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Serena Williams leaned on her chair and thought.
Seven times, the Wimbledon champion had just been asked about one thing he expects when he returns to Wimbledon for the first time since the coronavirus stopped it last year. Suddenly, Williams burst forward, as if he had just had an Epiphany.
I love the grass, Williams said this month at the French Open, although he also admitted he hadn’t even practiced on the surface since he lost to Simona Halep in the 2019 final. I love it most only for its purity. I just think it’s so stylish and so fresh. That’s a good word: sharp.
Fresh can be the perfect word to describe Wimbledon’s aura. Those colorful fields of green grass have been treated flawlessly. It is the only professional tournament that still requires its participants to wear logoless, all-white clothing. Amenities, including the Royal Box with signed purple-green duvets, exude décor.
And not only Williams understands the importance of the only major played on the grass.
Wimbledon is something magical, said Elina Svitolina, a semi-finalist in 2019. We know the rules are pretty strict, and it’s going to be even stricter this year. But you’re just white and you’re in such a nice, historic location, so the whole atmosphere makes stepping on the field an experience.
Now Wimbledon, which starts on Monday, is back, even though it looks and feels quite different this year. The attendance of the Center and No. 1 courts is limited to 50 percent, while smaller exhibition courts can sit at 75 percent of capacity. In the semifinals and finals, seating is expected to rise to 100 per cent in central court.
Strict regulations also apply to vaccinations and testing protocols. All ticket holders must present proof of Covid status on arrival, either in the form of two doses of vaccination or proof of a negative Covid test within the last 48 hours. When moving around the plot, all participants must wear face shields, although they are free to remove them from their seats. Players have their own rules that allow them to be exempt from public quarantine requirements while keeping themselves and the public safe.
This is going to be like Wimbledon, which we have never known before, said British Dan Evans on singles. It’s a great place to play tennis, of course, but the main feeling is that it’s very different from what we know.
As tickets are distributed via mobile devices this year, some traditions have disappeared. No one is allowed to camp for spare tickets, for example. Because players have to stay at a designated hotel in London, the sighting of celebrities outside their rental apartments at Wimbledon Village has disappeared. And for environmental reasons, plastic cups decorated with strawberry pictures of traditional Wimbledon dessert strawberries and cream have been replaced with durable cardboard packaging.
As with other major championships this year, prize money has been redistributed, with more going to the early round losers. This year, the men’s and women’s singles champions will receive 1.7 million (about $ 2 million), up from 2.35 million in 2019, but those who crashed in the first round will receive 48,000, far more than two years ago.
Other changes include players on all fields, not just prime ministers, who have the right to challenge bus calls and check them on a Hawk-Eye Live device that uses 10 cameras around the field (even though the buses have not been cut) as other tournaments have have done). And a service clock has also been introduced in all courts.
The sowings are in line with the WTA and Association of Tennis Professionals ratings, meaning champions Roger Federer and Williams, both now in 8th place, could meet top performers Novak Djokovic and Ashleigh Barty in the quarterfinals. In the past, Wimbledon has often switched to previous champions when doing sowing.
Merely adapting to playing on the grass with its hard-to-grip surface and uneven bounces is a challenge for players, many of whom have not competed on the surface in two years: When Wimbledon was canceled last year, there were a few warm-up events on the grass field as well. This year, as French open events were postponed for a week to remove new Covid-19 restrictions in France, players have had even less time to move on.
No one practiced on the lawn because there was no reason for it, said second-seeded Daniil Medvedev. It’s not going to be easy this year.
For most players, nothing is certain this year. Barty still participates in the tournament by treating a hip injury that retired him during his second match at the French Open. Halep, the defending champion, did not play that tournament due to a calf injury. He withdrew from Wimbledon on Friday. Dominic Thiem, the reigning United States Open champion, also withdrew from a wrist made earlier this week.
Naomi Osaka, another player in the world, also withdrew from the tournament, citing the need for more time away. He also withdrew from the French Open, citing mental health problems. And Williams, who is still shy shy of the Margaret Courts record for the 24 major singles championships, has played a rare schedule this year. He reached the Australian Open semifinals in February and eventually lost to champion Osaka.
French Open winner Barbora Krejcikova has never played the main feature at Wimbledon, but is ranked No. 15.
When Rafael Nadal announced his retirement from Wimbledon and the Olympics after Djokovic had lost the semi-finals in the French Open, Wimbledon’s most fascinating story lines suddenly became Federer and Djokovic.
Federer, an eight-time Wimbledon champion, has played only eight matches in the last two years and two weeks ago lost unexpectedly to Felix Auger-Aliasssim in a grass field warm-up in Halle, Germany.
Then there’s Djokovic, who with this year’s wins in Australia and France opening for the mid-Grand Slam. If he wins a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics, he will perform a Golden Slam made only by Steffi Graf in 1988.
Anything is possible, Djokovic said after winning Alexander Zverev to win the second French Open. I put myself in a good position to go to the Golden Slam.
Wimbledon is already thinking ahead. In 2022, the All England Club, which will host the tournament, will add a game in the middle of Sunday, which has traditionally been set aside for rest and rejuvenation fields and players. The All England Club also recently announced plans to expand into a neighboring parkland and set up an 8,000-seat showground, which the club expects to be completed by 2030.
But this year, people who appreciate the tournament will ease its back.
Wimbledon is such an anchor for all of us, said Jim Courier, a former world number 1 and current Tennis Channel commentator. I think it’s refreshing for the whole sport. It will be a relief that Wimbledon is back and will be visible again.
Wimbledon, Courier added, is a perfect blend of old and new. They have got it right in many ways. We missed it.
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