The Weirder Side Of Wimbledon

Last week on the only hot day we had I was fortunate enough to go to Wimbledon.  It is a truly British experience from the Pimms and strawberries & cream, to the dress code of the players and officials, and the atmosphere in the grounds was buzzing.

Without any delays for rain I was able to watch four matches, two men's and two women's and whilst sitting there it struck me that some of the players' habits are quite weird!  They seem to have various idiosyncrasies that perhaps are missed when you watch on the television.  I am not mentioning names but you may know the player who feels a need to pull his shorts out of his bottom after every rally.  I am sure he could afford a bigger size!  Or there is the player who wipes the top of his hat with his towel after every shot, why?

The other thing which strikes me as odd is what they do with the tennis balls when they are serving.  After a shot perhaps only one ball has been used so they take a second.  This I understand, but why take a third or even a fourth?  They look at the tennis balls and then give two back.  What do they expect to see?  Are the tennis balls letting the players know which are better or more likely to give them an ace?  Sometimes when the players ask the ball boy for a ball they have none.  If they turn and walk about four paces they can ask the other ball boy to pass the ball, but they don't.  They get this second ball boy to roll the tennis balls to the first one and then take four so they can give two back!

With the weather being so hot (sorry to keep mentioning this), the need for a towel was genuine, but in the matches I watched the lower seeds all left their towels on a chair and only the higher seeds took theirs onto court.  It made me wonder if the higher your ranking the more you sweat!

Whilst the players were busy with their volleys and back hands I sat there and tried to make sure I watched as much tennis as I could, but often spectators leave half way through a match.  If you have bought tickets to (in my opinion) the best Grand Slam tournament of them all, why miss hours of the games?  You could see that most of those who stayed were genuine fans but there were a couple of ladies sitting behind us who didn't stop talking.  By the end of the afternoon their whole family history, holiday plans, leak in the house, ant problem and recent shopping trip were common knowledge to anyone sitting in the rows surrounding them.  I really wanted someone to have tennis rage and get them to be quiet.

However chattering ladies aside, as the sun set and I headed home I was grateful for the weather, happy to have watched some enjoyable matches and really pleased to have had an opportunity to be at Wimbledon,  especially as the strawberries there are definitely better than anywhere else.  Now I can't wait to put my name into the ballot next year and keep my fingers crossed.