June & July means the arrival of long summer days, strawberries, cream and Pimms. All of these are also associated with the tennis championships otherwise known as Wimbledon.
Wimbledon is one of the oldest and most prestigious 12 day tennis tournaments in the world, being the only grand slam tournament to be played on grass and open air courts. However due to British weather, a retractable roof was fitted to centre court in 2009.
Wimbledon is one the few tournaments where tickets can be bought for the most popular courts, centre court, court 1 and 2. Due to the amount of people buying tickets you would need to queue up overnight; it is recommended you take a sleeping bag and tent! This has become quite a tradition at Wimbledon. For those of you who don’t want to camp out there is a more sure way of getting tickets, through a ballot held in the beginning of the year.
Wimbledon is also famous for its strict dress code for its contestants. Contestants wear white whilst ball boys and girls wear green, though in 2006 the ball boys and girls were given a new blue and cream uniform designed by Ralph Lauren.
Though the sun has been shining down upon us, the British contestants have not done so well and the majority have been knocked out at the first stage. All our hopes lie with Murray again, who is ranked fourth. Watch his next match on 24th June in front of The Queen – so let’s hope his nerves don’t get the better of him!
In 2005, one tradition that was dropped was players bowing / curtseying to the royal box if there were no royalty present. This has caused controversy as the queen has decided to grace Wimbledon with her presence this year after many decades and Andrew Murray made a comment about not bowing in front of her. Whether he bows or not is yet to be seen so you will have watch to find out what happens!
Players to watch out for are: Rafael Nadal who was the winner of the 2008 Wimbledon championships and ranked number two, back after his knee injury which left him unable to compete last year. Having won 6 Wimbledon championships and as last year’s winner, Roger Federer is ranked number one. Stay tuned to see if he goes on to win his 7th Wimbledon championship.
In the women’s singles Maria Sharapova is one lady who is on top of her game and one to watch out for. Having won in 2004 and not qualified through to the finals since then she is hungry for success and determined to make it. The Williams sisters are on top of their game and doing just as well, with Serena Williams ranked number one after winning three championships including last year and Venus Williams ranked number two, with 5 championships under her name. Will there be another Williams sisters final? Well it’s more than likely but only time will tell.
