All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club

Subterms

    Latest story

    63 Shares149 Views

    The Strawberry Fields of Wimbledon

    by

    A team of workers has been racing to pick, pack and transport the more than two million strawberries that are expected to be served over the course of the tournament.It was midmorning and the sun was still rising across the English countryside, but Shakhboz Yakhshiboev had been awake since the early hours. Against the backdrop of first light, Yakhshiboev had been making his way through one of the many 50-yard-long polytunnels that were his assignment for these two weeks.His hands appeared to blur as they ran across strawberry after strawberry, their plants all placed at shoulder height. Yakhshiboev’s fingertips squeezed and his eyes scanned each berry. Split-second judgments were required: Too large or too small? Ripe or not yet? Is the color just right?To pick or not to pick?Yakhshiboev, 30, a seasonal fruit picker from Uzbekistan, is part of a 32-person team that, for the duration of Wimbledon, has been the first link in a chain that brings fresh, British strawberries from Hugh Lowe Farms in Mereworth, Kent, to be eaten at the two-week Grand Slam tournament held roughly 30 miles away.A serving of strawberries and cream has become as synonymous with Wimbledon as a Honey Deuce cocktail at the U.S. Open in New York or a pimento cheese sandwich at the Masters Tournament in Augusta, Ga. More

    More stories

    • 100 Shares99 Views

      in Tennis

      Artists Honor Wimbledon With Sculptures, Paintings and More

      by

      The Championships Artist Program has been chronicling the tournament in sculpture, paintings and other mediums for nearly 20 years.Sitting courtside at Wimbledon, the sculptor Mark Reed found inspiration as he watched players serve. The power, speed and beauty mesmerized him. Commissioned by the All England Club to create a sculpture that combined tennis and his trademark metal trees, Reed envisioned a piece that presented a serving player in human and tree form.This year, when fans enter the tournament grounds through Gate 1, they will be greeted by “The Serving Ace Meeting Tree.” The nearly 12-foot-tall bronze sculpture features a tree trunk and branches curved to represent a player in midserve. A canopy of stainless-steel leaves shades the bench below.Mark Reed’s bronze sculpture “The Serving Ace Meeting Tree” on the tournament grounds.AELTC/Chloe KnottThe sculpture is the newest addition to the Wimbledon landscape and to the collection of artwork produced by the Championships Artist Program.“Seeing it lowered into place at Wimbledon, that touchdown point, was very emotional,” Reed said. “It was like ‘Wow, it’s whole, it’s safe, it’s in position and looks right.’ ”In 2002, after refurbishing its clubhouse, the All England Club recognized a need for more artwork and commissioned pieces that depicted its rich history. Those commissions evolved into the artist program in 2006.For nearly two decades, a club committee has invited artists who work in a variety of mediums, including sculpture, painting, glass blowing, engraving, paper quilling, illustration and poetry, to create pieces that embody Wimbledon.Some of the artists are well-known with several prestigious commissions on their résumés, including work for the royal family. Others gain greater visibility through the program. All have been based in Britain, though it’s not a requirement, and all have collaborated with club leaders on themes and tie-ins to tournament traditions.“The Serving Ace Meeting Tree” includes caterpillars with tennis rackets on the branches.AELTC/Chloe Knott“The Serving Ace Meeting Tree” reflects a post-pandemic change to the program. Instead of annual commissions, the club now focuses on fewer, larger-scale pieces that may take years to complete. Reed said designing, casting and assembling the tree required almost 6,000 hours of work.Honored to be selected for Wimbledon commissions, the artists want to create pieces that provide an original take on the tradition-steeped event and connect with club members and visitors. That often results in a mix of emotions, typically excitement and anxiety.