With the last two decades dominated by big names such as Federer, Djokovic and the Williams sisters, it seems that professional tennis is no longer a young person’s game. So I thought I’d have a very quick look at the age Wimbledon champions over the last century and a bit.

Here’s a graph showing the age of Wimbledon champions since it started way back in 1877 (with ladies joining in 1884). I’ve focussed on more recent champions, as the competition only went professional in 1968 (compared to the first pro tennis tournament in 1926) so before then success may have fluctuated as much due to availability (wealth?!) rather than ability.

 You can see that the age of most champions is bound between 20 and 30 years of age. The lower bound was broken significantly by Martina Hingis and Maria Sharapova (both one-win wonders) and Boris Becker (who won 3 championships up to the age of 22).

But what we’re interested in, is who broke the top bound? Who beat the trend and won championships when more than 30 years old?

In the last 11 men’s championships, 6 of those (over 50%) where won by over 30s – but that really is only because of the dominance of Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. Before that, even the players who had good runs (such as Rod Laver, Björn Borg and Pete Sampras) didn’t win once they reached 30.

In the ladies’ competition things are slightly different. As well as the regular wins by Serena and Venus Williams up to the age of 35, Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova also continued winning into their early thirties back in the 1970s and 80s.

How will 2024 final affect the trend?

The ladies’ final is already decided, with a new champion either way. Both Jasmine Paolini and Barbora Krejčíková are 28 so aren’t going to break out of the usual 20-30 channel.

At the time of writing, the men’s semi-finals haven’t started yet. Novak Djokovic is still in the running, and if he succeeds will become the oldest Wimbledon champion for over 100 years. On the other end of the age spectrum are Carlos Alcaraz (21) and Lorenzo Musetti (22), with Daniil Medvedev aiming for his first Wimbledon title at 28.

Conclusion

Looking at the graphs, it appears that in the past top male players had shorter reigns, but that’s not the case with female players with Martina Navratilova spanning 13 years of titles. So has this century seen extraordinarily long-lived Wimbledon champions, or are winners over 30 years of age the new normal? With the ages of the next big contenders it could be at least another decade until we really find out.

Blog written by Adrian Cull.