WIMBLEDON opened in a blaze of sunshine yesterday, and those who couldn’t get tickets enjoyed the next best thing – lazing on a deck-chair in Bournemouth’s Lower Gardens watching the live action on a big screen.

The specially installed screen has been showing a mix of family films and sporting action in recent days, but the lure of great weather, ice cream and the most prestigious tennis championship in the world attracted an eager crowd.

They’re following a tradition that goes back 122 years.

In the spring of 1877, the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club held the first Lawn Tennis Championship.

It had a “garden party atmosphere” and just a few hundred spectators.

While the rules enforced back then remain very similar to this day, Wimbledon has evolved into an event of massive proportions.

Jubilant competitors now walk away with more than £11 million in total prize money.

Hardly a year goes by without some sort of improvement in the quality of facilities or organisation. At least rain doesn’t stop play on Centre Court these days.

Just as well, since 12 events involving 664 competitors and more than 700 matches have to be completed on 18 outdoor grass courts over 13 days.

Such is its popularity that half a million spectators attend over the two weeks.

More than 10,000 hours of television coverage reaches potentially 748 million homes across 185 countries.

And for the spectators it attracts, there’s an equal number who are inspired to emulate their sporting heroes.

The tournament has a surprising knack of getting people to blow the cobwebs off their old rackets and dig out anything to wear in white for a knock-about at their local court.

Die-hard fans, however, will be looking for a slice of the live action and can expect to pay around £275 for a ticket for a match on No 1 Court.

Centre Court seats during the first and second round singles will set people back around £425, but those wanting to see the beads of sweat during the men’s finals had better set aside a couple of thousand.

Scot Andy Murray, at number three, is currently the UK’s highest-ranked player, but apart from the early years, Britain has failed to produce many star performers.

The last Brit to win the men’s singles title was Fred Perry in 1936, while Bournemouth-born Virginia Wade lifted the coveted plate in 1977 as female singles champion.

More recently, all eyes were glued on Tim Henman, the first British player since the 1970s to reach the semi-finals. Sadly Tim never made the grade, and in 2007 he announced his retirement.

Last year he became part of Wimbledon’s BBC commentary team.

There are, of course, those people who look out for players for reasons other than sporting ones.

For those who haven’t the slightest interest in the sport, there has been a string of hunks and lovelies to admire.

The next couple of weeks will inevitably include many column inches dedicated to the attractiveness of certain players, and what they are wearing.

In 2007, for example, the media likened Maria Sharapova’s white tennis dress blowing in the wind to the white halter-neck dress made famous by Marilyn Monroe – and even world leading news agency Reuters went into raptures about its details.

Serbian player Ana Ivanovic, Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova and Russian Elena Dementieva are tipped to be the ones to watch over the coming days.

Whether or nor this refers to their tennis skills remains to be seen...