The Wimbledon World Lawn Tennis Professional Championships, also known as the Wimbledon Pro, was a men's

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

tournament held in August 1967. The tournament was sponsored and broadcast by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

to mark the invention of colour television. It was the first tournament staged at

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...

that was open to male professional tennis players since the British Professional Championships in 1930, and had a prize fund of US$45,000. The singles competition was an eight-man knockout event won by

Rod Laver Rodney George Laver (born 9 August 1938) is an Australian former professional tennis player. Laver was ranked as the World number 1 ranked male tennis players, world number 1 professional player indisputably for five years from 1965 to 1969, ...

, who received £3,000, whilst the doubles was a four team knockout event won by Andrés Gimeno and Pancho Gonzales.

History

During

in 1966, Jack Kramer was doing radio commentary for the BBC when Wimbledon's working chairman Herman David came to the broadcast booth and talked to Kramer and BBC tennis exec Bryan Cowgill about the possibility of making the tournament "open" to both amateurs and pros. The topic had been raised on and off for years. In the summer of 1960, the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF) had met in Paris and voted on open tennis, and the motion received 134 votes, 5 short of the 139 required to pass. By 1966, public interest in tennis had been low for some time. Cowgill suggested a trial pro tournament at Wimbledon for the following year. In late August, 1967, the Wimbledon Pro tournament was held. Total prize money was US$35,000 for singles and US$10,000 for doubles, making it the largest prize-money event in tennis history at that time. All matches were played on

Centre Court Centre Court is a tennis court at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (also known as the All England Club) and is the main court used in the Wimbledon Championships, the third annual Grand Slam event of the tennis calendar. It is consi ...

. The tournament was deemed very successful, with over 30,000 spectators attending the three days of play. There was an 8-player draw for singles and a 4-teams draw for doubles, all professionals. Most of the players had won honours at Wimbledon in their amateur days but had forfeited the right to play there on turning professional. The segregation of the two categories was soon to come to an end. In December 1967, the Annual Meeting of the British

Lawn Tennis Association The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) is the national governing body of tennis in Great Britain, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man founded in 1888. The LTA promotes all levels of lawn tennis. The organization believes tennis can provide ...

voted overwhelmingly to admit players of all categories for the 1968 Wimbledon Championships and other future tournaments in Britain. Faced with a fait accompli, the ILTF yielded and allowed each nation to determine its own legislation regarding amateur and professional players.

Draws

Singles

Doubles

References

External links