Wonderful World Of Wimbledon / Barry Millns / 19 June 2008 / Leave a comment

Tennis commentator Barry Millns recalls first watching Wimbledon as a kid on a black and white TV. Forty odd years later it's exactly the same, or is it?

I first became aware of Wimbledon in black and white, seeing it on television in the mid-1960s. Initially the annual wooden racket ritual made little impression on me, but once it was broadcast in vivid colour from 1968 onwards I was hooked.

As the likes of Laver, Rosewall, Newcombe, Court, King and Jones did battle for prize-money for the first time on the lush green grass courts of the All England Club, so I became enthralled by their stroke-play and sportsmanship. But by the time I paid my first visit as a teenager in the long, hot summer of 1976, the antics of players such as Connors and Nastase had undoubtedly added spice to the mix which the Wimbledon establishment found distasteful.

John McEnroe's arrival the following year and the 'Super-brat' behaviour he unleashed beyond it mirrored the changes in society. The 'punk' professional's clashes with authority highlighted how the amateur 'strawberries and cream' tradition that still pervaded the place was becoming increasingly at odds with the modern game.

Yet because such larger than life characters also played tennis like gods their actions, good and bad, became compelling viewing around the world. For all its apparent stuffiness Wimbledon picked up on that fact and started to make the most of it.

Soaring revenues from TV broadcasting rights led to huge increases in prize-money: in 1981, McEnroe earned £21,600 for his first Wimbledon singles title - when he won his third just three years later he walked off Centre Court with a cheque for £100,000. If Roger Federer (currently trading at [2.2]) and Venus Williams [6.6] retain their titles over the next fortnight each will depart £750,000 richer!

But it is not just the size of the cheques which has changed so dramatically in the last 30 years. The All England Club you enter now is, in many ways, unrecognisable compared to the one I first squeezed into, thanks largely to the implementation of Wimbledon's Long Term Plan in 1993 to enhance and protect The Championships' pre-eminence in the 21st century.

While Centre Court itself thankfully remains at the heart of the club, all around it (and from next year over it, too, with the retractable roof) hordes of builders have worked wonders for more than a decade to transform the place from a creaking old club into a modern complex, which caters for record crowds while still retaining its atmosphere of 'tennis in an English garden'.

Consequently, while facilities for players, spectators, the media and corporate hospitality have improved hugely over the past decade, certain key things have remained sacrosanct. The 'predominantly' white clothing rule, no advertising around the courts and no direct sponsorship of the event, which could all have fallen victim to commercial pressures, instead contribute fundamentally to the Wimbledon brand so successfully marketed and merchandised globally all year round.

Most important of all, Wimbledon, unlike the Australian and US Opens which changed to hard courts, is still played on grass and harks right back to the very roots of the game. The grass court season may have been reduced to little over a month in the jam-packed calendar of the modern circuit but Wimbledon remains the jewel in the crown of grand slam tennis regardless.

Moving subtly with the times it remains a place steeped in history, tradition and the sense of fair play. In this brash, brutal world it makes millions nostalgic and millions out of that nostalgia, the epitome of which is Federer's Nike white blazer.

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