Monday, June 30, 2025, 01:28
This Monday begins Wimbledon and plays to dress in white. Since 1877, with some interruptions by wars or pandemics, the oldest and most special tournament in the world is disputed. In addition to what is seen on TV there are many not very well -known aspects of the only Grand Slam tournament that is played on grass and that will give us clues in case we ever decided to go from spectators to London. The Open of Australia that is now played on Greenset and the Open USA that is played on Decoturf were played on grass not many years ago.
But let’s start at the beginning. Wimbledon’s previous phase or ‘qualy’ is disputed by 128 players and 128 players. Start the previous Monday, to have margin in case of rain. Sometimes it does not rain and ends on Thursday, so the classified must wait three or four days until Jcompetir in the final box. In order to preserve the grass of the final phase that previous phase is played in Roehampton, on the courts of the Lawn Tennis Association Lta, almost an hour from Wimbledon. Lawn means grass in English.
Some wonder, do the lawn tennis association from where? Well, as the English are very his and as tennis was invented in England, they answer “because where it will be, from here, we do not need to put English or British.” But what many do not know is that although the greatest Wingfield patented tennis in 1874, which really invented it, even if it was in England, was the Spanish Juan Bautista Augusto Parera with the help of his friend the biggest Harry Gem.
In 1865 in Edgbaston, near Birmingham, Parera and Gem they called the new Lawn Rackets and Lawn Pelota, by the Basque ball, but already in 1872, five years before the first Wimbledon, it was called Lawn Tennis. The All England Lawn Tennis and Crocket Club of Wimbledon is a private club, founded in 1868, with a very narrow link with the LTA. The more than 40 million euros won by the tournament every year go to the British Federation (LTA). Before obtaining those benefits, the tournament distributes 62 million euros in –3.5 are for the champion and the same for the champion. Each of the 64 losers and each of the 64 losers in the first round of the final box takes almost 80,000 euros. Another tradition of the third Grand Slam of the year is to taste strawberries with cream and champagne. Obviously they are not cheap, but since you are there, for once …
In 2012, the London Olympic Games tennis test was played in Wimbledon. Being a member at that time of the ITF Olympic Committee I was lucky to know the club inside: rest rooms, meeting rooms, the museum, the library, the changing rooms … and I also had the fortune of being in the Royal Box, the Wimbledon box. As a tennis lover and its history, for me it was something magical. On the other hand, it was strange not to see the usual dark green and observe the perimeter of each pink track, the pantone of those games.
The tournament lasts now 14 days. Until a few years ago during the Sunday of the first week no matches were scheduled. I remember that a year that I was a commentator with ETB (1994, when Conchita Martinez won) I took the opportunity to play tennis that Sunday in Queens. Since 2022 that ‘Middle Sunday’ is already another Sunday. Important. You can go to the club from London by Metro but you don’t have to get off at Wimbledon station but in Southfields. From there, a 15 -minute walk.
In a tournament with such history you have to remember the game between Isner and Mahut that lasted three days, between rain and lack of light, and that ended the result of 6/4 3/6 6/7 (7) 7/6 (3) 70/68 in favor of Isner. It was 11 hours, 6 minutes and 23 seconds. And 183 games. We must also remember the extraordinary final that Borg won Mcenroe in 1980, 8/6 in the fifth. Or that of 2008 that Rafa Nadal won Roger Federer, 9/7 on the last set.
Even in the choice of balls they are unique. Slazonger is the ball brand used in Wimbledon since 1902. 123 years of collaboration. The legend circulates that after a few years of excessive aces and very short points by Ivanisevic, Sampras or Raonic, it changed to slower balls. It is also said to change to a slower and more resistant type of grass.
