【单选题】

People all over the world know Wimbledon as the center of lawn tennis.

In 1874 it was a country village, but it was the home of theAllEnglandCroquetClu
B、TheClub had been there since 1864.A、lot of people played croquet inEngland at that time and enjoyed it, but the national championships did not attract many people. So theClub had very little money.
"This new game of lawn tennis seems to have plenty of action (精彩场面), and people like watching it," they thought. "Shall we allow people to play lawn tennis on some of our beautiful croquet lawns "
In 1877, Wimbledon held the first world lawn tennis championships (men’s singles). Wimbledon grew. There was some surprise and doubt, of course, when theClub allowed women to play in the first women’s singles championship in 1884.But the ladies played well -- even in long skirts that hid their legs and feet. Until 1907 the winners, both men and women, were alwaysBritish, but since 1936 the victory has usually gone to anAmerican or anAustralian.British people were very happy when anEnglish girl,Ann Jones, won the championship in 1969.
Wimbledon is known all over the world as______.
[A] a country village
[B] the home of an unusual croquet club
[C] the center of lawn tennis
[D] a famous place of interest near London