When it comes to what kind of an emotional experience Wimbledon can be for players, Marcos Baghdatis sums it up well. “The first time he [Roger Federer] won Wimbledon, I was in front of my TV and I saw him cry, and I start to cry.”
Welcome to a tennis time machine: Wimbledon. “It’s our Super Bowl,” seven-time champion Pete Sampras once said of his Grand Slam stomping grounds. Fred Perry, the last British male to win the title, was similarly enraptured. “I’ve had a love affair with Wimbledon ever since I can remember,” he said. “It stays with you.”
It stays with you indeed. “It’s like a love affair that grows,” said Martina Navratilova, who won the singles trophy nine times. “It’s like a relationship where you love that person more and more. I feel this place in my bones.”
Since 1877, the annual pilgrimage to tennis Mecca has been the highlight of the tennis season, and even though it has evolved into a major commercial affair over the years, Wimbledon has always made a concerted effort to cultivate and maintain its “tennis in an English garden” appeal. “We put emphasis on landscaping to create a garden atmosphere, with reduced impact from television and hospitality,” says Chris
Gorringe, who served for 26 years as Wimbledon’s CEO and painstakingly oversaw a major upgrade in acreage and facilities without damaging the organic appeal of the event.
It is this dedication to old-world charm and the steadfast regard for tradition that keeps Wimbledon in favor with the players, the writers and the tennis viewing public. in a recent poll, 60 percent of tennis fans claimed that Wimbledon was their favorite Grand Slam.
Remarkably, none of the other three Grand Slams received more than 16% of the votes. “To me, it feels like this is where tennis is meant to be played,” says Maria Sharapova, the 2004 Wimbledon champion.
Many players share the same sentiment.
“It’s Wimbledon, and you can’t be tired,” said Frenchman Nicolas Mahut, after his epic eleven-hour marathon with John Isner that served to rewrite much of tennis’ record books.
“The U.S. Open is amazing,” says Venus Williams, when tryng to accurately sum up her affection for her favorite place to play. “It’s obviously where iI’m from. But Wimbledon’s where it all started. So you kind of got to hit Wimbledon before you get to the Open.”
Some come to Wimbledon for world-class tennis, some to bask in the pleasant decorum of the knowledgeable British faithful and others to devour the Pimms and strawberries and cream on offer. But the heart and soul of the Championships can be found beneath the player’s feet – the grass. Trimmed impeccably to 8mm in length, the 100 percent perennial rye grass is the magic carpet of the Grand Slam circuit. Having a living, breathing surface beneath the player’s feet adds color to the event, and it influences the strokes and the strategies of the players. Players begin the fortnight slipping and sliding on a verdant blanket of green, and by Finals weekend there are monstrous patches of dirt where grass has worn near the baseline.
The US Open and the Australian Open have long since switched from grass to hard courts, but Wimbledon, in spite of complaints that grass-court tennis was “dead” in the 90s, has never wavered in its support for tennis’ original surface.
And that, in a nutshell, is the story of the allure of Wimbledon. While others have broken with tradition and pushed to modernize, the all England Club has carried on intrepidly with its vision of making its storied tradition a priority. There is no place on earth where tennis fans and players can feel as connected with the ghosts of the past. And there is no crown that is as sacred.
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