The All England Club, a small private club located in the western suburbs of London, shoulders the important task of hosting the annual Wimbledon Tennis Championships, and has stubbornly and tenaciously adhered to the tradition of modern tennis for more than a hundred years.
Sometimes people accuse the All England Club of being too conservative and backward, unable to adapt, unable to keep up with the times, and even harming the promotion of tennis——
In fact, not just once, but many, many times.
But the All England Club still adheres to its own principles. They are willing to change, just a little slower, and they are willing to improve, just a little later. No matter what, they always use their own attitude to show the modern young people the tradition of tennis, which is a century-old tradition.
What tennis looked like before it was born.
This deserves applause.
Grass, this is just the most basic of the many traditions of the All England Club.
First, the jersey.
Green and purple are the traditional colors of Wimbledon. The referees and staff are all uniformly dressed and continue the tradition of a hundred years ago.
At the same time, participating players must wear white jerseys. This is the only tennis event throughout the year that stipulates the color of players' clothing.
"White clothes are better than snow and green grass" has become the most beautiful scenery of Wimbledon every year, and has even become a iconic image.
Players must be white from head to toe, and there are strict requirements from headbands to soles. Not only that, the All England Club also stipulates that sports bras that players may reveal during the game must also be white, and all details are strict to the centimeter range.
, all are clearly stipulated.
In 2013, Federer was found out by the referee because the soles of his specially customized Nike sneakers were orange-red, and he was asked to change his sneakers during the match, otherwise the match could not continue. After the match, the Swiss King said bluntly:
He expressed his strong protest:
"I like Wimbledon, but these strict rules are indeed a bit harsh, and some of the requirements are even ridiculous."
In addition, Bouchard was found to have black underwear during the game, causing the game to be suspended; Kyrgios was asked to change his headband because the Wimbledon logo on his headband exceeded one centimeter, otherwise he would be disqualified; in earlier years,
Kournikova appeared on the court wearing black tight shorts and a white jersey, but was turned away. She could not enter the game unless she changed her shorts.
Ridiculous?
But reality really happened, and more than once.
With the penetration of commercialization and the strong personalization of players, some adjustments have been made to this regulation. The All England Club accepts sleeveless shirts for male players and hot pants for female players. It also allows the shirts to be worn by female players if the main body is white.
Add colorful elements, but only if the width is within one centimeter.
The only time the century-old All England Club made an exception was at the 2016 London Olympics, when players were allowed not to wear white and to play in the colors of the national team.
Of course, some people are curious, why?
Is it just because white and green look better together?
Looking back on history, we can find that this move was actually to respect the British royal family.
In the early years, the Queen was very fond of Wimbledon and would come to watch the game every year. Later, it evolved into a tradition. The royal box is reserved in the central court. Every year, members of the royal family may come to watch the game. There are countless occasions when the Queen herself is present.
.
To show respect, the All England Club has established a series of rules:
White jersey is one of them, but I didn't expect that it has continued. Regardless of whether the Queen is present or not, white jersey has become the standard in the game. This rule was relaxed in the 1990s and the requirements were not so strict, but in the 20th century
A century later it became strict again.
In addition, when players land on the central court to play, they must pay attention to the royal box before the game, regardless of whether the box is occupied or not. However, this rule was later considered too pedantic and did not allow flexibility, so the All England Club made adjustments. If the box was unoccupied,
There is no need to perform the ritual of attention.
In addition, a series of details have also been formulated in terms of titles. Different from the "men/women" titles in the other three Grand Slams, here you must address "gentlemen/ladies"; at the same time, the referee is announcing the score.
Or you must use honorifics during conversations, and add prefixes such as "Miss/Mrs." and "Mr." in front of the last name. This is not found in the other three majors.
Secondly, seed ranking.
The other three Grand Slams all determine seed seats based on the world rankings on the registration deadline. The world number one is the number one seed, which is simple and clear; but this is not the case with Wimbledon.
Because the All England Club is a private club, they believe that they are different from official organizations such as the ATP and WTA, so they do not need to completely determine the seed rankings based on the world rankings.
Since 2001, the All England Club has established a special committee to refer to players' grass-court performance in the past few years and then list seed seats based on their world rankings.
The committee announced this special calculation formula, which is based on the world ranking points at the Wimbledon registration deadline, plus points from all grass-court events in the past twelve months, and the best points in the further twelve months.
75% of the points awarded for grass-court events.
In this regard, the All England Club stated that the grass court season is becoming increasingly shorter and more precious. They hope to encourage players to actively participate in this way, improve their seed rankings in Wimbledon in the short term through their performance in different events, and win more.
Good lottery slots; for grassland event organizers, it can attract more top players to participate, helping the event to run smoothly.
It's a win-win.
The results are obvious to all. Competitions including Queen's Club, Halle, and Stuttgart have received more attention from players. The most intuitive one is 's-Hertogenbosch. This small Dutch town has almost no special publicity, but because
Wimbledon's seed ranking method allows the top 30 players in the world to participate every year to ensure that the event can continue to be held.
It is precisely because of this that the announcement of Wimbledon’s seed seats every year is also a major attraction——
Even professional tennis reporters are often too lazy to calculate points and list rankings through formulas. They all wait for the All England Club committee to announce the seed rankings, which then triggers a wave of exclamation. Every year, the seed seats will more or less cause controversy, with some agreeing and some opposing.
I also went to the theater.
But it is undeniable that those grassland experts have indeed benefited from this special rule.
In 2010, before the registration deadline for Wimbledon, Nadal overtook Federer to become the world's number one, but when he came to the All England Club, Federer was still the top seed.
In 2011, Serena Williams, who dropped 26 places in the world rankings due to injuries, went to Wimbledon as the seventh seed.
For legends like Federer and Serena Williams, such a seed ranking rule is a sign of respect, but it may not be so fair to other players who are working hard to improve their world rankings. It is precisely because of this that every year we win
Bourdain's seeding ranking will cause controversy——
However, the All England Club still goes its own way.