Something sinister is underfoot at SW19
It’s supposed to rain. Thank the heavens above.
That’s right. They’re praying for precipitation in a country where the sun rarely shines.
While downfalls have caused havoc with scheduling at Wimbledon in many years past, the lack of any moisture — beyond that pouring out of sweat glands — has severely impacted play at the All England Club.
Or so participants have been claiming, though officials counter: Bollocks.
Sunday was the traditional maintenance day for the grounds, otherwise completely shuttered in advance of Manic Monday, with everybody who has survived into the second week of the tournament in action. Wall-to-wall tennis.
While groundskeepers insist otherwise, it seems quite obvious that the pristinely and lovingly groomed lawns at SW19 have been rendered dry and desiccated, maybe dangerously so.
Canada’s Genie Bouchard, ousted in the first round last Monday, said afterwards that she was afraid of moving around the court athletically because of skidding perils underfoot. She’s been far from alone in criticizing the quality of the grass surfaces.
Andy Murray, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and many others have concern and bewilderment over what lies beneath, given that Wimbledon is famous for sod perfection. Too soft and slow, say some; too sere and ball-blunting say others.
“I think the courts this year are really, really bad,” Italy’s Fabio Fognini stated bluntly.
What head groundsman Neil Stubley says is that “hardness readings” are well within the usual margins and fret-free playable.
“There’s not a doubt in our minds that the courts will not be as good as they need to be for the end of The Championships,” he told reporters on Thursday. “Obviously we’re dealing with the extreme heat, which we’re not used to every single championships. From one championships to another you will get variations in temperatures which will actually have an effect on how you manage the courts. We go into The Championships with as healthy of grass as we possibly can be so we can endure the extremes. So if we get extreme heat, or last year with the extreme wet, we can deal with it.
“More slippery? I don’t know if there have been more slips this year or there has just been a couple of high-profile ones. Obviously we listen to players because their feedback is important. But the data shows to us those courts that are in question are within range of the other courts and they are within range of previous years.”
By high-profile, Stubley was surely referring to the ghastly incident on Thursday when Bethanie MattekSands of the U.S. crumpled approaching the net as her knee gave out, then screeched in pain. There’s been no indication, however, that purported slipperiness contributed to her calamity. Certainly she has not alleged that.
On her Facebook Live page, on Saturday, Mattek-Sands revealed that she will need surgery after dislocating her right knee and rupturing her patella. “One of the most painful injuries I’ve had and I’ve had a few in my career.
“I just remember trying to take a step, my leg not being able to hold me, and I just went down. I remember my knee just feeling really tight and I took a look at it and something was wrong . . . something looked so wrong with it and I knew it was either dislocated or broken.
“I think at that point, I kind of freaked out.”
On Sunday, a day of tennis rest, grounds personnel were working hard to restore conditions on all the courts, from spot treatment for trouble areas to hand-watering surfaces on outside courts.
Of particular issue has been court 18, the fifth show court. Nineteen matches were played there last week. During one of them Britain’s Laura Robson yelled out: “It’s too soft!”, while 12th seed Kristina Mladenovic of France told reporters she was thankful to have escaped injury when she played, and lost, in the second round on Thursday.
Mladenovic and her opponent, American Alison Riske, both asked the chair umpire to have their match moved to another court, two games into the encounter. The Frenchwoman described the court as damaged.
Britain’s James Murray, who lost his Friday doubles match on court 18, said the surface has been all the talk in the locker room. “The courts this year were different in the way that you could see where people put their foot in. It was almost like the turf had come up,” he told the Times.
Following his Saturday match, the always measured Federer said he’d slipped on the court but didn’t think that the surface was unsafe.
“When it does get very hot, the sun beats down on the court for the entire day, I do feel the courts get a tad slippery because there’s all this dead grass, in the middle in particular, because it’s not attached anymore.”
Murray: “There’s quite a few spots on the court, like just behind the baseline and just in front of the baseline, where there’s quite big chunks of grass, sort of almost like divots.”
Djokovic: “I could see there is a difference in grass, in the turf itself. It was a bit softer, I would say, especially around couple of feet inside and outside, around the baseline area.
“I haven’t had that kind of experience before in Wimbledon, to be honest. I mean, the courts are always perfect here.”
They certainly like to think so, of their grass in captivity.
So sod off.