2004 Wimbledon Championships – Women's Singles became the third-youngest woman to win Wimbledon (behind Lottie Dod and Martina Hingis) and the second Russian woman (after Anastasia Myskina won the French Open earlier that year) to win a Grand Slam title. Venus Williams, who had appeared in the previous four Wimbledon finals, winning in 2000 and 2001, suffered her earliest exit from Wimbledon since her debut, being upset in the second round by Karolina Šprem. This was also the last Grand Slam singles tournament that former world No. 1 Martina Navratilova competed in; having been awarded a wild card, she won her first round match and became,
The Championships, Wimbledon the United States, ABC began showing taped highlights of the Wimbledon Gentlemen's Singles Final in the 1960s on its "Wide World of Sports" series. NBC began covering Wimbledon in 1969, with same-day taped (and often edited) coverage of the Gentlemen's Singles Final. In 1979, the network began carrying the Gentlemen's and Ladies' Singles Finals live. For the next few decades, Americans made a tradition of NBC's "Breakfast at Wimbledon" specials at weekends. Live coverage started early in the morning (the US being a minimum of 5 hours behind the UK) and continued well into the afternoon, interspersed with commentary and