Concrete Elbow by Steve Tignor - W: The Places to Be
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W: The Places to Be 06/24/2008 - 7:51 AM

Court_2I’ve been hearing some bad news already regarding Wimbledon TV coverage back in the States. Taped Serena, commercials at 5-5 in a breaker, too much of Ana, the Game’s New Star.

Would it make it worse if I spent a few minutes talking about what it’s like to watch tennis inside the All England Club, without help or hindrance from ESPN? I hope not, because after walking through the grounds for the first time in three years yesterday, I kept finding myself in obscure locations that suddenly seemed, at the moment, to be the best place in the world to watch tennis. Maybe that’s to be expected when you’re in the game’s original home. After all, this is the place where the dimensions of the court were decided on back in the 1870s, and they haven’t changed since.

I’ll start at the core and work outward.

Centre Court
I don’t know what it’s like to sit in the far reaches of this compact yet grand arena, but I doubt it’s too horrible. If you’re a regular visitor to American sporting palaces, including Arthur Ashe Stadium, you notice immediately that there are no bad seats inside Centre Court, just some that aren’t quite as close to the players as others.

This only makes the playing surface itself seem that much larger, wider, longer, more spacious. In Ashe, the stadium dwarfs the court; here, the court dwarfs the rest of the stadium.
The press “tribune” here is the center of the Centre. Reporters sit at long brown benches and scribble on old-fashioned mini-desks that run along entire rows. The section is in the corner of the court on the other side from the Royal Box. Sitting in the first few rows, you feel as if you’re jutting out into the court; it’s like a balcony just a few feet above the stage. Still, the section is covered by the roof’s overhang, which frames the sky in a wide oval.

It’s a cliché, but you feel the history, the ghosts, when you watch here. Even the particular sound of the ball is familiar from television. The thump at contact echoes from the rafters and back walls, which are enclosed by the roof. This gives the ball a sort of hollow sound. Here, the eras of Budge, King, Laver and Borg don’t seem so distant, because the court where they played their most famous matches is still standing, its atmosphere still intact. When Roger Federer strolled out in his cardigan—I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I miss the jacket—at exactly 1:00 on Monday to officially open the tournament, you could place him in a long line of Wimbledon champions who have done the same over the decades. His casual lordliness fit the scene perfectly. That’s what tennis champions are supposed to be.

This isn’t to say that time doesn’t pass and change doesn’t happen inside Centre Court. Next year, of course, the ultimate sign of the big-money sporting era, the retractable roof, will be introduced. This year the court’s old scoreboard was quietly replaced by a large video-style display; it’s perilously close to a Jumbotron. My first reaction, naturally, was disgust—it seemed way too obtrusive and, well, untraditional. But by Monday’s end, I was used to it. That’s Wimbledon’s secret, I guess: If it isn’t change we can believe in, it’s at least change we can get used to.

The Crow’s Nest
Or can we get used to it? The Crow’s Nest is another Wimbledon classic, a little spot at the top of the bleachers between Court 2, the soon-to-be-abandoned Graveyard of Champions, and Court 3. Lucky press and TV personalities can climb up even farther and stand on top of the scoreboard—still changed by hand—that serves both courts. From this vantage, you can see the Graveyard, and at the same time look out on the old rectangular garden that contains the other side courts.

Along with Court 2, the Crow’s Nest is going out of service after 2008. No matter how much we may like the new Court 2 amphitheatre in the future, we can still mourn the Crow’s Nest. Court 2 has been feared and hated by top seeds—Agassi, Sampras, McEnroe, and Serena have all suffered shocking upsets there—but it’s a favorite among fans. You can see stars from a few feet away; today Davydenko, Davenport, and Blake will be there.

The bleachers on Court 2 are low and open enough that, if you stay there long enough, you’ll see an entire day—its sky, its sun—develop from bright morning to encroaching late-evening darkness. The court sits just inside the boundary of the club, and from one side of the stands you not only see tennis, you also get to watch the sun make its long, slow progression through the afternoon (it’s doesn’t get dark until 10 or so these days in London). All day, red double-decker buses glide back and forth on the road beyond the stands, and the trees on the suburban hill behind the club blow back and forth in the sea breeze.

On Monday night, just before 9 P.M., I took a break from writing and went to see some of Mauresmo vs. Harkleroad on the Graveyard. Their white dresses, and Mauresmo’s slice backhand, made the scene look like it could have been tennis circa 1930, which was beautiful to see. Even more than that, the darkness that was slowly engulfing them—there are no lights at Wimbledon—reminded me of playing on summer evenings as a kid and trying to get as much tennis in before it got too dark. We'd keep at it until the only thing you could see was the yellow ball itself. As it went past you.

I don’t know of any other professional-grade court that can evoke so many of the elements and emotions of tennis. We’ll miss the Graveyard.

