In Wimbledon, the Russian tennis professional Daniil Medledew once raved about that in Wimbledon, every flower is simply in its right place. The mythical tennis facility in the south of London also exudes an incomparable flair away from the famous courts. Everywhere it greens and blooms, even on the facades of the big stadiums. The club on the London Church Road, an exclusive and chic place anyway, cleans itself out year after year for the oldest tennis tournament in the world.
There are also a lot of flowers in the spa park of Bad Homburg, where the immediate Wimbledon preparation tournament for the women is taking place for the fifth time. Although they were not planted specifically for the tournament, but also decorate the park. A bit of Wimbledon flair can still be felt when the tennis circus opens its tents once a year. Because the stately complex already has enough charm.
Green, white, yellow
“Our gaze always goes to Wimbledon,” says tournament director Aljoscha Thron the FAZ not only the logo of the event is therefore based on that of the big brother in London. Otherwise, the organizers make every effort to transfer the optics and the feeling of the most mythical place in the world of tennis to Hesse. “We want the players not only find optimal conditions for preparation here, but can also get into the right mood,” says Thron. This requires the right ambience.
Raset tennis, that’s always an aesthetic experience. The rich green of the places, the bright white of the chalk lines, the bright yellow of the tennis balls. In the past, when the sport on this surface was still shaped by the service and volley, you could see how brown tramps were created from the baseline to the network in the course of a tournament. These times are over. The game has changed, players rarely look forward. The baseline looks even more bad at the end of a tournament.
On Tuesday morning, the third day of the tournament in Bad Homburg this year, it is still quite decent on the baseline. The Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia and the American Ashlyn Krueger are faced with Court No. 1. Both have grown up, both strong ripples. It is fixed. With hardly any rallies, you can go over the net more than three times. After a little more than an hour, Haddad Maia transforms the match ball.
On lawn, Angelique Kerber, the Wimbledon winner from 2018 and tournament ambassador of Bad Homburg, has formulated, always win the rallies that “sets the first stab”. So lawn tennis is not only faster because the balls jump off the ground faster, it is also faster because the ball change does not take that long. In times when the same playing style, namely with a lot of power from the baseline, dominates in ten out of eleven months of the eleven tennis season, dominates on the profit tours, this also makes up for the special charm. Of course, the spectators prefer to see long and gripping rallies. But always only caviar doesn’t taste good either.
So only in Wimbledon
In the plump midday sun, Jasmine Paolini and Leylah Fernandez have a rousing duel on the Bad Homburger Court on Tuesday. Fernandez plays a stop, Paolini has to go to the net, then Fernandez plays a praise over her. Paolini runs backwards. Her next blow is so short that this time Fernandez has to go forward. Now it is Paolini that overtd up her. Point for the Italian.
After 1:21 hours, the two just ended the first set. Paolini, who was in the Wimbledon final last year, wins him through a 10: 8 in the Tiebreak. Completely exhausted, she shuffles to her bank afterwards. A ball child opens an umbrella over her so that she has a short moment of protection from the sun. Basically, tennis players are used to traveling the year over the summer. But it is particularly hard on some days.
When the American Jessica Pegula steps on the Center Court in the late afternoon, she wears a black sports outfit. You could not think that the optimal color selection at temperatures beyond 30 degrees in the shade. Strict clothing regulations apply in Wimbledon. The players can only compete with white sports clothes, at a maximum of small color dements are allowed. Originally, welding stains should be concealed, today it is primarily a tradition. It is something like the icing on the cake on the optical work of art. And in the end something that Wimbledon still has completely exclusive in tennis.
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