The Championships 2019 burst into life on Monday 1 July.

The women's draw included a certain Cori Gauff, at 15 the youngest player in the Open era to make it through to the main draw via Qualifying. 

She met her hero Venus Williams in the first round, emerging to the suprise and delight of the crowd with a straight sets win.

Tennis legend Billie Jean King was one of the first to congratulate her, and thankfully New York Times' writer Ben Rothenburg's dad was on the ball back home.

Australia's Nick Kyrgios defeated countryman Jordan Thompson to set up a much-anticipated second round match against Rafael Nadal in a rivalry going back several years.

With fireworks anticipated by some, Kyrgios summed up his relationship with the Spaniard, referencing a local establishment in Wimbledon Village.

Nadal, however seemed to be losing little sleep about missing out on a trip to the pub with Kyrgios. 

Once again it was 15-year-old Cori Gauff who stole the headlines on Day 3 with her second round match against Magdalena Rybarikova.

The young American looked cool and confident as she eased past 2017 semi-finalist from Slovakia 6-3, 6-3, once again setting traditional and social media channels alight. 

In an action-packed day that included: that match-up between Kyrgios and Nadal; Brits Harriet Dart and Daniel Evans on winning form; Portugal's Joao Sousa taking out 2017 finalist Marin Cilic; and American lucky loser Lauren Davis celebrating Independence Day with a win over 2018 champion Angelique Kerber, you might have been forgiven for missing Marcos Baghdatis' last ever competitive tennis match. 

He will, it seems, be missed by an awful lot of tennis fans. 

She'd beaten Venus, and then pulled off a straight sets win against Slovakia's Magdalena Rybarikova. 

And now it was time to face Polona Hercog - surely the 15-year-old's remarkable winning streak couldn't last?

It looked unlikely; Hercog took the first set 6-3 and looked dominant. But then... wait... second set tie-break... one set all... 7-5 in the third set... she only went and did it.

The crowd, very much behind Gauff from the start, went wild. And so did Twitter. 

The legend returns.

50 years ago to the day, Rod 'Rocket' Laver lifted the Wimbledon gentlemen's singles trophy following his 6–4, 5–7, 6–4, 6–4 victory over fellow Australian John Newcombe. 

The Australian's career spanned both the amateur and Open era and he achieved a Grand Slam of all four titles - the US Open, the Australian Open, Roland-Garros and Wimbledon - in both; in 1962 and 1969. 

'Manic Monday' never fails to produce thrills and spills with a full programme of fourth round matches. While Djokovic, Nadal and Federer all progressed in short order, Argentina's Guido Pella battled against former runner-up Milos Raonic for the full five sets. 

Two sets down, and looking like he was going out, Pella refused to panic. He pulled it back and the big-serving Canadian faced down three match points, but couldn't survive the fourth as the South American booked his place in his first Wimbledon quarter-final. 

For 2019 Wimbledon announced that a deciding tie-break would be played if any final set reached twelve games all.

After several near misses, all eyes locked on Court 12 as John Peers and Henri Kontinen held their nerve to write themselves into the history books.

Against Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury up stepped the Australian-Finnish team to take the decisive tie-break 7-2 and with it wrap up a 7-6(2), 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 13-12(2) victory.

You were right Ben Rothenberg, you didn't miss one. 

With Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal filling all but one of the semi-final spots, attention turned to Spain's Roberto Bautista Agut and Guido Pella. 

The Spaniard wasn't even supposed to be here by this point - his friends were all waiting for him in Ibiza to get started on his stag do. 

With game faces on, it's easy to forget just how special most players find their time at Wimbledon.

Veteran returners or first timers, the majority find the atmosphere, the colour scheme, the all-white clothing all make for a truly special experience. 

Even Novak Djokovic, here for the 15th time, noted that the flowers always remind him of the exceptional work that goes on behind the scenes. David Goffin and Simona Halep were happy to be here too.

2019 saw the inaugural quad category added to the gentlemen's and ladies wheelchair events at Wimbledon. 

And in this first year, two players dominated the grass at SW19.

Britain's Andy Lapthorne and Dylan Alcott from Australia took on Koji Sugeno from Japan and the USA's David Wagner in the final, emerging victorious 6-2, 7-2(4). 

With little time to absorb their win, the pair then prepared to face each other on opposite sides of the net the following day as they contested the first ever quad singles title. 

All eyes were on Centre Court for the ladies' singles title where Simona Halep inflicted a stunning straight sets victory over seven-time champion here, Serena Williams. 

After that, Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah took on France's Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin to become Colombia's first gentlemen's doubles champions in a gruelling four hour 57 minute encounter.

But away from Centre Court, it was Australian Dylan Alcott again who stole the show, becoming the first ever quad wheelchair singles champion at Wimbledon. 

A day to name more champions. The headline act, of course, was the gentlemen's singles final, an epic match-up between Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer, which fulfilled all promises of thrills and spills, going to a fifth set and requiring another outing of the 12-12 rule. 

In the longest gentlemen's singles final at Wimbledon - an exhausting four hours 57 minutes (bizarrely, the same as the men's doubles) - Djokovic emerged victorious. 

But looking to the future, Japan's Shintaro Mochizuki took just 61 minutes to see off Spain's Carlos Gimeno Valero to lift the boys' singles trophy.