E-Paper
All white kits to preferring the slice: Things you will only find at Wimbledon
There are few things that scream Wimbledon than the all-white clothing and grass. Read on to figure further stuff that you will only see at The Championships now.
There are few things that scream Wimbledon than the all-white clothing and grass. Read on to figure further stuff that you will only see at The Championships now.
Gone white
There is just one tournament that has a fierce dress code in these days of loud tennis clothing. You may put it down to prissy nonsense or you may ascribe an old world charm to it, but if you want to play at Wimbledon you have to follow their dress code.
While 1963 saw the introduction of ‘predominantly in white’ rule, this was changed to ‘almost entirely in white’ in 1995. The All England Club has a set of guidelines and players can submit their attire for approval early to figure if they meet the rules!
Here are the seven white commandments: No solid mass of colouring, Little or no dark or bold colours, No fluorescent colours, Preference towards pastel colours, Preference for back of shirt to be totally white, Preference for shorts and skirts to be totally white and All other items of clothing including hats, socks and shoes to be almost entirely white.
That grass thing
There are all of seven events on the Tour that are played on the green stuff that Ivan Lendl felt was best suited to cows. One is of course not sure if their earlier ‘mooey’ ancestors preferred the 30% of ‘Creeping Red Fescue’ that was part of the mix till 2001 before the grass went to all ‘Perennial Ryegrass’. Those fancy names are just two varieties of grass.
Till 2001, the Club had a mixture of both till the perennial grass was chosen on account of its durability. While the courts may look better now, aficionados insist that this grass grows straight and as such doesn’t retain as much moisture as the Red Fescue allowed. That, in turn, has led to the courts becoming slower as the flattened grass blade made for more sliding of the ball and consequent speed.
The Wimbledon guys however feel that the bounce is more a fallout of just how hard the ground is and the grass doesn’t impact. So, if it’s been raining, the courts will play low while adequate hot summer days ensure a truer higher bounce. With British precision all blades are disciplined to 8 mm height.
Everybody has pimples
Grass demands special type of shoes. You and I can run and play on grass with any type of sole on our shoes but then we don’t play Wimbledon and our footwear doesn’t have to provide the crucial extra bit of traction that makes all the difference between slipping and recovering.
All the top players will be wearing shoes with pimples on the soles – the size of the pimple too can’t exceed rules! – which are uniquely made for grass court tennis. Not everybody who gets to Wimbledon realises this. In fact first timers are liable to be hunting for the special shoes which are seldom available off the shelf.
In fact one is reminded of an India-Uzbekistan tie in Jaipur that had Leander Paes chortling in glee even before the first ball was struck as the Uzbeks didn’t have grass court shoes while the Indians did!
Slice is nice
The underspin backhand shot – also called slice – is fast disappearing as stroke of choice on the Tour. The sliced ball sits up on clay as the loose surface grabs it. Even hardcourts are more partial to the away-bounding topspin instead of slice.
That means that the slice is kept tucked away to be used to change the pace of the game and surprise the opponent or it has gone extinct from the arsenal of many a player. But it’s on grass that the slice shot comes into its own as the surface allows the ball to stay low and skid away. That makes the slice one of the best approach shot on the surface. Look out for this almost-extinct stroke pop up more often during Wimbledon.
