STARNBERG, June 25, 2019 (Sponsored)
It’s that time of year again, the glorious British Summertime (i.e. It’s raining) so it must be time for Tennis. As Wimbledon started in earnest this week, there have been a few significant changes to the event this year, and freetips.com is here to run you through them.
Firstly, one of the most significant changes, and it will undoubtedly help with the current state of the weather, is that Court One now has a roof over it. Much like Centre Court, Court One has a state of the art retractable roof. This means that when the weather is doing what British weather does best, much like now, matches can continue on both centre court and court one. Play can also continue right through until 11 pm thanks to floodlights, so even if it is raining cats and dogs out there, it won’t interfere. Which is great news as several times the finals have had to be moved on until later dates and this has a serious effect on the views and fans watching it.
They have also introduced a new tie break rule, which is great as it will see the end to marathon matches like the one between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut back in 2010. This match ended up going to a 70-68 game tiebreaker and became the longest match in tennis history. Now there is a new rule, if the score gets to 12-12, then a tie-break will be played, and the first player to seven points will win the match. Though the rule about winning by two clear points still stands, so there is still the possibility of things being extended somewhat.
Fans will also get more Tennis in a given day, as they have moved the start time for all matches outside Centre Court and court one to start thirty minutes earlier at 11 am instead of 11:30 am. The feature courts, (Court one and Centre Court) will still kick-off at 1 PM so that is good, especially as they can play until later.
There will also be the addition of some wheelchair tennis. Last year featured an exhibition tournament of quad wheelchair tennis, and this was well received and liked by fans and players alike. This year there will be a competitive quad singles and quad double tournament alongside the regular men’s and women’s wheelchair singles and doubles tournaments that are held at the event. Which is great to see this side of the sport being advanced at such a major competition.
Lastly, Wimbledon will be aiming to improve it’s green credentials. With the addition of 100% recyclable materials being used in all plastic water bottles, and the bottles themselves are also fully recyclable. They will also be removing some 4,500 plastic bags that are used in the racquet stringing process, so this will also keep things much more sustainable going forward.
At least all of these changes should have a positive effect on the tournament going forward, and the new roof seems to have hit at just the right time.
