It’s that time of year again when tennis becomes the number 1 sport in the world. You guessed it, Wimbledon!
The oldest tennis competition in the world, the only grass court grand slam, right here in London and we now have a British player to be proud of, Scotland’s national hero, Andy Murray. So, here’s some fun facts and figures on Wimbledon.
Last year, 13.3 million viewers viewed the Men’s Final worldwide. Which of course Andy Murray won and against Canadian Milos Roanic which helped it become the most viewed tennis match in Canada ever. It was also the most viewed Wimbledon to date on ESPN.
Centre Court has had a retractable roof since 2009 and Court No.1 will see it have its very own retractable roof by 2019 but in the meantime they still cover the courts that don’t have a retractable roof when the rain comes.
Fortunately the weather has been rather lovely this year but if it did decide to rain it only takes 16 people 30 seconds to move the 1-ton court cover. Pretty impressive if you ask me.
The longest ever tennis match in Wimbledon history was 11 hours and 5 minutes, played over the course of 3 days. It was between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut,, with 980 points played and 123 balls used. Isner also served the most aces in a match ever with 113 aces!
Did you know?
There is a Resident Hawk named Rufus trained by Avian Control, and visits the grounds every week to deter pigeons from roosting and flying over the grounds for 1 hour every morning of the competition.
The players can only wear white at Wimbledon, it is a very strict dress code and even the seven time winner Roger Federer was told to change his trainers for his next match because the had a yellow sole!
The grass is cut to exactly 8mm and is maintained all year round, on all 40 grass courts, 18 of which are championship courts.
The fastest ever serve for the Men was by Taylor Dent in 2010 and was clocked at 148 mph and Serena Williams holds the Women’s fastest serve at 129 mph in 2009.
From 750 trainee Ball Boys and Girls only 250 make it through the rigorous selection process.
The famous strawberry and cream portions of 10 strawberry’s has been priced at £2.50 since 2010 and has not changed.
This year our British No.1 Andy Murray is storming through the rounds in his defense of Wimbledon, but with Djokovic, Federer and Nadal all playing well we are in for an incredible finish to this years tournament.
Let’s hope Andy can do it and become one of the only British players to win a back to back Grand Slam. Also with no Serena Williams this year the Women’s game looks to have a new champion and we wish our British No.1 Johanna Konta all the best.
WORDS BY STUART GRAHAME
Stuart is one of our regular hosts and over the years has become something of an expert in dating. Watch out for his regular posts full of dating tips and advice.