A round-up of other Wimbledon news in brief
Figuring out the numbers game
ORGANISING EACH day’s play (13 in total) at Wimbledon is the equivalent of staging a Premier League match. On Tuesday, for the women’s quarter-finals, the junior competition and doubles event, 36,416 people came through the gates. That brought the cumulative figure for eight days’ play to 328,386 people.
Members of the club supervise the crowds inside and outside the ground and supervise spectator seating with the assistance of military personnel and the London Fire brigade.
The present number of honorary stewards is 185. The army were first used in 1946 and the fire brigade in 1965.
Last year, because of good weather, the club had a record attendance of 511,043 for the two weeks. This year the weather has been very good again but the capacity is 37,500, down by 2,500 on last year due to a fewer number of courts in play.
Morrissey makes Youth Games
THE INTERNATIONAL Tennis Federation has announced the acceptance lists for the 2010 Singapore Youth Olympic Games tennis event. Thirty-nine countries are represented in the boys and girls events, which will take place August 15th-21st. There will be about 5,000 athletes taking part, aged between 14-18, over 26 sports and Tennis Ireland is among them.
Dubliner John Morrissey, who lost in the first round here, has been accepted into the competition. Morrissey is on an ITF Development scheme, which will get him into the US Open junior event as well.
Not a lot of people know this
EVERY DAY at Wimbledon there is a blizzard of statistics, most of them useless. But it is often the most bizarre stat that sticks in the mind.
Normal things like how much prize money Roger Federer has earned up to the end of 2009 are right to hand – €44 million.
But you must look for the more arcane pieces of information. For example in 2004 a Russian player called Kulikovskaya was ambidextrous ( she served with her left hand), while the oldest gent to play in the championships was MJG Ritchie, a British player who was 55 years 247 days old when he took part in 1926.
More woe for Capriati
THE most lurid story to emerge this week has to be that of Jennifer Capriati. The American, who became the youngest player to compete in the championships in 1990 at 14 years and 90 days, is recovering in a Florida hospital from a drug overdose.
Her family has said Capriati, who has suffered from depression, did not attempt suicide and that it was accidental. Her former boyfriend, Dale DaBone, claims her overdose is linked to his return to the porn industry. DaBone had worked in 443 films and signed with top porn company Vivid Entertainment.
Strawberries a strategic pick
FOR 10 strawberries you pay £2.50 and the cream is free. On that note AXA must get the gold medal for guerrilla marketing as they are giving away free strawberries outside the grounds. It’s clever because anything that is not an official piece of merchandise is confiscated at the gates.
