Etiquette of when to pop your cork is still important if you don’t want to suffer the umpire’s ire
The intimacy of the outside courts at Wimbledon, where the first row of spectators is inches away from the playing surface, is very much part of the fun, but there are times when a line needs to be drawn. Tuesday’s match between Harriet Dart and Zhuoxuan Bai offered a prime example, as a champagne cork flew into the tramlines from a courtside seat in the middle of Bai’s third service game. Having asked a ballgirl to retrieve it, the umpire had a slightly testy request. “Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, “maybe we should open the bottles in the changeovers?”
Queues are another essential part of the Wimbledon experience, whether it is The Queue itself, so grand that it gets a capital “Q”, to get past the front gate, or the many lines that coil around from the outside courts as spectators wait for seats to become free. The queue for returns to the show courts, on the other hand, has been thoroughly modernised this year, thanks to a trial of a “virtual” queue which means that fans register early for a return to Centre, No 1 or No 2 courts and then get a text when, or if, one of the original ticket holders heads for home. It means an end to the old-fashioned practice of hanging around outside the exits and begging for tickets, but more than a thousand fans took advantage of the opportunity to get into one of the hallowed courts on Monday, with the proceeds going to the Wimbledon Foundation.