“People are so passionate about Wimbledon that everybody will have an opinion about what you’ve done; that’s quite a challenge,” said Eileen Hogan, who made oil paintings in 2009 that are showcased the Members’ Enclosure.Eileen Hogan produced several oil paintings in 2009 of the Wimbledon grounds.AELTCWorking at Wimbledon helped prepare Hogan for her most recent commission: the coronation service of King Charles III and Queen Camilla. Hogan was the first woman to receive that assignment.Artists commissioned by the All England Club tour the grounds and the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum before the tournament starts and return to watch matches. Walking around with sketchbooks and cameras, they find inspiration almost everywhere — the clubhouse décor, championship trophies, flower beds, archived photos, action on the court, private clubhouse spaces, and conversations with members, caterers, ball boys and ball girls.“We try and show the artists our heritage and give them as much access as possible,” said Sarah Frandsen, who as program coordinator supports the projects from conception to installation. “We want them to be really fired up about the commission. We never want to be too prescriptive.”Jeremy Houghton, a painter, attended matches in 2017 and called the commission a “dream ticket.” He painted watercolors of Andy Murray, Roger Federer, Venus Williams and other top players. He also captured junior matches, wheelchair tennis and club staff.“You’ve got your rock stars on the court, but there’s a huge amount of people behind the scenes making things tick,” he said. “I was keen to portray both sides of that.”Jeremy Houghton’s watercolor painting of Wimbledon’s Centre Court.AELTCThe glassblower Katherine Huskie vividly remembers the tour she took with the engraver Nancy Sutcliffe in 2018. “What really struck us was all of the details on the wallpaper, the curtains, the carpet,” Huskie said. “It looks like little patterns, then you get closer and realize it’s tennis rackets.” That influenced how Huskie and Sutcliffe approached their commission.With a nod to the plate-shaped women’s trophy, they created two large glass discs. A ribbon of gold leaf winds around one disc, representing the seams on a tennis ball. The ribbon features engravings by Sutcliffe. From a distance, the engravings appear as an abstract pattern, but up close they’re an intricate arrangement of players in midstroke.Yulia Brodskaya, who specializes in paper quilling, built a three-dimensional aerial map of the Wimbledon grounds in 2015. The colorful piece consists of more than 1,000 paper strips that have been rolled, curled, folded and twisted into easily recognized images, including flowers on the grounds and Serena Williams with the women’s trophy.Yulia Brodskaya’s three-dimensional aerial map of the Wimbledon grounds is made from more than 1,000 paper strips.AELTCThe map includes a small tennis court at the center.AELTC“The whole experience was a visual representation of people being proud of 140 years of heritage and caring deeply about all aspects of the tournament,” Brodskaya said.As the program’s first and only poet, Matt Harvey enjoyed a different kind of Wimbledon experience. In 2010, he posted a poem online each day and read verses to fans waiting in lines.“Thwok!”A poem by Matt Harvey.“I thought I might be imposing poetry on people, but they really enjoyed it,” he said. “People wanted to be part of Wimbledon. I was helping them feel more part of it because they were having an interaction with the poet who was one of its odd little features. It was a celebratory thing, of the game, of the language.”After fulfilling their commissions, the artists get invited to the royal box, where they can celebrate their accomplishment and socialize with V.I.P.s. It’s a highlight of the program, but the most meaningful aspect remains creating art that becomes part of Wimbledon.When Huskie and Sutcliffe watch broadcasts of the championship matches, they’re reminded of that. Their glass disc with the gold ribbon is prominently displayed above the staircase leading to Centre Court. As the finalists walk down the stairs, Huskie and Sutcliffe can catch a glimpse of their work.“The whole project was mind blowing in terms of scale,” Sutcliffe said. “We tried to make something that was worthy of the space.” More