Court 3
On the other side of Court 2 and the Crow’s Nest, just a few feet away, the atmosphere is decidedly different. Court 3 and its environs are bustling, fluid, urban. Wimbledon has neighborhoods. Here, another set of bleachers sits behind a wide walkway that leads into the most venerable section of the grounds, the garden of side-courts that has remained relatively unchanged over the decades.

During close matches, this area becomes completely clogged, as it did Monday for Anna Chakvetadze’s third-set tiebreaker. At other times, it serves as a crossroads for wandering fans; they come to the top step, hang out, see who’s playing, and decide whether to plunge ahead and into the garden. The press seats are located right in the corner, near these steps. From noon until 9:00, there’s a sense of action here.

Court 8
There’s no night session at Wimbledon, but the days last long enough that the sun splits the day into two sessions—bright early-afternoon light and golden late-afternoon light. I walked to the center of the side-court area yesterday around 6:00 P.M. There the sun had turned the grass on Court 8 the color of a tennis ball: green-gold. It almost looked better with no players on it. I stood at the far corner of the court and wrote in my notebook: “Who cares where the ball goes on a court like this?” A few minutes later, I was writing again when a tennis ball hit me on the leg. I’d been clocked by a Victor Hanescu serve. I was shocked that it didn’t hurt at all. But I guess it does matter where the ball goes, even on a court like this one.

MsCourt 11
Walking farther back through the side courts, you pass dozens of journeyman and women, all in white, doing their best, looking less-than-Federeresque. At one point I looked back at Centre Court and Court 1, the major show arenas, looming in the distance. Wimbledon, more than the other majors, seems to be too tournaments. There’s the professional-era tournament, which features big stars closed off in stadiums and playing for the world on TV (hence the enhancements to those courts). Then there’s the amateur-era tournament, which consists of the rank-and-file pros scrambling on tiny courts a few feet from each other in the same white clothes they’ve always worn. It still looks like a game out here.

At the back of the garden this year is Court 11. The bleachers are enclosed by a tent. In the past, this has been a dozey place. I’ve seen a whole row of fans fast asleep here during a match on a hot day. This was not the case on Monday, as Marat Safin played his first-rounder on Court 11. Half the people on the grounds, and all the women under 40, descended on these medium-size stands. I heard more than one group of girls trying to find "the court that Safin's playing on!" There was a rock-concert atmosphere during the match, and Safin didn’t disappoint, making the third-set against journeyman Fabio Fognini more dramatic than it needed to be.

Safin won in the end and seemed happy. But the smile didn’t last long. To get off the court, he had to run a gauntlet of autograph hounds and well-wishers and little girls and people who just wanted to be in his vicinity. You could see the irritation build, until Safin finally escaped with the beginnings of a scowl. The whole Safin Event, from match to mob to aftermath, had been fun to watch. Like a lot of places around here, it felt like the center of the tennis universe.

***

OK, it's 1:00 here, the sun is still out, and I'm off to watch some tennis: Fish-Gasquet, perhaps? Definitely Murray-Santoro later. This morning I got my first laugh at the British press. It came, of course, from the Sun, which featured this headline about Britain's Alex Bogdanovich, a student of Brad Gilbert, who lost his 7th straight match at Wimbledon yesterday: IT'S GONE FROM BRAD TO WORSE: BOG DOWN THE PAN.

More later.
 
35
Comments 		 

Posted by skip1515 06/24/2008 at 08:20 AM

Jeez, this was just lovely.
Posted by Master Ace 06/24/2008 at 08:28 AM

Steve,
Missed ESPN2 coverage thanks to my day job so your first sentence is not a surprise. Watched Wimbledon live yesterday on Tennis Channel and IMO, it lacked something. Showed some of Roger-Dominik, Kaia-Serena, Juan Carlos-Sam, and Frank-David N along with interviews with Roger, Serena, Jonas, and Marcos. Reviewed brackets and showed a few highlights of other matches(Hewitt-Haase and Baghdatis-Darcis) with Martina Navratilova and Justin Gimelstob giving their opinions.

Glad you survived Court 8. Have fun:)
Posted by Master Ace 06/24/2008 at 08:30 AM

Steve,
Forgot to say good report overall again as you went places that we won't see at all on ESPN2, NBC, or Tennis Channel.
Posted by ava 06/24/2008 at 08:32 AM

wow, this is nice.

I wish I were in Wimbledon.
Posted by miluda 06/24/2008 at 09:11 AM

Steve, you make Wimbledon sound like something from a dream.

