2008 Wimbledon Championships or personal reasons. 2008 Wimbledon Championships The 2008 Wimbledon Championships was a tennis tournament played on grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London in England. It was the 122nd edition of the Wimbledon Championships and were held from 23 June to 6 July 2008. It was the third Grand Slam tennis event of the year. Spanish player Rafael Nadal won the first Wimbledon title of his career; the first Grand Slam tournament he had won other than the French Open. Nadal defeated five-time defending champion Roger Federer in the final in what many
Henry Jones (writer) for playing lawn tennis, which proved to be a significant step. In 1877, Club Secretary John Walsh proposed that a lawn tennis championship be held, and "Wimbledon" was born. Jones and two other prominent men, Julian Marshall and John Moyer Heathcote, formed a sub-committee to frame the rules, many of which survive today, and Jones was referee at The Championships from 1877 to 1885. The only tournament of the inaugural 1877 Wimbledon Championship was the Gentlemen's Singles, which was won from a field of 22 competitors by Spencer Gore, an old Harrovian rackets player. The final attracted a crowd of