbledon and thus the esteemed tournament derived its name as the Wimbledon Championships. Check out the live wimbledon scores with good illustrations and other interesting information on Tennisboard.
However, the Wimbledon Championships is also called as SW19. Only a few know the reason behind the name 'SW19'. Let's look at the explanation about why the Wimbledon Championships is also called as SW19. It's not unheard of in the United Kingdom to refer to areas and town by their postcode.
Wimbledon is actually a district and town in the Borough of Merton in the south-west London, England. The London SW postcode area is a set of postcode districts which covers the southwest part of London. In London, Southern Western (SW1 - SW10) and Battersea (SW11-SW20) is a group of postcode districts which covers the South West (SW) part of the Capital of the United Kingdom. SW 19 simply refers to the postcode of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTC). Therefore, the post of Wimbledon is 19 as it comes under the Battersea district and so it is called SW19.
The full address of the Wimbledon Championships read as, 'The All England Lawn Tennis Club, Church Road, Wimbledon, London, SW19 5AE.' There are a total of 22 Aorangi Park grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis Club which is used by the players as practice courts before and during the Championships.
While the Centre Court and Court No. 1 is only used during the fortnight of the Championships, however, all the other courts are also used for other events which are hosted by the club. The event attracts over 450,000 people each year during the two weeks period. The All England Lawn Tennis Club also hosted the 2012 London Olympics and the home fixtures of Great Britain in the Davis Cup.
While the Wimbledon Championships is set to reach the final stages of its tournament as Defending champion Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal who are seeded as the top three in the men’s event respectively have cruised last through their first round and reached the quarterfinals.
The 'Big 3' along with Andy Murray have dominated the Wimbledon Championships from the past 16 years. The 'Big 3' are the favorites to win the title this year and it looks difficult to beat them again in the third grand slam of the season.
