virginia wade was the last british female to win wimbledon in women's singles.
virginia wade was the last british female to win wimbledon in women's singles.
who is the last british female to win wimbledon in women's singles?
virginia wade
tennis is yet another sport which originated in the united kingdom, first originating in the city of birmingham between 1859 and 1865 as a more open variant of the historical real tennis, or royal tennis, often associated with the tudor monarchy of henry viii of england. however, it has not flourished there in recent decades: its profile is highly dependent on the wimbledon championships, the most prestigious event of the global tennis calendar. after fred perry's wimbledon win in 1936, no british man won the singles until andy murray from scotland did so in 2013. no british woman has won at wimbledon since virginia wade in 1977. in addition, perry's victory in the us national championships (predecessor to the modern us open) later in 1936 was the last for any british man in a grand slam singles event until murray won the us open in 2012; wade remains the last british woman to win such an event. the governing body of the sport is the lawn tennis association (lta), which invests the vast profits from the tournament in the game in the hope of producing british champions, but a string of revamps of the coaching system have failed to raise the standard of lta-trained players. the only british players of either sex to reach the world top 50 in recent years are greg rusedski, who learnt his tennis in canada, tim henman and murray, who did not pass through the lta system either, and on the women's side anne keothavong and the late elena baltacha both slipped into the worlds top 50 during their careers. outside of wimbledon fortnight tennis's profile in britain is low, and since the 2007 retirement of rusedski and henman is now largely dependent on murray, the current uk number 1. very recently (2015-), the rise of a number of other players, notably doubles specialist jamie murray, and younger top 50 players laura robson, heather watson, dan evans and kyle edmund has been supplemented by the spectacular rise of british women's number one johanna konta from a position outside the top 100 to the top ten in the world in just under eighteen months leading to october 2016. as a result, great britain had a top ten ranked men's singles, men's doubles and women's singles players at the same time for the first time ever.
sport in the united kingdom
due to concerns about his longevity, federer decided that he would skip the entire clay-court season. he returned to the tour at the beginning of the grass-court season in stuttgart, where he suffered a shock defeat to tommy haas in the second round despite holding match points, the lowest-ranked player (no. 302) to beat him since no. 407 bjoern phau in 1999. he rebounded the following week by winning a record-extending ninth title at the gerry weber open in halle, doing so without the loss of a set. in the 2017 wimbledon championships, federer made it to the final without dropping a set, defeating milos raonic in the quarterfinals and tomáš berdych in the semifinals. in the final, federer defeated a physically and mentally out of sorts marin čilić in straight sets to win a record-breaking eighth wimbledon gentlemen's singles title and his record-extending 19th major title overall, becoming the oldest male player to win wimbledon in the open era. federer became the second man in the open era to win wimbledon without dropping a set after björn borg in 1976. it marked the second time in his career that he had won a grand slam tournament without losing a set, matching his performance at the 2007 australian open. federer moved up to become no. 3 in the atp rankings after the event and qualified for the atp finals for a record 15th time.
roger federer