Posted by 06/24/2008 at 09:17 AM

Steve,
You never disappoint.
If only I were there too.
Posted by Red 06/24/2008 at 09:21 AM

Steve,
You never disappoint.
If only I were there too.
Posted by adicecream 06/24/2008 at 09:46 AM

Lovely.
Posted by Sher 06/24/2008 at 09:55 AM

Steve, I turned on ESPN yesterday to see it split into four little screens. Top-left showed three of the commentators in the studio, top-right showed two court-side, bottom-right showed another two godknowswhere, and bottom-left another two commentators somewhere, possibly new york. They all had microphones, and would speak up in turn about the state of the game. I counted nine talking heads. At the same time! Meanwhile Roger Federer was playing on center court...... ......

Posted by one_love 06/24/2008 at 10:01 AM

Lovely report! Thanks!
Posted by Caroline 06/24/2008 at 10:02 AM

I was fortunate to be sitting on the Centre Court yesterday - even by Wimbledon standards it was a day of days. It's a long time since I've been on the opening day and the only thing I would add to Steve's wonderful description is there is nothing anywhere like the perfect velvet green of the grass before the players step on to it for the first time.

Posted by Brandon 06/24/2008 at 10:31 AM

Man I have GOT to get to ENGLAND! You are such a tease...

- Brandon
http://www.thefreshcan.com
Daily Tennis Deal with a Splash of personality
Posted by Rolo Tomassi 06/24/2008 at 10:42 AM

Steve - ESPN keeps showing this package about last year's final between Fed and Rafa, but they only show about three actual SHOTS (shots, not points) - the rest of the thing is a lot of blaring music, quick cuts of Nadal and Fed running, or looking up at the sky, or at the ground, and Dick Enberg voicing over stuff like "Fed takes the first set!" "Rafa takes the second set!" - kind of like the time travel sequence in a bad sci-fi movie. It's the worst possible celebration of one of the all-time classic matches.
Posted by Andy C 06/24/2008 at 11:26 AM

Great stuff. Peter Bodo has suggested turning Wimbledon into a midseason All Star game-type celebration of the sport. This evocative post makes it sound like Wimbledon has already become such a celebration--a combination all star game/old timers' day. I hope to get there some day.
Posted by PaulC 06/24/2008 at 12:05 PM

Great post. I was on the golf course last Friday night. A thunderstorm had passed. And the sky was breaking up into large patches of blue. The sun was getting low in the sky and the rolling fairway, and trees were bathed in golden green. It was just stunning.

Posted by Asad Raza 06/24/2008 at 12:38 PM

Jealousy-inducing stuff, Steve. Having sat in the nosebleeds on Centre Court for the 2001 People's Monday final, I can report to you that the views are comparable, if not better than the Loge level of Arthur Ashe. Centre Court is on a much more sensible (i.e. human) scale for tennis-watching.
Posted by richie 06/24/2008 at 01:06 PM

Steve - The USTA and the U S OPEN should read this blog - although it is too late for them to remedy their overdone Arthur Ashe Stadium. One of the more intriguing matches today is the Murray - Santoro match. But it sounds as if ESPN is not going to be showing much of that. It has to show the fast dwindling Americans and I guess that is to be expected.

Posted by Staz 06/24/2008 at 01:34 PM

Great post. 'IT'S GONE FROM BRAD TO WORSE: BOG DOWN THE PAN.' lol. I hope Bogdanovic and Brad don't read the papers!
Posted by Christin 06/24/2008 at 02:31 PM

It's really a shame that they aren't going to keep the old Court #2. What are they going to put there? You'd think ther would be enough spectators to continue filling it as the 4th "stadium" (semi-stadium?) court.

And why did they take out the croquet lawn on the south end? That was a lovely spot. And so evocative of the history of the All England Lawn Tennis (and Croquet) Club.
Posted by Rob 06/24/2008 at 04:16 PM

Hey guys! Im quite new to tennis, and I was wondering why they call Wimbledon 'SW19'. Also, what does 'SW19' mean?
Posted by Kitty Mac 06/24/2008 at 05:19 PM

SW19 is the post code of Wimbledon (district) in London - South West 19.
Posted by 70's tennis fan 06/24/2008 at 05:28 PM

SW19 is what, in the USA, you call a zip code.

It stands for South West London, 19th suburb (or area)out from the centre of London.
Posted by Rob 06/24/2008 at 05:32 PM

Thanks guys!
Posted by Elevennis Anytwo? 06/24/2008 at 05:41 PM

Great writing, Mr. Tignor. Just selected details and a unique experience simply stated. It makes me wish that ESPN would take us on a walking tour of the grounds and inside the stadia with a handheld, to get the fans' and the players' perspectives.

It's still amazing that it's at the slams that people can get the closest to their favorites at the intimate outside courts. Something only in tennis?
Posted by Adrian 06/24/2008 at 09:34 PM

Absolutely beautiful, Steve. Thanks for making us a part of Wimbledon, a little bit of what you are experiencing.

