Tennis Museum is right where it should be the world's largest museum of Tennis: Wimbledon. The very name of this south-western district of London, a synonym of the most prestigious tennis tournament in the world, it sounds like music to fans of the racket.

Wimbledon - the oldest in the world. It has a tradition to maintain that it was the strength, probably, only Britain, with its passion for tradition, for example, of the four Grand Slam tournaments Wimbledon only save the game on grass courts. So the museum here - a necessity.

It belongs to All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club - a private community, founded in 1868, at the height of the craze English croquet. Around the same time, retired Major Walter Clopton Wingfield experimented with a bouncy rubber balls and rackets, modernizing ancient ball game. In 1874, he patented it created sets for the game. In 1877, the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon held the first championship for tennis - croquet club withdrew into the background, the triumphal procession of tennis.

Wimbledon museum was opened in 1977, the centenary of the first championship. In 2006, Edward Duke of Kent (a cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, the patroness of the All England Club) announced the museum open to the public. Before getting here was difficult: the club, like all British private clubs, carefully guarded their territory from strangers. Now the museum is closed to visitors only during the championships.

Museum superbly equipped. The film is about the science of tennis demonstrated on a special screen with a viewing angle of 200 degrees - the image viewer covers three sides. On training, the athlete's career, about the psychology of the game tells the great John McEnroe - its three-dimensional matrix "ghost" looks extremely convincing. On display are exposed clothing and racket winners of all time, including the silver coffeepot, who received from the hands of Nicholas II Cup winner Imperial Russia in 1914, Elizabeth Ryan. Here - Maria Sharapova dress in which she defeated Serena Williams in the final of the Wimbledon championship in 2004, a form of Anna Kournikova, which she wore at the local courts in 2000. And, of course, countless rackets, who played great.

Visitors also get a chance to view the famous courts (Central and number 1), to visit the locker room for players and an interview.