Good morning and welcome to this week's episode of the Sports Curious podcast where we are diving in and talking about everyone's favorite tennis tournament. That's right, break out your PIMS cup and your spot of tea. We are talking about Wimbledon. Scott, thank you for joining me today. We have our co -founder, my co -host here to join me to talk about the tennis tournament of all time. Scott, welcome to the podcast. Thank you for having me.
Excited to talk to you today about the greatest tennis tournament on grass, Wimbledon. I feel like we really missed an opportunity to not have, there's a lot of strawberries and champagne served at Wimbledon. There's a lot of PIMS that happens there. I feel like we really missed the opportunity to not morning drink here right now. I mean, we can change that pretty easily. Grab some PIMS and get some strawberries and get to work. PIMS lying around though is what I need to understand.
I was unprepared. I do not add things. neither. It's not something I have fresh in my liquor cabinet. Champagne, yes. Champagne, yes. Liquor, no. Now I want to start us off. Obviously there's so many great facets to Wimbledon and we cover it, the Sports Curious, the last night's game where we want to talk about what's happening around the tournament, not necessarily always what's happening on the court because the box score, all those things are not what we have conversations about.
And here's what the thing I'm most curious about when we started thinking about this podcast. It's right around the Olympics, like right before the Olympics start. So how does that work with tennis players? It's unique this year, the Olympics is having, and Wimbledon is having a huge impact actually on the Olympics and who's going to be competing in the Olympics. As the tennis season goes, it usually goes clay courts, which would be the French Open.
And then once that ends, players switch and start playing on grass to prepare for Wimbledon. So this year with the Olympics in France, they're going to be playing on the clay courts. of Roland Garros for the French Open's played. So that's impacting a lot of players' preparation and who's actually going to be playing in the Olympics. That's interesting because they just, I mean, they just played the French Open was what, two or three weeks ago? Yes, yes.
And so the players prepare their bodies differently for clay as opposed to grass. So going clay, grass, and then back to clay has actually had a lot of top players opt to not play in the Olympics. Interesting. Okay, but you did tell me that Rafi Nadal is playing in the Olympics. So talk to me about that because that's cool. Yeah, Nadal's career has kind of been... gone off the tracks due to injuries. We saw him in the French Open this year.
It looks like he's going to be playing very limited, but he has committed to play in the Olympics since they are on clay, which is his favorite surface. And he's actually playing doubles with Carlos Alcaraz, who's number two in the world right now. He's kind of the next young Spanish superstar. He's filling the dog shoes. Yes. So those two playing doubles together would be pretty. Pretty amazing to see.
You would hope that they would sync up and they'll play really well because sometimes when you have two phenomenal players, it doesn't always equal a championship, right? When you think about some of the teams that are put on a field or on a court. So hopefully for them, the two of them have the pride of country and will play well together. That'd be really cool to see. Absolutely, yeah, definitely put on a show. That is incredible. And Nadal did not play in the French Open, right? he did, okay.
Yeah, he did. It didn't go very well. Because he was unseeded based on injuries, he ended up playing the number four player in the world in the first round. So, yeah, that's a tough draw to have. So, he got one round in. Okay, okay. So one of the cool things that I always think about when it comes to Wimbledon is the attire, right?
Wimbledon is one of those, the players have a requirement, they have to wear white, except the ladies can wear undershorts, if you will, or bloomers or whatever you want to call them. Under there, there's skirts that can be dark, which is reasonably new. They were very, very adamant about white for so long. And... But so players have to wear white. The crowd is always dressed implacably. We've seen Kate Middleton there. We've seen the Beckhams there. They're always dressed impeccably.
I believe Lewis Hamilton, the F1 driver, was sent away for not being dressed well for the Royal Box. So the Royal Box is just like it sounds. You're going to see Kate and William and probably not Harry there. And I know Kate has health issues. Do we know is she back in public? I'm not quite up to speed on that. gossip. No, she was at the Trooping of the Colors, which was like a week and a half ago. And so she was there for that. I know she's previously been present to give the awards.
I know for sure on the women's side, I can't remember if she's done the men's side too, but I know she's previously been there. So we'll see how, I haven't seen anything that she'll be there. So I also haven't seen anything that says she won't be there. So. And if anyone's sitting near her in the royal box, they'll have to wear what suit jackets and the dress code is smart. It's smart, right. And I love because it's a very, very British tradition to wear hats.
You are asked to not wear a hat because obviously this is a spectator sport and people don't want to have a giant fascinator or hat in front of them. Nor sit next to them. No. hats. So kind of the other tradition that I truly love about the, of Wimbledon is Rufus the Hawk. Let's talk about Rufus the Hawk. I think this is one of the best conversation starters about the entire tournament.