    • 113 Shares99 Views

      in Tennis

      Wimbledon Drops Ban on Players From Russia and Belarus

      by

      Tennis players from Russia and Belarus will be allowed to compete at Wimbledon this summer after tournament officials reversed a policy that had barred them last year in the months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.The decision to bar the players had drawn criticism at the time, even inside tennis, and the reversal of it had been expected. Wimbledon officials justified their decision in a statement in which they said keeping the policy in place would be “damaging” to the tournament, which is the most prestigious in the sport, and to tennis itself.The biggest beneficiaries of the move will be Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, who won the Australian Open in January and is ranked second in the world, and Daniil Medvedev, the 2021 U.S. Open champion, who is fifth in the men’s rankings.To be eligible under Wimbledon’s new rules, any players from Russia and Belarus must compete as “neutral athletes,” without anthems, flags and other nationalist trappings, and must not express support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Sponsorship from state-owned companies also will be forbidden.Aryna Sabalenka, the newly crowned Australian Open champion, was banned from Wimbledon last year because she is from Belarus.Cristobal Herrera-Ulashkevich/EPA, via ShutterstockMany sports moved quickly to make Russia and Belarus sporting pariahs as punishment for their countries’ roles in the invasion of Ukraine, but Wimbledon was the only tennis Grand Slam event last year to bar players without conditions. While support for Ukraine is widespread in tennis, Wimbledon’s ban — a joint move with Britain’s Lawn Tennis Association, which controls the sport there — was roundly criticized throughout the sport as a troubling precedent.In a statement released Friday, Ian Hewitt, the chairman of the All England Club, said the organization continued to condemn the invasion and to support the people of Ukraine.“This was an incredibly difficult decision, not taken lightly or without a great deal of consideration for those who will be impacted,” Hewitt said. “It is our view that, considering all factors, these are the most appropriate arrangements for The Championships for this year.”Hewitt said the club would reconsider the position if circumstances shifted before the tournament, which is scheduled to begin on July 3.Like most Olympic sports, tennis united to ban the national symbols of Russia and Belarus and to prohibit those countries from playing in team competitions.However, only Wimbledon and the L.T.A. prohibited the players from competing in their events, a move that Britain’s Parliament backed strongly.The men’s and women’s professional tours, the ATP and the WTA, punished Wimbledon by electing not to award rankings points for victories in the tournament. The move was an effort to turn the event into something of an exhibition, but it also served to hurt the tours and several top players, including Novak Djokovic and Elena Rybakina, because the rankings have not accurately reflected performance during the past 12 months, as they are supposed to.In addition, a native Russian ended up winning the tournament anyway, as Rybakina, who was born and raised in Russia but began playing for Kazakhstan when she was 18, won the women’s singles title.Players from Russia and Belarus expressed disappointment in the decision last year but did not challenge it in the Court of Arbitration for Sport.In recent months, many top players, including Djokovic, both condemned the war but also said players from Russia and Belarus should be allowed to play, though Daria Kasatkina of Russia has been the only player from Russia or Belarus to openly criticize the war in a video posted lasted summer. Andrey Rublev, another Russian, appeared in the video and said he agreed with her statements but was not openly critical himself.Sabalenka said in Australia that if there was anything she could do to change what was happening in Ukraine she would. Victoria Azarenka, who is also from Belarus and is a member of the WTA Tour’s Player Council, offered to participate in a fund-raising exhibition for victims of the war in Ukraine before the U.S. Open, though players from Ukraine ultimately asked that she not participate.Many players from Ukraine have moved out of their country. Several, including Lesia Tsurenko and Dayana Yastremska, have lobbied to have players from Russia and Belarus prohibited from competing in any professional tournaments unless they express opposition to the war.There has been little contact between players from Ukraine and Russia and Belarus during the past year, though Kasatkina said she did receive multiple messages of thanks from players from Ukraine after she posted her video.Wimbledon’s move came just days after the International Olympic Committee announced that it would push to have athletes from Russia and Belarus compete at the Summer Games in Paris in 2024. In explaining the decision, Thomas Bach, the president of the I.O.C., cited tennis as having shown how players from those countries could compete even against players from Ukraine without disturbance.Players from Russia have continued to excel in the game. On Friday afternoon, Medvedev will play his countryman, Karen Khachanov, in the semifinals of the Miami Open, one of the biggest tournaments of the year outside the Grand Slams. Rybakina will play in the finals on Saturday. More

    • 113 Shares199 Views

      in Tennis

      After Serena Williams Is Injured, Wimbledon Defends Court Conditions

      by

      Slippery grass caused tournament-ending injuries in back-to-back matches, and many stars lost their footing during the first two days of the tournament.WIMBLEDON, England — Matches continued on Centre Court at Wimbledon as rain fell outside on the first two days of the tournament that showcases top stars in an arena considered a cathedral of the sport before thousands of fans. More