I've gone to London twice in the summer, specifically to go to Wimbledon. It's just great that it's the only grand slam for which you can queue outside on the day of the matches for tickets to Centre Court, etc. Unfortunately, I was never there early enough to get tickets for CC... The most painful experience was the second time: I tried to rush my friend that morning to get ready... he is not a tennis fan at all... so we were planning to get to the Wimby queue at 5am but instead we got there at 6am. Then somebody counted the number of people in the queue and said "up to HERE, you guys get Center Court tickets"... HERE being just TWO spots ahead of us! lol.

And the US Open? I go there every year... and no matter how many computers I use to get tickets at 9am the day the tickets go on sale... no matter that I'm an American Express card member and I get pre-sale tickets... I always get tickets for the nosebleeds in Arthur Ashe.

Although I once went to Halle and saw Federer - Berdych like 2 meters away from my seat... so that was sweet.

Just wanted to share my story! hehe...
Posted by Ren 06/24/2008 at 10:06 PM

Steve: That piece was literary.

Does Safin get irked by fans? I though he's a very nice person.
Posted by abbey 06/24/2008 at 10:59 PM

steve, that's why i was so excited when you said you'd be reporting live from wimbledon. it's these kinds of pieces, along with your tennis analysis of course, that i look forward to. great stuff.

Posted by roGER 06/25/2008 at 06:33 AM

Steve,

Thanks for a nice article and for reminding me how lucky I am to be able to attend pretty much every year.

There really is nothing like it.
Posted by Chris M 06/25/2008 at 08:15 AM

roger,

you are indeed lucky. My memories of being at Wimbledon in 02 are some of the best of my life. Can't wait to go back!
Posted by mridul 06/26/2008 at 06:35 AM

Piyush Sharma from Canada wrote the other day that Federer won five successive Wimbledon titles because during those years there were only mediocre players. It is a blatant disregard for all the tennis professionals. Furthermore like a child that has seen,for the first time, an upcoming tennis player make some fantastic shots and made judgement of history of tennis on that basis alone looks to me a great ignorance. After the early exit of Novak Djokovic he must have realized that continuing as number one player for about four and half years, reaching 10 consecutive grand slam finals and 16 consecutive grand slam semifinals is not a joke.

Posted by mridul 06/26/2008 at 11:08 AM

Piyush Sharma from Canada wrote the other day that Federer won five successive Wimbledon titles because during those years there were only mediocre players. It is a blatant disregard for all the tennis professionals. Furthermore like a child that has seen,for the first time, an upcoming tennis player make some fantastic shots and made judgement of history of tennis on that basis alone looks to me a great ignorance. After the early exit of Novak Djokovic he must have realized that continuing as number one player for about four and half years, reaching 10 consecutive grand slam finals and 16 consecutive grand slam semifinals is not a joke.
Posted by mridul 06/26/2008 at 11:08 AM

Piyush Sharma from Canada wrote the other day that Federer won five successive Wimbledon titles because during those years there were only mediocre players. It is a blatant disregard for all the tennis professionals. Furthermore like a child that has seen,for the first time, an upcoming tennis player make some fantastic shots and made judgement of history of tennis on that basis alone looks to me a great ignorance. After the early exit of Novak Djokovic he must have realized that continuing as number one player for about four and half years, reaching 10 consecutive grand slam finals and 16 consecutive grand slam semifinals is not a joke.
Posted by mridul 06/26/2008 at 11:09 AM

Piyush Sharma from Canada wrote the other day that Federer won five successive Wimbledon titles because during those years there were only mediocre players. It is a blatant disregard for all the tennis professionals. Furthermore like a child that has seen,for the first time, an upcoming tennis player make some fantastic shots and made judgement of history of tennis on that basis alone looks to me a great ignorance. After the early exit of Novak Djokovic he must have realized that continuing as number one player for about four and half years, reaching 10 consecutive grand slam finals and 16 consecutive grand slam semifinals is not a joke.
Posted by mridul 06/26/2008 at 11:10 AM

Piyush Sharma from Canada wrote the other day that Federer won five successive Wimbledon titles because during those years there were only mediocre players. It is a blatant disregard for all the tennis professionals. Furthermore like a child that has seen,for the first time, an upcoming tennis player make some fantastic shots and made judgement of history of tennis on that basis alone looks to me a great ignorance. After the early exit of Novak Djokovic he must have realized that continuing as number one player for about four and half years, reaching 10 consecutive grand slam finals and 16 consecutive grand slam semifinals is not a joke.
Posted by Dave Sharpe 06/27/2008 at 08:53 AM

Great article. It's a great shame that the current number 2 Court is going to be torn down. That's my favourite.

Over here in England, the television coverage of Wimbledon is excellent. As well as one of the main channels (BBC2) providing dedicated coverage 9-10 hours each day, the BBC also provide coverage on their digital (cable) channels where you can choose which court you want to watch. I always feel a bit more "hardcore" watching the outisde courts.

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