Wimbledon: Smelling of teen spirit ahead of the championships
WIMBLEDON: It's the weekend before the Monday start to the most famous tennis championships in the world. A sense of quiet efficiency pervades the grounds: everything is in place.
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The landscaping has been perfected so that the combination of purple flowers and green creepers reflecting Wimbledon's iconic colours are in the right blush even as an Indian summer heat beats down on everything.
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As players and their entourages -- mostly in pristine white though some outliers are kitted out in all black -- go from practice courts to the locker room and back, all around are the young, strapping boys and girls, and their even younger and more famous counterparts: ball boys and girls.
Fondly called the BBGs, and decked out in the famous Ralph Lauren outfits (which in the official merchandise stores retail for an eye watering price), they are the overwhelming presence at the championships.
Hundreds of young people work the summer here manning everything from front desks to the merchandise stores and hospitality venues to the grounds. Chattering away in groups; going through the drills rolling out and rolling in the covers at the uncovered outside courts; practicing laying the net posts and measuring the height of the nets, they bring a vibrant, youthful energy to a tournament where the biggest stars are barely out of their teens themselves.
Watched by millions worldwide, during the live transmission of the championships, the BBGs all make it look effortless but behind the scenes go through rigorous training. Getting to be a coveted BBG is a highly competitive affair. Only 250 make the cut from the 1000 who apply from the local schools and institutions. About 170 of the 250 are chosen from the 9th and 10th grade kids who freshly apply and the rest 80 roll over from the previous year.
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Average age is 15. Many spend two years on the job. Ubiquitous as they may seem, girls were inducted only in 1977 and made their Centre Court appearance in 1985.
On Saturday, the most prized fixtures are to see defending champion Carlos Alcaraz and World No. 1 Jannik Sinner practice. Conveniently they are at two ends of the day. Morning sees Alcaraz hit the ball with the next big thing, the 18-year-old Brazilian star Joao Fonseca, at the red-velvet roped enclosures of Aorangi Practice Courts.
Sinner comes out in the evening.
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Spanish is in the air as Alcaraz and Fonseca banter as they go through drilling their forehands/backhands, lobs and service to an awed audience. Jaun Carlos Ferrer, Alcazar's coach and Guilherme Teixeira, who trains Fonseca, keep a watchful eye. "I was excited about hitting with him, the last time I hit with him was in 2023," Alcaraz said of hitting with Fonseca, later at a presser. "He's not an experienced player on grass, but his style, he loves to play aggressive, to hit big forehands, go to the net.
I'm pretty sure he's going to get the level on grass really, really soon," he added.
One can't but help notice the difference in resources as your eye is drawn to two women players slugging it out in the very next court. They just have one coach each while the Alcaraz court has an entourage of 7/8 people.
Adjacent, at the Aorangi arena, are other players mainly doing strength and mobility workouts. There's Coco Gauf using cones to get her footwork going, Zverev using bands and a few others work with medicine balls.
'Movement' is a word one hears often. Alcaraz talks about it and so does Sinner in their press conferences later in the day.
It feels surreal at times to walk around the grounds and discover the gorgeous person ahead of you with her trainer is Emma Raducanu or the wavy-haired blonde young man is Alexander Zverev.
Young kids with giant tennis balls have the best chance of snagging the coveted autograph as it's hard for the players to say no to tiny tots. So, every two steps they have to stop to pose for a selfie with the grown-ups or bend down to sign autographs for the children.
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