The lawn tennis Championships at Wimbledon are one of the most famous tennis events in the world. The Championships are one of the four grand slam events of lawn tennis. One of the most spectacular parts of the championships is the venue. The lawns of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on Church Road in Wimbledon is one of the most popular tennis venues in the world. Fans spend nights waiting outside the Club gates just to get a ticket into the arena.
Hundreds of other tennis enthusiasts apply in Public Ballot just to see the Championships at Wimbledon sitting in the courts. Though for many tennis enthusiasts, just watching any match at Wimbledon on any court is like a dream come true, the most sought after tickets are for the three show courts.
The most famous of them all is the Centre Court at Wimbledon. It is the dream of every budding tennis player to get a chance to play at the Centre Court. Even fans who buy tickets for the Championships, almost everyone wants a ticket to the Centre Court. The Centre Court gets its name from the original site of the AELTC off Worple Road. The name was kept when the Club shifted its premises to the Church Road in 1922. The Court is the main court of the Club and all the major matches are played on this court.
The Centre Court is open only for two weeks in the whole year during the Championships. Though it was bombed in the World War II, it was quickly renovated and play resumed from 1946. Since then the capacity of the Centre Court has been increased many times and the current capacity is of 15000 which was done in 2009. The Centre Court was also attached with a retractable roof in 2009 to prevent delays caused by rain. It also has a premier box which is exclusively for the Royal Family and their guests.
The turf of the Centre Court as well as all other championships courts at Wimbledon is grass and it is the only grand slam event to be still played on grass. Above the entryway of the court, there is an inscription which says "If you can meet with triumph and disaster; And treat those two imposters just the same", from the famous poem 'If' by Rudyard Kipling.
The No.1 Court is the second most popular court at the Club and was opened in 1997. During the first nine days of the Championships, most of the major matches are shared between the Centre and the No. 1 Court. The Court has a seating capacity of 11,429 and is open only for the two weeks of the Championships and Davis Cups home ties.
There is also the new No.2 Court which was opened in 2009 and has a seating capacity of 4000. The original No. 2 Court, now the No.3 Court was informally called the 'Graveyard of Champions', as many champions fell to ignominious defeats on this court.
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