Wimbledon’s Middle Sunday – NO TENNIS!!!

Today’s post was prompted last evening when I heard that a friend of a friend was planning to queue for tickets at Wimbledon from 06.00am today...

Any other day of the famous two-week tennis tournament that would have been a brave and most admirable commitment, no doubt. However today happens to be the “Middle Sunday” of Wimbledon, which means there is no tennis played, at all.

At The Championships a couple of years ago - I know, what a show off

It never stops amusing me how people can commit to attend sporting events around the world. It probably is only matched by music fans attending big concerts. Both sharing the fact that they are live performances and the added excitement of being within relative touching distance of their heroes and idols.

On a different level I think we have Star Trek or Star Wars or the Twilight Saga or Harry Potter fans waiting for their new movies or video games being released or premiered.

Somewhere else we have loads of iPhone and iPad fans too queueing overnight or for days. But these ones I still cannot get. How much better is your life going to be by getting your hands on that brand new phone or tablet or games console a week earlier than your next door neighbour? That I cannot understand, sorry.

Anyway, sorry I digressed there. Back to Wimbledon...

What is this Middle Sunday? Well, it means there is no play on this day. One would think that, given it is a Sunday it would be a great day for people to attend the tournament and make a big day out of it. However traditionally there has almost never been play on the middle Sunday at Wimbledon - the three only exceptions in the history of the event are listed in Wikipedia, and they'll probably have to do with the weather, I bet.

Why do they do it? Well it is not for the players to rest, no. Those brave ones remaining at this stage after three or four rounds of play are well used to the demands of long tournaments; and if not, they will have to. They do not need to rest per se. In fact, the rest day is for the grass. The players go and practice a little in the non-match courts, or go for a light round of golf, or go shopping in London, or take a spa day. Meanwhile the green stuff used as surface on those courts, almost unique to the international summer of tennis as a British trademark, is given something equivalent to a ‘spa day’ too. Yes, the grass needs to rest after six days of battering by over 200 of the world’s best tennis players, with already over a hundred and fifty matches of anything between one to five hours having been played on it; and there are also the exhibition matches played by former players, the juniors and the wheelchair tennis too. Plus sun, rain and wind too! So yes, the grass needs to breathe and recover, so the expert keepers work all day looking after it, trying to recover as much as possible for the second week of tennis madness starting the day after; magic stuff.

Really? You cannot be serious! If you asked me, I would say that this was probably necessary back in the day when the grass was not as strong as today, and did not receive the treatments it does today. Just look at pictures of Wimbledon in the 1970s or 80s and those of today and you can see the difference; and I am not only referring to John McEnroe’s hair style and tight shorts! However, considering the stronger grass used today, coped with the demands of modern day family life, I think they can move the ‘rest day’ to the Monday after, and play on the middle Sunday, so more people have the chance to attend without having to take a day off work, taking their little ones along too. It would also, probably, mean higher TV audiences around the world; and, incidentally, more revenues from match day for the All England Lawn Tennis Club from those expensive food, drink and merchandising stores. But the latter is probably not something that really worries them!

For a highly traditional and conservative tournament that has adapted itself very well to modern technologies, introducing the use of hawk-eye technology or building a see-through roof on Centre Court which can be ready within twenty minutes, it seems to me moving the rest day to the Monday would work quite well too. If they are seriously considering starting the tournament one week later so the players can rest more after Roland Garros and transition better from clay-court onto grass, why not move the rest day by one day and make it a full tennis weekend? Just a thought.

One extra challenge: This year, in addition, those very same courts will be hosting the Olympic Tennis Event... in just over two weeks after the Final is played next Sunday. Thankfully there will be fewer players, about half those of the Grand Slam, but still, one can only imagine the amount of work the keepers and gardeners will have in their hands between the two events. To those men and women, and to the grass itself, best of luck guys and remember, thankfully this doesn’t happen every year!

A different type of challenge altogether building the new Centre Court Roof; back in... April 2008!! Yes that is a big snowfall!

What do I do then? Well, there is no tennis but it is not the end of the world. As you may remember, one week ago I wrote about the Euros saying that Spain and Italy had a good chance to win the thing. Well, if you haven't heard and have no plans this evening yet the Final is today and those two are playing it. With all my heart I hope Spain wins, but even if we don’t, what a great generation of players we have had. To them I say “UN MILLON DE GRACIAS” for having made us dream so many times. And good luck Champions. VAMOOOOOSSSS!!!

Unas buenas JUDIAS CON CHORIZO para animar a la Roja - VAMOS!!!