Game, Set, Grass: How the courts of Wimbledon are prepared

Game, Set, Match!

Starting today, (June 30), this phrase will be heard loud and clear at the All England Lawn Tennis Ground, as the main draws of Wimbledon begin with players from across the world vying for the prestigious title.

But while many will have their eyes glued to players like Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Aryna Sabalenka, there is a team of 24 headed by Neil Stubley, who will have their heads tucked down, paying the minutest of attention to every blade of grass on the courts at Wimbledon , ensuring it is playable and the perfect battleground for some of the most epic matches in tennis lore.

You see, maintaining the grass at the world’s oldest tournament is no easy feat, as it takes a real beating — tennis players stomp on the courts, slide on them, and sometimes even salinise them with tears, at times of joy, many times of frustration.

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So, what does it take to maintain the most famous lawns in the world? How difficult is the task? And how does Stubley and his team rise to the challenge every year?

Green beginnings

The work on the courts of Wimbledon — there are 18 Championship courts and another 20 practice courts — starts one week after the previous year’s tournament ends. As Stubley, who is in charge of the courts, was once quoted as saying, “The championship, it’s the year-round culmination of all the work we do.”

The first step in grass maintenance is giving it a skimming, of roughly 12 millimetres (mm). “This removes all weak and weed grasses from the sward and it re-establishes the levels where play has worn the surface,” Will Brierley, Wimbledon senior groundsman, explains.

The next step in the prep is tilling a seedbed to lay new grass seed and fertiliser. A whopping nine tonnes of grass seed is required for the courts at Wimbledon. But it’s not just any grass that is grown at the All England Lawn Tennis Ground.

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Stubley and his team lay down 100 per cent Perennial Ryegrass with short, fine, dense blades and a firm root bed. However, this choice only came about in 2001 when independent expert research from The Sports Turf Research Institute in Yorkshire, UK, proved that changing the grass seed mix to 100 per cent Perennial Ryegrass would be the best way forward to combat wear and enhance court presentation and performance without affecting the perceived speed of the court.

Earlier, grass at Wimbledon was a mix of many indigenous species, which resulted in wildflowers popping up on the courts.

A spring in the step

As spring rolls over, work for Stubley and his team increases. They push forward with their court preparation for the Championships. In April, a spraying programme is initiated for growth, durability, colour, and root development.

And as the date of Wimbledon creeps closer day by day, so does the trimming of the grass blade. The height of the blades of grass is reduced by about one millimetre every two weeks, coming down to the eight mm that is the height required to play since 1995.

Moreover, the groundsmen at Wimbledon also check the fitness of the grass. That’s because if the nitrogen in the grass gets too high, it becomes too lush and slippery.

As the tournament date approaches, the level of nitrogen is reduced, but the grass is kept green by increasing the iron content. Chlorophyll levels are also measured — if they fall, it means the grass is ‘stressed out’ and won’t recover well.

And how do the groundsmen achieve those beautiful green stripes on the courts that mesmerise us each year? By mowing in the same direction, month after month, so the roller folds the blades forward one way — and then the other on the next stripe. However, what’s amazing is that they don’t use a ruler; skill and practice are what it takes.

The countdown to the Championship

Ahead of the Championships, around early May, the white line markings are made on the courts. It’s important to note that paint isn’t used to draw the lines on the courts. A transfer wheel marker is used to apply a white compound (500 gallons used yearly) containing titanium dioxide to make it durable.

All the lines are 50 mm wide, except the baselines, which are 100 mm.

And when it comes down to the last six weeks before the tournament, members of the All England Club are called on to play on the courts to simulate tournament conditions, allowing Stubley and his team to make final adjustments based on real-world feedback. This ensures that the courts are in peak condition when the world’s best players arrive.

In the last 10 days before the tournament, the ground’s hardness is also measured daily with a Clegg soil impact hammer. If it’s not hard enough, the watering will be reduced. If it’s too hard, then more water is needed.

It’s Game Time

Once the tournament begins, Stubley and his team mow the courts and draw the lines every day. The groundsmen appear at 7.30 am each day of the tournament to prepare the courts for the day’s play.

And at the end of each day’s play, the courts are vacuumed to collect the debris that may have collected. Then, water sprinklers are briefly turned on. The exact amount for each court is determined by measuring its hardness and keeping in mind the weather. And then the covers are pulled over.

One groundsman explains that the redrawing of the lines is important because the Hawk-Eye replay system is precise enough that even an extra speck of paint where it shouldn’t be could affect readings.

But why is all this necessary? Stubley, in a previous ABC report, put the ground maintenance in perspective. “I would say getting the grass surfaces right at Wimbledon is like when a chef creates a new dish. You can have a dish that’s got the perfect ingredients, but if you don’t present it right, does it really matter? Or you can have ingredients that are not very good and you can present them well and make it look nice. What we try to do is marry the two. We use the best ingredients to produce the most beautiful aesthetic surface that we can.”

Moreover, the grass dictates how the ball will move, affecting overall gameplay. Slick grass allows the ball to slide and skid as it makes contact, giving a lower bounce and retaining more speed. What this means is that it is essentially the fastest tennis-playing surface, not allowing players enough time to react.

“Grass is extremely tricky because depending on how you hit the ball, not only how hard, but with what spin, you can make [the ball] essentially slide and almost be unreturnable,” said Caitlin Thompson, co-founder of Racquet Magazine, a publication covering tennis culture.

So, it seems that while players train hard and will lay it all out there to master the grass courts at Wimbledon, the grounds staff will also be working hard and tirelessly to maintain the legendary perfectly coiffed grass courts.