Anyone for Tennis? – 10 Wow your friends with Wimbledon facts!

The summer of sport continues, and Wimbledon is now here as well as the World Cup!

1. Nearly 55,000 tennis balls are used during the Championships period.

2. Each morning, 48 tins of tennis balls are taken onto Centre and No.1 Courts and 24 on all the others.

3. Tennis balls were originally white! They were replaced in 1986 so that they could be seen more easily on television.

4. An estimated TV audience of 1 billion people tune in to watch Wimbledon from across the globe.

5. As the largest sporting catering operation in Europe, 234,000 meals, 330,000 cups of tea and coffee, 140,000 portions of English strawberries, 29,000 bottles of champagne and 10,000 litres of dairy cream are served over the fortnight.

6. The first Wimbledon took place in 1877 at the All England Club in the London suburb of Wimbledon as a Gentlemen’s Single Championship, making it the oldest tennis tournament in the world. Only 22 players participated.

7. It is within the rules of Wimbledon that all players must be dressed almost entirely in white and they can be asked to change if they fail to meet the dress code.

8. Wimbledon is the only Grand Slam that is played on grass courts. The grass is cut to a height of exactly 8 mm.

9. To make sure that the pigeons don’t interrupt play, Wimbledon has its very own Hawk called Rufus. His job is to scare away the pigeons each morning.

10. The repairs team at Wimbledon will string around 2,000 rackets and use over 40 miles of string!