Next year is the obvious moment for celebrating the arrival of open-era tennis.

It will be 50 years since professionals were allowed to rejoin amateurs at the major tournaments, a change that removed a level of hypocrisy from the ranks of amateurs, many of whom had long received under-the-table payments. And it allowed all the world’s best players to compete for the most prestigious titles in 1968.

But Wimbledon, a grassy place that likes its history and ceremony, is reaching a 50-year milestone this year as well.

Open tennis at Wimbledon began in the summer of 1968. But the groundwork was laid a year earlier, when Herman David, the strong-minded chairman of the All England Club, invited Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall and six other professionals to play a tournament in August on the same Wimbledon lawns where then-amateur John Newcombe won the men’s singles title in July.

“It is amazing where 50 years has gone to — time just floats away,” Laver, now 78, said by telephone last week from his home in Carlsbad, Calif., before flying to London to take part in a 50th anniversary reunion at Wimbledon.