ATP Wembley

Wembley Championship
ATP tour
venue	London United Kingdom
First run	1934
Last event	1990
category	World Series
Tournament type	Indoor tournament
Game surface	carpet
draw	32S / 16Q / 16D
Prize money	US $ 330,000
As of July 15, 2012

The Wembley Arena , the event hall of the tournament.

The Wembley indoor tournament (officially the Wembley Championship ; also known by various sponsor names, most recently the Benson & Hedges Championships ) is a former men's tennis tournament that was held in the London borough of Wembley from 1934 to 1990 . The tournament was held in Wembley Arena , which was called Wembley Empire Pool between 1934 and 1978 . Each event was played on indoor carpets.

history

The tournament was a professional tournament before 1968 and one of the most prestigious of these. Together with the French Pro Championships in Paris and the US Pro Tennis Championships in various locations in the USA , it was one of the three "Professional Grand Slam tournaments", the Professional World Singles Tournaments . After 1968 in the Open Era it naturally lost this status, but from 1970 it became part of the Grand Prix Tennis Circuit , the forerunner of the ATP World Tour . Within this tour it was part of the Grand Prix Championship Series from 1970 to 1984 , comparable to today's ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Series. In 1990 the tournament was still part of the ATP Tour before the tournament was discontinued after over fifty years. The Wembley Championships were a very prestigious event in professional tennis and with Pancho Gonzales , Jack Kramer , Rod Laver , Ken Rosewall , John McEnroe , Björn Borg and Jimmy Connors, real legends of tennis can be found in the list of winners.

Record winners of the tournament are Ken Rosewall and Rod Laver , who both won the tournament six times in the 1960s; Rosewall holds the record within the professional era with five titles. In the double competition, which was held from 1970, John McEnroe was most successful. He won the doubles competition six times with various partners, five times with his standard doubles partner Peter Fleming .

Winners list

singles

year	winner	Final opponent	Final result
↓ Professional era ↓
1934	Ellsworth Vines	Hans Nüsslein	Round robin
1935	Ellsworth Vines	Bill Tilden	6: 1, 6: 3, 5: 7, 3: 6, 6: 3
1936 a	Ellsworth Vines	Hans Nüsslein	6: 4, 6: 4, 6: 2
1937	Hans Nüsslein	Bill Tilden	6: 3, 3: 6, 6: 3, 2: 6, 6: 2
1938 a	Hans Nüsslein	Bill Tilden	7: 5, 3: 6, 6: 3, 3: 6, 6: 2
1939	Don Budge	Hans Nüsslein	Round robin
1940–48: not held
1949	Jack Kramer	Bobby Riggs	2: 6, 6: 4, 6: 3, 6: 4
1950	Pancho Gonzales	Welby Van Horn	6: 3, 6: 3, 6: 2
1951	Pancho Gonzales	Pancho Segura	6: 2, 6: 2, 2: 6, 6: 4
1952	Pancho Gonzales	Jack Kramer	3: 6, 3: 6, 6: 2, 6: 4, 7: 5
1953	Frank Sedgman	Pancho Gonzales	6: 1, 6: 2, 6: 2
1954–55: not held
1956	Pancho Gonzales	Frank Sedgman	4: 6, 11-9, 11-9, 9: 7
1957	Ken Rosewall	Pancho Segura	1: 6, 6: 3, 6: 4, 3: 6, 6: 4
1958	Frank Sedgman	Tony Trabert	6: 4, 6: 3, 6: 4
1959	Times Anderson	Pancho Segura	4: 6, 6: 4, 3: 6, 6: 3, 8: 6
1960	Ken Rosewall	Pancho Segura	5: 7, 8: 6, 6: 1, 6: 3
1961	Ken Rosewall	Lew Hoad	6: 3, 3: 6, 6: 2, 6: 3
1962	Ken Rosewall	Lew Hoad	6: 4, 5: 7, 15-13, 7: 5
1963	Ken Rosewall	Lew Hoad	6: 4, 6: 2, 4: 6, 6: 3
1964	Rod Laver	Ken Rosewall	7: 5, 4: 6, 5: 7, 8: 6, 8: 6
1965	Rod Laver	Andrés Gimeno	6: 2, 6: 3, 6: 4
1966	Rod Laver	Ken Rosewall	6: 2, 6: 2, 6: 3
1967	Rod Laver	Ken Rosewall	2: 6, 6: 1, 1: 6, 8: 6, 6: 2
↓ Open Era ↓
1968	Ken Rosewall	John Newcombe	6: 4, 4: 6, 7: 5, 6: 4
1969	Rod Laver	Tony Roche	6: 4, 6: 1, 6: 3
1970	Rod Laver	Cliff Richey	6: 3, 6: 4, 7: 5
1971	Ilie Năstase	Rod Laver	3: 6, 6: 3, 3: 6, 6: 4, 6: 4
1972–75: not held
1976	Jimmy Connors	Roscoe Tanner	3: 6, 7: 6, 6: 4
1977	Bjorn Borg	John Lloyd	6: 4, 6: 4, 6: 3
1978	John McEnroe	Tim Gullikson	6: 7, 6: 4, 7: 6, 6: 2
1979	John McEnroe	Harold Solomon	6: 3, 6: 4, 7: 5
1980	John McEnroe	Gene Mayer	6: 4, 6: 3, 6: 3
1981	Jimmy Connors	John McEnroe	3: 6, 2: 6, 6: 3, 6: 4, 6: 2
1982	John McEnroe	Brian Gottfried	6: 3, 6: 2, 6: 4
1983	John McEnroe	Jimmy Connors	7: 5, 6: 1, 6: 4
1984	Ivan Lendl	Andrés Gómez	7: 6, 6: 2, 6: 1
1985	Ivan Lendl	Boris Becker	6: 7, 6: 3, 4: 6, 6: 4, 6: 4
1986	Yannick Noah	Jonas Svensson	6: 2, 6: 3, 6: 7, 4: 6, 7: 5
1987	Ivan Lendl	Järryd is different	6: 3, 6: 2, 7: 5
1988	Jakob Hlasek	Jonas Svensson	6: 7, 3: 6, 6: 4, 6: 0, 7: 5
1989	Michael Chang	Guy Forget	6: 2, 6: 1, 6: 1
1990	Jakob Hlasek	Michael Chang	7: 6, 6: 3

