More than any other tennis tournament, Wimbledon is the place where legends are born.

Pete Sampras, aiming for an unprecedented eighth title this year, was the latest player to gain acclaim when he lifted the championship cup high in the air for the seventh time in eight years.

But there's been other heart touching, exciting tennis moments as well.

There was the time Sweden's Bjorn Borg beat John McEnroe to become the first player to win five consecutive men's singles titles since William Renshaw in the late 1880s, or the time Martina Navratilova broke every Wimbledon record in the book and recorded her ninth singles championship. With 19 total Wimbledon titles, Navratilova will attempt to tie Billie Jean King's overall record with a win in this year's doubles championship.

With Queen Elizabeth making her first appearance at the All-England Club in 1957, Althea Gibson made history, becoming the first black champion to win the final.

The Queen herself presented the plate to Gibson.

More than any other Grand Slam on tour, a Wimbledon championship assures a player a place in the annuls of tennis history.

Here is a look at Wimbledon:

HISTORY

Due to rising popularity in a new sport called lawn tennis in 1885, the All England Croquet Club, located on Worple Road in Wimbledon, decided to convert one of its croquet lawns into a tennis court in the hopes that it would draw more members to the facility.

The plan worked better than members ever hoped.

Tennis was so popular at the club that two years later, when the renamed All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club needed a new roller to maintain its grounds, a championship tournament was proposed as a way to raise money.

In 1877, the first Lawn Tennis Championship was held. Nearly 200 spectators paid a shilling a piece to watch Spencer Gore, an old Harrovian rackets player, beat W.C. Marshall in straight sets to claim the amateur trophy.

The Wimbledon tournament was immediately accepted as Britain's national tennis championship, and soon additional draws were added.

In 1884, Maud Watson became the first ladies' single champion. The men's doubles draw was introduced in 1879, while the ladies doubles and mixed doubles didn't come into existence until 1913.

Although Wimbledon was popular and fans flocked every season to watch some great tennis, it was still considered primarily a British event.

All of that changed at the turn of the century, when Wimbledon assumed an international character and American May Sutton became the first overseas player to capture the championship, winning the ladies' singles event in 1905.

Australian Norman Brookes became the first foreign player to win the men's singles championship two years later.

As a result of the introduction some great players from Europe, especially France, the Wimbledon championships proved to be more elusive for British tennis players in the 20th century. Arthur Gore and Fred Perry have been the only players from Great Britain to win the men's singles event. Perry won the last of his three titles in 1936.

The early 20th century saw some great tennis played on the grass at Wimbledon.

American Bill Tilden, regarded as one of the best players the game has ever seen, arrived at Wimbledon in 1920, and captured two titles in 1920 and 1921. Tilden returned in 1930, and took his third championship on the grass at the age of 38.

France reigned supreme in the Roaring Twenties, with Suzanne Lenglen ending Britain's 35-year dominance in ladies singles in 1922 and capturing three titles. France's Jean Borotra, Jacques Brugnon, Henri Cochet and Rene Lacoste, dubbed the "Four Musketeers," combined to win six singles and five doubles championships between 1924 and 1929.

Realizing that it would need a bigger facility to accommodate the huge tournament, the All England Club moved to its present location at Church Road, boasting a new stadium designed to seat 14,000.

Although a depression hit the world in the 1930s, tennis continued to flourish.

Ten years after the All-England Club moved to its new location, total attendance surpassed 200,000 for the first time in tournament history.

With the increased availability of air travel, international participation grew even further in the 1950s, but as the decade wore on, Wimbledon organizers thought it would be in their best interests to open the championship to professional tennis players.

The International Lawn Tennis Federation strongly opposed the move, and it wasn't until 1967, when a number of former Wimbledon champions competed in a television tennis invitational for BBC, did the LTA changed its mind and open the tournament to professionals in 1968.

History of prize money

Notable Records

Most Gentlemen's Singles Championships
7 P. Sampras (USA) 1993-1995, 1997-2000
7 W.C. Renshaw (BRI) 1881-1886, 1889

Most Gentlemen's Doubles Championships
8 H.L. Doherty (BRI) 1897-1901, 1903-1905
8 R.F. Doherty (BRI) 1897-1901, 1903-1905

Most Ladies' Singles Championships
9 Miss M. Navratilova (USA) 1978, 1979, 1982-1987, 1990
8 Miss H.N. Wills/Mrs. F.S Moody (USA) 1927-1930, 1932, 1933, 1935, 1938

Most Ladies' Doubles Championships
12 Miss E.M. Ryan (USA) 1914, 1919-1923, 1925-1927, 1930, 1933, 1934

Championship trophies

Ladies' singles
Instead of a cup, the winner of the women's singles title receives a silver plate, which is often called the Rosewater Dish. The trophy, which was made in 1864, is a copy of an electrotype from a pewter plate currently in the Louvre.

The plate, which measures 18 3/4 inches in diameter, features a mythological theme.

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