Serena Williams
Photo credit: Jimmie48 Photography / Shutterstock.com
Serena has dominated women’s tennis for quite some time, she is the world’s number 1 ranking player, having taken her 23rd Grand Slam title in January 2017 at the Australian Open.
In fact, keen fans worked out that it is likely she was pregnant when she got that 23rd title, having announced that she is pregnant and expecting an autumn baby.
Serena is 35 years old and is expecting her first child with her fiancé Alexis Ohanian who is a Reddit Tech Entrepreneur. Apparently, they have said that they would like to not know the baby’s gender until the birth.
Of course, her pregnancy has put a halt to her playing tennis for the rest of 2017, but she is said to already be making plans for her come back. Whilst many might have expected her to retire from professional tennis following the baby’s arrival, she is said to be keen to continue competing as long as she believes that she can challenge and ultimately win Grand Slams.
Johanna Konta
Serena’s break from tennis at the moment does leave the field wild open at Wimbledon this year and Britain’s top female player – Johanna Konta has been tipped by Andy Murray for glory! Just a little bit of pressure then…
Johanna actually came up against Serena in the quarter final of the Australian Open in January, so she is no stranger to how hard a competition like Wimbledon is going to be even with Serena’s absence.
Johanna is currently ranked 8 in the world for women’s singles. In Johanna’s own words “I have always dreamed of winning Wimbledon, but all I can do is focus and do my best”.
Fun Wimbledon Facts
The Championships at Wimbledon first aired on television on the BBC on 21st June 1937.
Whilst on the TV theme, the tennis balls were changed from white to yellow in 1986 as they are more visible to TV cameras.
Ball Boys and Girls are drawn from schools in local London boroughs. They receive around 750 entries each year (they are normally nominated by their headteachers), a written and fitness test is involved, but only 250 make it through to the formal training routine.
An average tennis match lasts for two-and-a-half-hours, but a ball is usually only in play for around 20 minutes.
Wimbledon is the only Grand Slam tennis event to be played on grass, the championship grass height is 8mm, and the grass is 100% perennial rye.
Such is the unpredictability of the British weather, that Centre Court now has a retractable roof to help avoid delays in play on rainy days.
Wimbledon’s caterers FMC serve a mass of drinks, snacks and meals during the event – these are just some of the stats: 330,000 cups of tea and coffee, 320,000 glasses of Pimm’s, 230,000 bottles of water, 110,000 pints of draught beer and lager and 29,000 bottles of champagne. 86,000 ice creams, 76,000 sandwiches, 30,000 pizzas and 25,000 scones.
Not surprisingly strawberries & cream is still a firm favourite – 28,000kg of strawberries and 10,000 litres of fresh cream are needed to keep up. The strawberries are normally Grade 1 from Kent and a portion of at least 10 strawberries & cream has remained the same since 2010 at just £2.50
The fastest serve (All Time): Men: 148mph – Taylor Dent – 2010 & Women – 129mph – Venus Williams – 2008.
The top selling souvenir is a gentlemen’s Championship towel.
The Wimbledon stringing team will average stringing 2000 rackets during the competition, adding up to around 40 miles of string!
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