    • 100 Shares169 Views

      in Tennis

      Paul Skipp, the Master of Thwack at Wimbledon

      by

      He has been the head stringer at the tournament since 2014, and players turn to him to make their rackets sing.In the shadow of No. 1 Court at the All England Club, Wimbledon’s stringing team is readying for a crush of requests. The day before the tournament starts, the team usually strings about 500 rackets, carefully following players’ instructions about tension levels, knot placement, logo color and string type. Then, the team will come back the next day and do another 500 rackets.“If we do a good job, and the player wins the tournament, excellent, great, fantastic, we feel we’ve done our part,” said Paul Skipp, who has been Wimbledon’s head stringer since 2014.Players restring their rackets mainly because strings quickly lose tension, and they need to be confident that the ball will come off their strings in a certain way. Led by Skipp, Wimbledon’s stringing team works long days, sometimes past midnight. Depending on personal preferences, weather and time spent on the court, players may get their rackets strung every day. At Wimbledon, players will use freshly strung rackets for only one match.Skipp, 51, figures he has strung rackets for 10 players who have won Wimbledon titles, including Angelique Kerber of Germany in 2018. When the Scottish player Andy Murray made his 2005 Wimbledon debut, Skipp was there to string for him. He has worked on Rafael Nadal’s rackets at previous Wimbledons. He regularly strings for Alison Riske of the United States. In 2019 at Wimbledon, she upset the top seed Ashleigh Barty and reached the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam for the first time.Alison Riske has consistently used Paul Skipp to string her rackets at Wimbledon.Nic Bothma/EPA, via Shutterstock“Paul is absolutely my go-to stringer at Wimbledon, and I’m so grateful for all of the good juju he puts over my rackets there,” Riske said via email. “Paul is good at what he does for many reasons, but first and foremost, I believe it’s his consistency. Consistency with how he strings and then how my strings feel to me in return.”If players do not use Wimbledon’s stringing service and pay the $28 per racket fee, then they pay for an off-site service. But over the past decade, the number of rackets strung by the on-site service has more than doubled, and Wimbledon’s stringing team has nearly doubled. The 16 team members come from a mix of European countries: Spain, Italy, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Britain. “We are a bit of a family,” Skipp said.In 2009, when Jeremy Holt’s company Apollo Leisure took over the stringing operation at Wimbledon, the team worked on 2,300 rackets. Holt expects that the team will string about 5,500 rackets during this year’s tournament.“The tournament services throughout the world have improved considerably, so I think the players have more faith in them,” he said, explaining the increase. “People who are at the top of their game as racket stringers are involved.”At Wimbledon, players, or more often, coaches, drop off rackets at the service’s front desk and explain how they want them strung. A racket then goes to a team member, who puts it on a stringing machine. The main strings and cross strings get measured out, threaded through the frame, tightened to the player’s desired tension and knotted. It is generally considered that lower tension gives players more power; higher tension gives players more control.Paul Skipp uses a stringing machine to work on a racket. Krisztina Kobanyai“If I request tighter than my average, then I expect it to feel so, or vice versa,” said Riske, who is ranked No. 31 in the world. “And that is where a stringer like Paul is truly priceless because he will nail it every time, and I trust his ability, so it is one less worry for me, which is very important.”Players can request a certain stringer. That typically happens when a player has a past working relationship or familiarity with a stringer, the way Riske has with Skipp, or when a player has done well at a tournament with a stringer. But generally, a player’s rackets are assigned to a team member based on scheduling considerations. Skipp tries to ensure that all of a player’s rackets can be strung by the same team member throughout the tournament.Skipp expects a tournament stringer to easily finish a racket in 20 minutes. If it is needed on court, then he said, “we turn on the afterburners, and you could be looking at 10 to 11 minutes.”“To get it right, to get it consistent, it could be considered a craft or an art, certainly a skill,” he said. “I’ve seen plenty of bad stringing. Could we make Rafa Nadal play badly with a bad string job? Yeah, for sure. Could we make you play like Rafa Nadal with a better string job? No. Could we turn even a lower professional into a Rafa Nadal with a very good string job? No.” More

