Fans cheered when a staff member arrived with a leaf blower, causing Novak Djokovic to applaud theatricallySusan Mullane/USA TODAY NETWORK
Players and coaches are realizing that the lawns of Wimbledon “barely feel like grass at all anymore,” according to Joshua Robinson of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. A grass court might “seem like a small detail in a sport as complex as tennis,” but it “changes everything about how the game is played.” The trend of the changing surface is “part of a larger homogenizing of surfaces across the sport, and in particular at the four Grand Slam events.” Sports equipment brand Slazenger, which manufactures the Wimbledon ball, said that it “hasn’t changed the specifications since 1995.” The last major change to the grass recipe, meanwhile, “dates back to 2001,” when the All England Club “switched to more durable 100% perennial ryegrass.” The club however does not believe that the alteration to the mix “contributed to any significant change in the perceived speed of the grass plays.” But one thing that has “evolved dramatically” is the “condition of the soil.” As British summers grew warmer over the past two decades, the courts have "become harder during the two weeks of Wimbledon, allowing the ball to bounce higher and minimizing some of the surface’s more baffling effects.” Former players and coaches said that the other factor is the “radical progress in racket technology.” Newer equipment, which “generates more spin with the flick of a wrist, helps players hit better shots from tougher positions to stay in points longer.” Robinson noted fewer men can “simply serve the ball straight through their opponents anymore -- which happens to make for better television viewing too” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 7/3).
REASON OR EXCUSE? REUTERS’ Martyn Herman wrote Wimbledon organizers “defended their Centre Court roof policy" yesterday after Novak Djokovic's opening match on Monday “suffered an 80-minute delay after a rain shower made the grass too slippery.” Djokovic was “leading by a set with light rain falling” on Monday before the retractable roof, installed at a cost of about $102M in 2009, “was closed.” With a "state-of-the-art air conditioning system," play is “supposed to resume no more than 30 minutes after the switch is pressed to close the roof.” The longer delay left Djokovic and his opponent Pedro Cachin “mystified, as were the crowd, especially as play resumed quickly on Court One.” Tournament organizers said that player safety was “always the priority in such circumstances” (REUTERS, 7/4).
ROUGH START: In London, Simon Briggs wrote this year's Wimbledon “made a bumpy start” when unresponsive officials allowed Centre Court to “become saturated by an unexpected rain shower, holding up play for tournament favourite Novak Djokovic for at least an hour.” The Centre Court crowd were “left staring at the weird image” of Djokovic and Cachin “patrolling the court with tournament referee Gerry Armstrong.” Djokovic could even be seen “blowing ironically on the grass as if to help dry it.” Briggs noted shouts of “Get on with it!” rang out from the seats as Djokovic “kept leaning down to feel the turf and then waving a towel as a makeshift fan.” Then a “huge cheer went up” as a staff member “arrived with a leaf blower, causing Djokovic to applaud theatrically.” Briggs wrote we were “expecting possible delays” to Wimbledon’s Centre Court program as a "result of Just Stop Oil protests -- but in fact it was the weather, combined with organisational ineptitude, that created the problem on this occasion” (London TELEGRAPGH, 7/3).
