Do you believe you’re a true Wimbledon fan? Then you must know all of these facts…
- Wimbledon runs for two weeks and brings in over 500, 000 spectators.
- The grass is looked after all year round and measures a height of exactly 8mm.
- Wimbledon is the oldest tennis match in the world and began in 1877.
- One of the rules is that players must wear all white.
- Federer was once told to change his shoes because they were orange.
- 54, 250 tennis balls are used during the event.
- The longest match ever was 11 hours and 5 minutes long. We’re feeling tired just thinking about it, so much so that we need a coffee break to play the most exciting fruit machinesat this website.
- The fastest serve belongs to American tennis player Taylor Dent who hit the ball at 238 kph.
- Some tennis players like to make a grunting noise when they hit the ball and the winner of the loudest grunt goes to Maria Sharapova which measured 105 decibels.
- The event is named after its location, a district in South West London.
- The tournament was first televised on the BBC on the 21st June 1937.
- Sponsored advertising isn’t permitted at Wimbledon.
- The centre court now has a retractable roof too avoid any disruption from the rain which has happened on many occasions.
- Up until 2013, it was a tradition to bow to the royal box. If the Queen or the Prince of Wales is present however, the old rules still apply.
- Ball boys and girls are chosen from nominations by head teachers from local London schools. They have to pass both a written and fitness test.
- The first ball girl appeared in 1985.
- Yellow balls were used for the first time in 1986.
- In 2017, Wimbledon was streamed over 24.1 million times.
- The most popular match was Rafael Nadal’s and Gilles Muller’s game which was streamed over 1.4 million times.
- Approximately 330,000 cups of tea and coffee are drank at the event.
- Around 320,000 glasses of Pimm’s are enjoyed.
- 166,000 servings of English strawberries are devoured over the full course of the tournament.
- The tennis balls get replaced every seven to nine games to make sure they are pristine.
- The reason the balls changed from white to yellow is so that they were easier to spot on the TV.
- To stop the pigeons getting in the way of the match, a special hawk is employed to combat the problem.
- The fastest serve ever in the Ladies’ tennis was hit by Venus Williams who hit the ball at a speed of 129 mph.
- Over 500, 000 plants are planted every year.
- There’s 674 matches over the course of a fortnight.
- Over 3, 200 people from the media (press, broadcast personnel and photographers) from around the globe attend every time.
- It costs £5 to get in all of which goes to charity.
