COURTS CAN TAKE HEATWAVE

WIMBLEDON’S head groundsman Neil Stubley has insisted the grass courts are ready to withstand the coming heatwave this fortnight. The sun scorched the All England Club last year and some players alleged that the dry weather had made the courts dangerous. Temperatures are set to reach 29°C in the first week of the Championships, which begin today, but Stubley is not worried. ‘Compared to last year we’re about three or four degrees lower,’ he said. ‘With perennial rye grass, the upper ceiling is 28 to 29 degrees. Once you go above that the plant will naturally start to stress because it’s a living surface. So we’re at that top level but because we can afford to get the irrigation on in the evenings because we’ve got nice weather, at the moment we’re nicely in control. It’s not as hot as it was, that three or four degrees makes a lot of difference. We’ll control it with irrigation overnight and make sure we can get some covers on or shut the roof on Centre.’ Last year French player Kiki Mladenovic asked to have her match stopped because she felt the surface was dangerous. ‘There was a huge hole on the sides,’ she said last year. ‘It was not even flat.’