5 oldest men's singles champions at Wimbledon

Arjun
Roger Federer celebrates his record 8th Wimbledon title in 2017.
Roger Federer celebrates his record 8th Wimbledon title in 2017.

The Wimbledon Championships is the oldest and most prestigious tennis tournament.

22 players were invited to participate in Wimbledon's inaugural edition in 1877 where there was a participation fee of one guinea.

The grasscourt tournament has come a long way since its humble beginnings. The 2019 Wimbledon men's singles champion, Novak Djokovic, earned £2.35 million for his triumphant campaign last summer.

65 different players have lifted the Wimbledon men's singles title, with 19 of them doing exclusively in the Open Era. Many great champions have played on the hallowed turf of Wimbledon.

On that note, let us take a look at five of the oldest men's singles Wimbledon champions.

Five oldest men's singles winners at Wimbledon:

#5: Roger Federer (36 years, 173 days) in 2017

Roger Federer is all smiles after winning the 2017 Wimbledon men's singles title.
Roger Federer is all smiles after winning the 2017 Wimbledon men's singles title.

It is another feather in the cap of the most successful men's singles player in the history of Wimbledon that he features in the competition's five oldest champions.

Roger Federer broke a tie with fellow seven-time Wimbledon champions William Renshaw and Pete Sampras by beating Marin Cilic in the 2017 final. That triumph made the 36-year-old Federer the second oldest player in the Open Era to lift a Grand Slam singles title and the fifth oldest to do in the history of Wimbledon.

Having ended a four-and-a-half-year Grand Slam title drought earlier in the season at the Australian Open, an imperior Federer rolled through seven matches at Wimbledon without dropping a set to become the first 8-time champion in the competition's history. It marked the first time since Bjorn Borg (1976) that any player won the singles title at Wimbledon without conceding a set.

Federer also holds a slew of other records at Wimbledon. The Swiss legend's 12 singles finals at the tournament are four more than the next two men on the all-time list. The 20-time Grand Slam champion has the most match wins (101) in Wimbledon history, which is more than 20 wins better than anybody else.


#4: Herbert Lawford (36 years, 53 days) in 1887

Herbert Lawford
Herbert Lawford

Herbert Lawford is one of 12 men in Wimbledon history to have played at least 12 men's singles finals at the tourament; six of these players have done so in the Open Era.

With a distinctive looking handlebar moustache, Lawford pioneered the introduction of 'topspin' in the sport.

However, Lawford holds the rather unwanted record of losing the most Wimbledon men's singles finals (5). After defeats in his first four finals, he won his lone title at the tournament in 1887 at the age of 36 years.

Lawford beat Ernest Renshaw in a five-set final to become the oldest Wimbledon men's singles winner, a record that would stand for almost three decades.

The next year, in a reversal of fortunes, Ernest Renshaw dealt Lawford a fifth reverse in a Wimbledon men's singles final. Incidentally, three of Lawford's four other final defeats at the tournament came at the hands of Renshaw's brother, William.

Lawford's defeats to William Renshaw in the 1884-86 Wimbledon title matches marked the first of only three occasions that a player lost three consecutive finals at the tounrament.


#3: Norman Brookes (36 years & 234 days) in 1914

Norman Brookes
Norman Brookes

Wimbledon did not have an overseas men's singles winner during the first thirty editions of the competition. The glass ceiling was broken by Australian Norman Brookes in 1907.

Two years after falling to Laurence Doherty in straight sets, Brookes beat 1901 champion Arthur Gore in straight sets to become the first of 14 different non-British countries to be represented in the Wimbledon men's singles winners podium.

Seven years later, Brookes ended the four-year reign of Anthony Wilding in straight sets to win his second title at the tournament. The triumph made the 36-year-old Brookes the oldest Wimbledon men's singles champion.

Incidentally, Wilding, who died at the age of 31 in World War I action, is the first and only New Zealand player to win a Grand Slam singles title. His two other Grand Slam singles titles, apart from his four at Wimbledon, came at the Australian Open (1906, 1909).


#2: Bill Tilden (37 years & 146 days) in 1930

Bill Tilden
Bill Tilden

American Bill Tilden was nicknamed 'Big Bill' for his towering presence on the court. Tilden became the first American to win Wimbldeon, when he captured the first of two back-to-back singles titles at the tournament in 1920.

Nine years after winning his second Wimbledon triumph, the 37-year-old Tilden became the third-oldest player to win the singles title at the tournament after he beat compatriot Wilmer Allison in straight sets.

Interestingly, among 27 players who have a perfect record in Wimbledon men's singles finals, Tilden's tally of three triumphs without defeat is only bettered by his compatriot Pete Sampras who went 7-0 in Wimbledon finals.


#1: Arthur Gore (41 years & 184 days) - 1909

Arthur Gore (Pic courtesy Getty Images)
Arthur Gore (Pic courtesy Getty Images)

It is unimaginable that a man in his 40s lifted the Wimbledon trophy not once but twice, but that is exactly what British player Arthur Gore achieved more than a century ago.

Trailing the All Comers' winner Major Ritchie by two sets in the 1909 final, the 41-year-old Gore conceded only two games apiece in the next three sets to break his own record of the oldest Wimbledon men's singles winner.

Having won his second title at the tournament a year earlier, his triumph in 1909 also made him the oldest player to successfully defending his Wimbledon men's singles title.

In the 1910 and 1912 finals, though, Gore lost to Anthony Wilding to fail to add to his three Wimbledon singles titles. His loss in the 1912 Wimbledon made Gore the only player after Herbert Lawford to lose five singles finals at the tournament.

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