At the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club in Wimbledon, Spencer Gore defeated William Marshall to become the first Wimbledon champion, winning in straight sets before roughly 200 spectators who each paid a shilling. The tournament, organized to raise money for a pony-drawn lawn roller, grew into the sport's most prestigious annual event.
Lawn tennis in 1877 was barely a year old as a codified sport, having been patented by Major Walter Clopton Wingfield under the name 'sphairistike.' The All England Club, previously devoted entirely to croquet, needed funds to replace a broken lawn roller and decided a tennis tournament might turn a profit; entry cost one guinea, and 22 men entered.
Spencer Gore, a 27-year-old cricketer and rackets player, approached tennis with an aggressive net-rushing style that baffled his baseline-bound opponents. He reportedly found the game somewhat dull and predicted it would never become popular — a forecast that stands as one of sport's great misjudgments, since Wimbledon would go on to become the most storied tournament in tennis.
The court itself was an hourglass shape, wider at the baselines than the net, a quirk of the rules at the time. Women's singles would not be added until 1884. Gore never returned to defend his title with the same success, but the tournament he won almost by accident of croquet-club fundraising is now watched by hundreds of millions worldwide each summer.