Those responsible at Wimbledon have listened attentively with a surprising proposal for the site on Church Road in London. According to a report, the introduction of a hybrid covering between artificial turf and natural green is being considered in order to extend durability. Consultant Tim Henman is enthusiastic about the idea.
As reported by Mail on Sunday, the proposal will make it possible to hold four instead of just three matches per day on the Center Court. However, as the grass is quickly worn out over the two-week tournament, this has not been the case so far.
“What people like to forget is the fact that it is a natural underground,” said Tim Henman, who sits on the board of the All England Tennis Club. “You need the space for 13 days. If you ruin him in the first five, you’ve got a problem.”
The idea of hybrid turf comes from rugby, where a special bond between natural and plastic turf is used. In contact sports, up to three percent of plastic straws are therefore mixed under the lawn and anchored up to 40 centimeters deep, which according to the report can already achieve a longer durability.
In Wimbledon, a lot of money is already being spent on developing hybrid systems with an artificial proportion of three, five or even ten percent for similar prototypes.
Henman complained that there were fewer and fewer lawns in the world. “A few generations ago it was widespread in America, Australia and India. But the costs for maintenance were too high. Maybe Wimbledon is a place where you have to think about new things.”
“There is nothing better than a good lawn,” said Henman, “but there is also nothing worse than a bad lawn.” Around 51 million blades of grass grow year after year on the Wimbledon Center Court, which is then only used two weeks a year.
For testing purposes, a hybrid court will therefore be moved on one of the training courts, Henman said. There is one point, however, that the Briton does not want to ignore: “We know how quickly you can get abrasions on pure artificial grass. Therefore, we have to test how it feels at five or ten percent and how the movements are changed.”