Wimbledon is my Least Favorite Slam
I’m sure you disagree with me. Everyone seems to love Wimbledon—the players’ white outfits contrasted by the bright green grass create an iconic image that no tournaments, including other slams, can live up to. There’s a lot I like about Wimbledon. I’m also very nitpicky. Here’s why it’s my least favorite slam.
The results are always uninteresting
Did you know that the last time a non-Big Four player won Wimbledon was in 2002? For reference, that’s two years after Sampras won his last Wimbledon. For the past two decades, the tournament has basically been gatekept by these four men (I’m joking). But Wimbledon is structurally not designed to allow for new winners on the men’s side (I’ll explain why in my next point.) Meanwhile, the WTA seems to always have a new Wimbledon champion—the last repeat winner was Kerber in 2018.
There is no real grass season outside of Wimbledon
The grass court season is short. It is significantly shorter than the hard court season and clay court season, which both sometimes feel unending. There are warmup tournaments for Wimbledon in the form of some 250s and 500s, but there is no grass Masters event. The season feels sorely lacking without one, in my opinion—it’s really strange to play on an entirely new surface for just six weeks. This short “season” leads to a huge lack of grass court specialists, meaning the ATP’s grass veterans dominate Wimbledon and the WTA switches out winners constantly. I would appreciate Wimbledon much more if there were a real season backing it.
The grass gets ugly
This is a nitpick, but about halfway through the tournament, the grass gets very brown from wear and tear. It also looks much worse than other, lower budget grass tournaments (Eastbourne). Why is this? Why is the most opulent slam the one with the ugliest surface??? Moving on.
The tournament represents tennis’ conservative thinking
Tennis is held back by a refusal to innovate. Wimbledon is this sentiment made concrete—the scheduling of both tours bends around this tournament, and only the legends of the game win. The dress code is strict. Wimbledon is rigid. It’s an ode to the past, but tennis should be looking to the future.