Wimbledon warm-ups

From the European Clay Court (CC) season’s last event, the French Open and the Grass Court (GC) season is a straight swap without any time in between. It has been so always. Starting from Stuttgart in Germany for Men and Birmingham in England, there will be about 12 GC events squeezed into the 4 weeks prior to the Grand Slam on grass, the Wimbledon Championships. A good number of these GC events are in continental Europe.

Grass does not give time like Clay and also, the low bounce of grass will not permit behind-the-baseline game comfort to players. The most dominating game on GC is the Serve and Volley, basically, a good Net game.

The transition challenge from CC to GC is well documented, and those who succeeded in accomplishing this successfully in the past, were players with immense experience. Tennis has not seen many of these, in its history. There is recognition for winning the French Open and 4 weeks later the Wimbledon Championship. The achievement is called the ‘Channel Slam’. These two events are played on the either side of the English Channel, hence the name. This year there are two contenders for it in Simona Halep and Rafael Nadal.

Players roll call

As things stand, the Men’s event will have the strength of all the known players. Federer and Murray have already appeared and no one has announced they will not play. It is the case in Women’s events too. Players stand to lose a lot, not playing the European season, in income, ranking status and the post career goodwill in popularity. Even with World Cup Football, the European Tennis arena will not lose out in spectator interest. However, it could be felt in the media.

Although Halep is dominating the rankings, she has not won many titles. Her position is mainly due to the steady performance of appearing in the final rounds, than the number of titles this year. For reasons I cannot fathom, there is a noticeable drop in prize money in WTA events. It may be showing because the figures are a good percentage bigger for Men. However, Grand Slam events have equal prize money for both genders.

Modern equipment and pace

A match producing good Tennis and showing amazing Tennis skills is a miracle. It seldom comes to being. The match between Simona Halep and Garbine Muguruza in the French Open semifinals was such a miracle. Very rarely or never, Women have played Tennis at that speed, accuracy, tactics and in volume. It is a pity Tennis permits only one winner. There, on that day, both deserve the winners praise. It is too much to explain the quality of that game, these mature exponents of the game produced. As to what was missing in that match, will be a difficult spot and, as to what was there, the answer is, everything that makes Tennis attractive.

Pondering how they managed, one cannot ignore the technological enhancement of a Tennis racquet of today. The racquet of today, permits the most delicate drop-shot which entails absorbing all the speed from the opponent’s cannon fire and to deliver services at speeds over 200 km/hour, with accuracy. What more, industry says, more is coming and that is frightening. For the simple reason, human ability has to cope with these challenges in the future. It will be the age of super skilled athletes.

Wimbledon

History o f Wimbl e d o n Championships is the history of modern Tennis. A game like Tennis was played way back thousands of years ago, in the Egyptian court. With the historic French connection to the North African continent, it surfaced in European royal courts through France. The name ‘Tennis’ is French in origin. Tennis has been in Europe for a good while. In one of Shakespeare’s plays, King Henry, he is presented with a ‘Tennis’ ball. A Tennis ball was so precious even in his time.

An old Tennis court in England still exists. It is a mix between Squash and Tennis courts. Originally, Tennis was exclusively for the Royal court, not for the commoners, mainly because the Tennis ball was very difficult to come by or, better said, impossible.

Englishman John Boyd Dunlop changed it, when he invented rubber vulcanising in the early 19th century. Tennis balls are made by vulcanising rubber. In the latter part of that century, Tennis became known in England. Thanks to Dunlop. Wimbledon Championships for Tennis began a few decades later.

White in Tennis

In 1892, the game of Tennis got the Royal blessing. Till then, Tennis courts had no standard size, anything went. The Royal Navy was told to formalise the sport. If you are 5'8" tall, which supposed to be the minimum recruiting height for the Royal Navy at that time, you will walk 12 strides for the width of the court, and the distance between net and baseline also in 12 strides. Why 12? English dozen!

Wimbledon and Tennis worldwide was played only in white dress, until few decades ago, as the Royal Navy was in control of the game and it kept it white. Even the Tennis balls were white. In Wimbledon, even today, the white dress code applies.