List of Wimbledon Ladies' Singles Champions

List Of Wimbledon Ladies' Singles Champions

The Championships, Wimbledon is an annual tennis tournament first contested in 1877 and played on outdoor grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTC) in the Wimbledon suburb of London, United Kingdom. The Ladies' Singles was started in 1884.

Wimbledon is played in the last week of June and the first week of July, and has been chronologically the third of the four Grand Slam tournaments of the tennis season since 1987. The event was not held from 1915 to 1918 because of World War I and again from 1940 to 1945 because of World War II.

The Ladies' Singles' rules have undergone several changes since the first edition. From 1884 until 1921, the event started with a knockout phase, the All Comers' Singles, whose winner then faced the defending champion in a challenge round. The All Comers' winner was automatically awarded the title six times (1887, 1891, 1895, 1907, 1908) in the absence of the previous year's champion. The challenge round system was abolished with the 1922 edition. Since the first championships, all matches have been played at the best-of-three sets. Between 1884 and 1883, the winner of the next game at five games – all took the set in every match except the All Comers' final, and the challenge round, which were won with six games and a two games advantage. All sets were decided in this advantage format from 1884 to 1970. The lingering death best-of-12 points tie-break was introduced in 1971 for the first two sets, played at eight games – all until 1978 and at six games – all since 1979.

The Ladies' Singles champion receives a sterling silver salver commonly known as the "Venus Rosewater Dish", or simply the "Rosewater Dish". The salver, which is 18.75 inches (about 48 cm) in diameter, is decorated with figures from mythology. New singles champions are traditionally elected honorary members of the AELTC by the club's committee. In 2012, the Ladies' Singles winner received prize money of £1,150,000.

These records include the Amateur Era only, Dorothea Douglass Lambert Chambers (1903–1904, 1906, 1910–1911, 1913–1914) holds the record for most titles, with seven, and Lottie Dod (1891–1893) and Suzanne Lenglen (1919–1921) holds the record for most consecutive wins in the Ladies' Singles during the challenge round era, with three victories each. The record for most consecutive and most wins post challenge round during the Amateur Era is Helen Wills Moody (1927–1930), with four straight wins, and Moody holds the record for most victories in this era with eight (1927–1930, 1932–1933, 1935, 1938).

These records only include the Open Era, since the inclusion of the professional tennis players, Martina Navratilova (1978–1979, 1982–1987, 1990) holds the record for most victories with nine. Navratilova holds the record for most consecutive victories with six (1982–1987).

This event has been won without the loss of a set, during the Open Era of Tennis, by the following players: Chris Evert in 1981, Martina Navratilova in 1983, 1984, 1986, and 1990, Lindsay Davenport in 1999, Serena Williams in 2002 and 2010 and Venus Williams in 2008.