    • 100 Shares119 Views

      in Tennis

      The Special Magic of Wimbledon Returns, Changes Included

      by

      The pandemic forced the tournament’s cancellation in 2020 and led to some changes this year, but much of its tradition is back.Serena Williams leaned back in her chair and thought.The seven-time Wimbledon champion had just been asked about the one thing she is looking forward to upon returning to Wimbledon for the first time since the coronavirus shut it down last year. Suddenly, Williams burst forward, as if she had just had an epiphany.“I love the grass,” Williams said this month at the French Open, though she also admitted that she hadn’t even practiced on the surface since she lost to Simona Halep in the 2019 final. “What I love most about it is just the cleanness of it. I just think it’s so chic and so crisp. That’s a good word: crisp.”Crisp may be the perfect word to describe the aura of Wimbledon. Those iridescent green grass courts are immaculately manicured. It is the only professional tournament that still requires its participants to wear logo-less, all-white clothing. The facilities, including a Royal Box that features signature purple-and-green blankets, oozes decorum.And it’s not just Williams who understands the significance of the only major still played on grass.Williams, a seven-time Wimbledon champion, serving to Simona Halep at the 2019 tournament. Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images“Wimbledon is something magical,” said Elina Svitolina, a semifinalist in 2019. “We know the rules are quite strict, and it’s going to be even more strict this year. But you’re just in white, and you’re in such a nice, historical venue, so the whole atmosphere makes stepping on the court an experience.”Now Wimbledon, which begins on Monday, is back, though it looks and feels quite different this year. Attendance is capped at 50 percent for the Centre and No. 1 Courts, while smaller show courts can seat 75 percent of capacity. For the semifinals and finals, seating capacity is expected to rise to 100 percent on Centre Court.There are also strict regulations regarding vaccination and testing protocols. All ticket-holders are required to show proof of Covid status upon entry, either in the form of two vaccination doses or proof of a negative Covid test within the past 48 hours. While moving around the grounds, all attendees must wear face coverings, though they are free to remove them while at their seats. The players have their own set of rules in place that allow them to be exempt from public quarantine requirements while also keeping themselves and the public safe.“This will be a Wimbledon like we’ve never known it before,” said Dan Evans, the British No. 1 in singles. “It’s obviously an amazing place to play tennis, but my overriding feeling is that it will be very different to what we know.”Because tickets are being distributed through mobile devices this year, some traditions have disappeared. No one will be permitted to camp out for spare tickets, for example. Because the players are required to stay at a designated hotel in London, spotting celebrities outside their rental homes in Wimbledon Village is gone. And for environmental reasons, the plastic cups adorned with pictures of strawberries for the traditional Wimbledon dessert strawberries and cream have been replaced with sustainable cardboard containers.As with other major championships this year, prize money has been redistributed, with more going to early round losers. This year, the men’s and women’s singles champions will receive £1.7 million (about $2 million), down from £2.35 million in 2019, but those who fall in the first round will get £48,000, significantly more than than two years ago.Other changes include players on all of the courts, not just the premier ones, being allowed to challenge the calls of linespeople and have them verified by Hawk-Eye Live, a device that uses 10 cameras around the court (though no linespeople have been cut as a result, as other tournaments have done). And there also has been the introduction of a serve clock on all courts.Like Williams, Roger Federer, an eight-time Wimbledon champion, is currently ranked No. 8. Christian Hartmann/ReutersSeedings are according to the WTA and Association of Tennis Professionals rankings, which means that the champions, Roger Federer and Williams, both now ranked No. 8, could meet the top seeds Novak Djokovic and Ashleigh Barty in the quarterfinals. In the past, Wimbledon has often deferred to past champions when making seedings.Simply adjusting to playing on grass — with its hard-to-grip surface and uneven bounces — will be a challenge for players, many of whom have not competed on the surface in two years: When Wimbledon was canceled last year, the few grass-court warm-up events were as well. This year, because the French Open was postponed by a week to allow for the lifting of more Covid-19 restrictions in France, there has been even less time to for players to make the transition.“Nobody practiced on grass because there was no reason to,” said Daniil Medvedev, who is seeded second. “It’s not going to be easy this year.”For most players, nothing is certain this year. Barty enters the tournament still nursing a hip injury that caused her to retire during her second match at the French Open. Halep, the defending champion, didn’t play that tournament because of a calf injury. She withdrew from Wimbledon on Friday. Dominic Thiem, the reigning United States Open champion, also withdrew, because of a wrist injury sustained earlier in the week.Naomi Osaka, the world’s No. 2 player, also withdrew from the tournament, citing a need for more time away from the game. She also pulled out of the French Open citing mental health issues. And Williams, still one shy of tying Margaret Court’s record of 24 major singles championships, has played a sparse schedule this year. She reached the semifinals at the Australian Open in February, losing to Osaka, the eventual champion.Barbora Krejcikova, the winner at the French Open, has never played the main draw at Wimbledon, but she is seeded at No. 15.When Rafael Nadal announced that he was pulling out of Wimbledon and the Olympics following a semifinal loss to Djokovic at the French Open, the most intriguing story lines at Wimbledon suddenly became Federer and Djokovic.Federer, an eight-time Wimbledon champion, has played just eight matches in the last two years and two weeks ago lost unexpectedly to Felix Auger-Aliassime at a grass-court warm-up in Halle, Germany.Novak Djokovic, the 2018 and 2019 champion, eats a blade of grass (a personal Wimbledon tradition) after beating Federer in 2019.Daniel Leal-Olivas/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThen there is Djokovic who, with his wins at the Australian and French Opens this year, is halfway to a Grand Slam. If he also wins a gold medal at the Olympics in Tokyo, he will accomplish the Golden Slam, which has been done only by Steffi Graf, in 1988.“Everything is possible,” Djokovic said after he beat Alexander Zverev to win his second French Open. “I did put myself in a good position to go for the Golden Slam.”Wimbledon is already thinking ahead. In 2022, the All England Club, which holds the tournament, will add play on the middle Sunday of the event, which traditionally was reserved for rest and rejuvenation of the courts and the players. The All England Club also recently unveiled plans to expand into neighboring parkland and create an 8,000-seat show court that the club expects to be ready by 2030.But for this year, people who treasure the tournament are relieved it’s back.“Wimbledon is such an anchor for all of us,” said Jim Courier, a former world No. 1 and current Tennis Channel commentator. “I think it will be rejuvenating for the sport as a whole. It’s going to be a relief that Wimbledon is back and going to be visible again.“Wimbledon,” Courier added, “is that perfect blend of the old and the new. They’ve gotten it right in so many ways. We missed it.” More