She remains the youngest singles winner, although Martina Hingis became the youngest Wimbledon title winner (in doubles) in 1996, aged 15 years 282 days; the youngest world No 1 (16 years, six months and one day); and the youngest player to join the $1m club (16 years, one month and 10 days).. WIMBLEDON'S FIRST home at Worple Road in 1870 was spread across three lawns and built at a cost of pounds 425 for the purposes of croquet. Multiply that by 100,000 and then double it and you will still not reach the eventual pounds 100m bill for the ambitious development plans the All England Club launched six years ago. After years of procrastination over whether the Championships could remain in their somewhat cramped SW19 home, the Lawn Tennis Association decided to stay put. The Championships would remain the last of the Grand Slam tournaments to be played on grass, but modernisation and expansion would be crucial The LTA unveiled a 20-year blueprint for the future.

Stage One would involve building a new No 1 Court with 11,500 seats (to replace the existing version, which had 6,500 seats) and a new broadcast centre to cope with the ever-intensifying demands of the world's media. Stage Two would involve remodelling Centre Court to expand the capacity by 800 and building a new facilities centre, primarily for the players and the media, on the site of the old No 1 Court. Stage Three would involve developing the south side of the 42-acre grounds - including the construction of a new No 2 court - and increasing the overall number of courts and the overall capacity. The whole venture, the LTA said six years ago, would be self-financing and would continue well into the new millennium. Remarkably, given the scale of the project, things are going to plan. Construction of the new No 1 Court started in 1994, turf was laid a year later (the grass needs two years to grow), and the court opened for business on schedule two years ago. A new broadcast centre went into operation at the same time, as did the giant open-air screen, where thousands of those unable to get into the main courts can watch the action sitting on the adjacent grassy bank. Crowds rose that year to record levels of more than 430,000 over the fortnight.The expansion of Centre Court is now complete and its capacity this year has increased from 13,085 to 13,813.

Other new features on display from today will be a new translucent rain cover and state of the art drying fans on No 1 court; an autograph and interview booth, where the public can meet the players, and an LTA Starter Tennis area, where young visitors can try playing for the first time. By next year, the facilities centre should be complete and the development plan will move into Stage Three.The most impressive statistic is a financial one. While the Championships continue to be a cash cow - a surplus of pounds 33m after costs was handed over to the LTA last year for development of the game in this country - all the building has been financed by debentures.In 1994, the All England Club issued 2,100 Centre Court debenture seats at pounds 19,625 apiece, entitling each holder to a ticket per day of play for five years. The Club had instant plough-back revenue of pounds 41.2m from that issue alone, while the buyers each secured 65 tickets over five years at a cost of around pounds 300 per ticket.