Wimbledon, the greatest tennis tournament in the world. Says who? Says the BBC, the British Broadcasting Corporation.
Wimbledon the greatest, because it’s Wimbledon by name. The other three grand slams go by country: French Open, U.S. Open, Australian Open.
Wimbledon, the greatest, because it’s the original, the oldest, it’s 100 years old and 2022, there was a celebration of that and past champions who turned up were called in ascending order of how many Wimbledons they’ve won. Pride of Place went to Roger Federer, 8-time winner but 6-time winner Billie Jean King wasted little time in reminding all that the winniest Wimbledon is not the immaculately gentlemanly Roger, but Martina Navrilova who had won the Ladies Singles title 9 times. Roger was put in his place. Sounds like Billie Jean had an agenda. Roger of course responded gentlemanly.
Wimbledon, the greatest, because it’s not the women’s and men’s singles; it’s the Ladies and Gentlemen’s— though there was very little gentlemanliness in the match between Tsitsipas and Kyrgios. What they didn’t do! They spat, cursed, roared at the umpire, smashed balls into the crowd and at each other. Kyrgios, the self-styled people’s champion, won, but in the next match, he committed the gravest sin: He wore red, red cap, red shoes—bit of a devil really.
Wimbledon, the greatest, because of its dress code. ‘With all the players wearing white and fans so smartly dressed, Wimbledon reminds me of a wedding. I love the history and the traditions, like the all-white kit and everybody eating strawberries, it is just an amazing occasion,’ says Ons Jabeur from Tunisia, who almost won the thing—the Ladies.
Wimbledon, the greatest, because it’s grass and grass is class even though the main surfaces for tennis these days are hardcore and clay—the grass season lasting a mere month; all grass events being warm-ups for Wimbledon. 4 weeks, or 4 hours in the case of Iga Swiatek who came as Wonder Woman, winner of the past 6 tournaments, 37 matches unbeaten and who played pathetically, eventually being thrashed by a grossly inferior player in the rankings. Iga was graceful in her interviews at the press conferences but perhaps not honest. It’d be juicier if Iga said. ‘Well, grass sucks for tennis; it’s too unpredictable, the ball skids, the players skid, there’s no balance, no time to set, bit of a lottery really. But my sponsors bade me come and paid my way; that’s the only reason I’m here. I’d have preferred spending the week at home with my cat.’
Wimbledon, the greatest because it’s the royalist. Let’s face it, no one does royalty better than the English, though Sue Barker, in her last hurrah, pointed out the obvious: many empty seats in the royal box of Centre Court. It’s those royalists, Sue, gone for a bite so they missed Simona Halep—Simona winning before the strawberries were digested..
Wimbledon, the greatest, because they’ve banned the Russians. As Britain is a monarchy, the Duchess and Duke present the trophies and were a Russian to win it’d be propaganda for Putin and his war, even though players don’t represent countries and indeed, Ladies’ winner Elena Rybakina was born in Moscow, but now declares for Kazakhstan for reasons of opportunity—there’s a bright gal for you.
Wimbledon, the greatest, because of its Centre Court. Novak Djokovic waxes lyrically as he relates that as a small boy amid the rubble in Serbia, he saw Pete Sampras win at Centre Court and longed to do that, giving the Centre Court a majesty of expression no one else does. Novak won and he matched Pete on 7 Wimbledons, a remarkable feat given his career overlapped with Roger’s.
Wimbledon, the greatest because… it’s Wimbledon.
