Interesting Facts about Wimbledon
1. In 1995, Tim Henman became the first person ever to be disqualified from Wimbledon. The reason is really interesting. Tim Henman lost his temper and angrily smashed a ball away, which went straight into the face of an innocent young ball girl. Henman was really embarrassed when he realized what a big mistake he has done. After the match got over Henmen gave the girl some flowers to apologize.
2. Each year, there are 250 ball boys and ball girls are employed to work at Wimbledon. On average, they are of the age of 15 years and they are paid GBP 150 for their work.
3. The last time any player who used a wooden racket at Wimbledon was in 1987.
4. All players must wear white clothing and dress ‘decently’ is the dress code at Wimbledon. The umpire has the right to decide if the players have met the strict dress code and if not found in line he can make them get changed. Andre Agassi refused to play the Championships between 1988 and 1990 because he didn’t like the dress code rules and he regarded this as a ‘stuffy’ atmosphere.
5. During World War II, 5 bombs hit the Centre Court at Wimbledon, and it destroyed 1,200 seats in total. It took 9 years for the court to be fully restored as it was previously.
6. It was only in 2007 that the prize money for male and female tennis players was equalized because the ladies players like Venus Williams and others did a specific campaign.
7. Wimbledon always starts on the fourth Monday of June before the first Monday of August.
8. Till 1986 only white balls were used, but after umpires’ complaints that they can’t sight the balls properly, the color was changed to yellow
9. The youngest player, played ever at Wimbledon was Mita Klima from Austria, she was just 13 years old when she played Wimbledon in 1907.
10. Each year the spectators at Wimbledon eat at least 28,000kg of strawberries and to add with it they even intact 7,000 liters of cream.