^a The status of the Wembley Championships in 1936 and 1938 is unclear. These tournaments are not listed in all sources, and it is also noticeable that the British press did not report on the tournaments in these years. It could be that it was just two matches between Nüsslein and Vines or Tilden.

Double

year	winner	Final opponent	Final result
1970	Ken Rosewall Stan Smith	Ilie Năstase Ion Țiriac	6: 4, 6: 3, 6: 2
1971–75: not held
1976	Stan Smith Roscoe Tanner	Wojciech Fibak Brian Gottfried	7: 6, 6: 3
1977	Sandy Mayer Frew McMillan	Brian Gottfried Raúl Ramírez	6: 3, 7: 6
1978: not held
1979	Peter Fleming John McEnroe	Tomáš Šmíd Stan Smith	6: 2, 6: 3
1980	Peter Fleming John McEnroe	Bill Scanlon Eliot Teltscher	7: 5, 6: 3
1981	Sherwood Stewart Ferdi Taygan	Peter Fleming John McEnroe	7: 5, 6: 7, 6: 4
1982	Peter Fleming John McEnroe	Heinz Günthardt Tomáš Šmíd	7: 6, 6: 4
1983	Peter Fleming John McEnroe	Steve Denton Sherwood Stewart	6: 3, 6: 4
1984	Andrés Gómez Ivan Lendl	Pavel Složil Tomáš Šmíd	6: 2, 6: 2
1985	Järryd Guy Forget is different	Boris Becker Slobodan Živojinović	7: 5, 4: 6, 7: 5
1986	John McEnroe Peter Fleming	Sherwood Stewart Kim Warwick	3: 6, 7: 6, 6: 2
1987	Miloslav Mečíř Tomáš Šmíd	Ken Flach Robert Seguso	7: 5, 6: 4
1988	Ken Flach Robert Seguso	Marty Davis Brad Drewett	7: 5, 6: 2
1989	Jakob Hlasek John McEnroe	Jeremy Bates Kevin Curren	6: 1, 7: 6
1990	Jim Grabb Patrick McEnroe	Rick Leach Jim Pugh	7: 6, 4: 6, 6: 3

Web links

• ATP tour
• ATP Tour Archive