For Debbie Jevans, a seat on Centre Court docket at Wimbledon requires not more than a left end up of her workplace, then a proper flip previous the trophies honoring previous champions. A number of brief steps additional, the identical steps taken by the rivals on finals day, and Jevans finds herself on hallowed grass.
“Centre Court docket is such a particular place,” stated Jevans, the primary feminine chair of the All England Membership, by video name final month. “The courtroom is pristine, the flowers look superb, the overviews of St. Mary’s Church within the background. I really feel an unlimited sense of satisfaction and due to the a whole bunch of people that have gotten us so far.”
Seeing the magnificence and luxurious lawns on opening day at Wimbledon is, for gamers and followers, like stepping again in time. One of many largest causes is as a result of skilled play on grass is as elusive as a Wimbledon title itself.
Iga Swiatek has performed 23 WTA grass-court singles matches out of just about 400 complete in her profession. Swiatek, the world No. 1, has not superior past the quarterfinals at Wimbledon.
Jannik Sinner, the newly named world No. 1 in males’s tennis, enters Wimbledon having performed only one ATP grass-court event this yr — which he gained over Hubert Hurkacz in Halle, Germany, on June 23 — and solely 9 in his profession. A type of matches was a five-set Wimbledon quarterfinal loss to Novak Djokovic in 2022.
Carlos Alcaraz gained 12 straight matches on grass final yr, together with titles at Queen’s Membership and Wimbledon, however was upset within the spherical of 16 at Queen’s Membership about two weeks in the past by Jack Draper. At Wimbledon final yr, Alcaraz beat Djokovic in 5 units. He additionally gained the 2022 U.S. Open on hardcourts. When he gained this yr’s French Open on clay he turned the youngest man to win three majors on three totally different surfaces.
“Each time I step on a grass courtroom I’ve to discover ways to transfer higher, learn how to play higher,” Alcaraz stated after his first-round win at Queen’s Membership in June. “So I really feel like I’m nonetheless studying.”
The grass-court tennis season is precariously brief. This yr there are solely eight ATP tournaments and 7 WTA occasions, unfold over just a few weeks.
In 2025, with the dissolution of the Corridor of Fame Open in Newport, R.I., there might be one much less ATP week on grass. Professional tennis has been performed on grass on the Worldwide Tennis Corridor of Fame in Newport just about yearly for the reason that first U.S. Nationwide Garden Tennis Championships, precursor to the U.S. Open, started there in 1881. The Corridor of Fame Open is the one ATP grass-court event left in the US.
By comparability, there are 40 hardcourt tournaments out of 70 complete on the ATP Tour this yr and 22 clay-court tournaments, together with the Paris Olympics. The WTA has 56 tour-level occasions this season, 36 of that are on hardcourts and 13 on clay. The numbers are related for 2025.
Grass is an inherently tough floor to keep up and to grasp. The groundskeepers at Wimbledon spend nearly all of the yr cultivating and sodding the right blades. They even make use of the England-based firm STRI, which was based in 1929 to assist golf’s St. Andrews in Scotland enhance its greens, to make it possible for the grass is as playable as it’s pristine.
The maintenance of grass courts, which shortly change into treacherous throughout frequent London rain — Frances Tiafoe, Dan Evans and the defending Wimbledon girls’s champion Marketa Vondrousova all took nasty falls throughout a event in June, placing their Wimbledon possibilities in jeopardy — is a problem, however in addition they require a unique ability set for the gamers.
When Martina Navratilova gained Wimbledon 9 instances from 1978 to 1990 and Pete Sampras captured seven titles from 1993 to 2000, the grass was slicker, rewarding these with a potent slice backhand and the flexibility to serve and volley. Then, in 2001, the tennis membership modified the floor from a rye combination to all rye grass, which permits the bottom beneath to stay dry and agency, making the courtroom play somewhat extra like a hardcourt. However, on condition that it’s nonetheless a gentle floor, it may be kinder on the gamers’ our bodies than the fixed pounding they tackle pavement.
“It will be good to have extra tournaments on grass,” Navratilova stated. “Only for the longevity of the our bodies to remain on these pure surfaces extra.”
Present gamers agree.
“There’s one thing pure in regards to the grass at Wimbledon,” stated Christopher Eubanks, who gained his solely ATP title on grass in Majorca final yr after which reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon. “Gamers who prefer to have clear ball placing, who prefer to have effectiveness on the serve, are rewarded on grass. In the event you’re into ripping the ball or prefer to have some selection on the slice, it takes these effectively too.”
The difficulty for gamers is the fixed change of surfaces all year long and that so few tournaments are performed on grass. Two main championships, the French Open on clay and Wimbledon on grass, are additionally contested simply three weeks aside. It’s all a part of the sport, Eubanks stated.
“Everyone knows after we embark on a profession in professional tennis that there are seasons,” he stated. “You begin on the hardcourts, transition to clay, then to grass after which the remainder of the yr is on hardcourts. We perceive that we’re solely going to get 4, possibly 5 weeks on the grass, so it’s vital to maximise them as finest we will. The various surfaces is likely one of the issues that makes tennis so cool.”
This yr the tour schedule provides one other wrinkle in that the Paris Olympics are being staged on pink clay at Roland Garros just a few weeks after Wimbledon ends. Meaning abandoning the sometimes-staccato actions wanted on grass and readjusting to sliding on clay.
For some, the schizophrenic scheduling comes at a price. Whereas pure clay-courters like Alcaraz, Swiatek and the 14-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal cherish the prospect to go for gold on clay, others, like Tiafoe, Aryna Sabalenka, Ons Jabeur, Ben Shelton, Sebastian Korda, Madison Keys and Emma Raducanu, have stated that the potential for damage merely isn’t well worth the threat and are passing on the Olympics.
Fifty years in the past, three of the 4 majors — the Australian Open on the Kooyong Garden Tennis Membership in Melbourne, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open on the West Aspect Tennis Membership within the Forest Hills neighborhood of Queens, N.Y. — have been all performed on grass. Then, in 1975, the U.S. Open shifted first to inexperienced clay after which, when the event moved to the united statesT.A. Nationwide Tennis Heart in Flushing Meadows in 1978, to hardcourts. The Australian Open transitioned to hardcourts in 1988.
For a lot of, the attract of Wimbledon is that it’s nonetheless performed on grass.
“No event makes you are feeling extra like a champion than Wimbledon,” Navratilova stated. “Most youngsters dream about profitable that greater than every other event. You are feeling the historical past once you stroll in there. And the grass courts are a part of that historical past.”
When requested whether or not Wimbledon would ever alter its floor to play on hardcourts, Jevans, a former tour participant who nonetheless finds time to hit on the grass courts, didn’t take a breath earlier than responding.
“No,” she stated as she gazed out the window of her workplace overlooking the All England Membership grounds. “That’s my reply. Wimbledon is Wimbledon.”