Rufus is the pigeon preventing hawk that flies the grounds of Wimbledon during the tournament before it opens in the morning and at night to prevent pigeons and other birds attacking unsuspecting tennis goers with their white clothing. Eating your strawberries and cream. Eating your strawberries and cream, maybe take a sip of your Pimms. You don't have to worry about that. I wouldn't believe it.
you mentioned, and I don't recall this, so you mentioned there were some issues with birds on the court at the French Open. Yes, they had quite a few stoppages of play because pigeons found their way on the court. You know, I think one lands on the net and they... Obviously if you're hitting a tennis ball 125 miles an hour, if you hit a pigeon, it's probably not going to fly. No. So that's where Rufus plays it. He might be the most important aspect of this tournament. It's really interesting.
So we were in, during spring break, we went to, we were in Phoenix and there was a breakfast outside and there was a guy standing there with a Falcon. And sometimes, you know, places they'll do like Falconry displays or something about cool, these cool things that these birds can do. And the guy is standing there with this Falcon that has its eyes covered. They cover them when they, when they're, and so I'm like, what are you, are you doing a Falconry display?
And he said, no. This guy's here, this guy's basically the Rufus of the hotel we were staying at that he monitors and does a fly around when the pigeon, if pigeons start to come out to get and get the breakfast from the guests. So that's what that, so I was like, okay, apparently we've adopted this from Wimbledon now. So Rufus is now famous, super famous. The Abrufus is a trendsetter. But I read your notes and I did not know that Rufus, who when he was 16 weeks old, he went missing.
Yeah, for a few days, off doing whatever Rufus's do. And then he came back a few days later and ever since he's been performing his duties as he should. He got out of his system, he went to college, it's fine. Maybe spring break. We're not going home. Yeah. break. So speaking of, I guess, we'll go hawks, we'll stick with birds. They have a challenge system at Wimbledon, which is kind of unique, right? They do. It's called Hawkeye.
Not necessarily an ode to Rufus, but it's the challenge system on calls because Wimbledon still uses people as line judges. Some tournaments use automatic line system to take a lot of the human error out of it. But Hawkeye is the challenge just to be used to make sure calls get made correctly. So I'm guessing it's just a camera system set up to monitor all the lines for replay.
and so if a player thinks a ball might have been in or out they can challenge, you'll hear the cloud like a slow clap as Hawkeye reviews the call and then they'll put up on the board in or out. Interesting. Do, and you may not know this, but do they get a limited number of challenges per match? They do get an unlimited opportunity to challenge. However, once I get three incorrect challenges, the player can't challenge until the next set.
You can't just sit there and challenge every call if you're losing. Yes. Yeah. and that kind of goes into, right, I mean, the thing that we probably don't think about from an organization side is these matches are back to back to back to back. So I know the main court has a roof, but what do they do? I mean, we're in England, right? Like it's July in England, like it rains. So. How does that all work and are we sending people to the wee hours of the morning like some of the tournaments do?
How does that all work? I was looking at the stats. I don't know somebody gave like a 90. It was like a 90 % Rain rate during Wimbledon. I think it is raining season two courts do have roofs Court one and Skinner Court to Skinner Court's the main court where you're like, you know See all your the matches on TV where the championships are played. So those matches aren't disrupted because they have retractable roofs But all the other courts are outside.
So I mean kind of just share the mercy of Mother Nature at that point. And do they have, I know like the US Open has time limits because it's in a neighborhood. Do you know if they have time limits or they just, they play till it's done? I don't know the exact time, I know there is a limit, I think because Wimbledon is kind of in the same situation with residents around it, I believe, so I don't know the exact time, but they do as many matches as they can.
Right, because they had some issues at the French Open. I think it was Novak who had a match that went to like 2 or 3 a Yes. So hopefully we don't have to worry about that. I think that potentially leads to injuries and players not doing well. So we saw a lot of great players probably get injured or not play as well as they should have based on how late they were playing. Right, well, you know, if you want, we don't have many of the old guard left of the Nadals, the Novaks left, so the Federer.
So like, if you want them to play well, maybe don't make them play till 3 a It's probably way past their bedtime. the young kids play. Till three. let's send Carlos Alcaraz out. He's like 22 years old. So speaking of, who are we looking at? Who should we be watching if we're watching Wimbledon? Who are some of the players we should be expecting to keep an eye on? I think there's a lot of excitement around both men's and women's this year.
A lot of, well, like you said, kind of the big three are kind of on, two of the big three are out in Federer and Nadal. Djokovic is recovering from a knee injury that he suffered back in the French Open. Had Sergio Anas -Maniscus, he's pushing to play, is what they're saying. So. a three and a half week recovery. Maybe a month. Yeah. tough turnaround. There's an American player, Taylor Fritz, who had the same exact injury, who came back to play Wimbledon maybe a few years ago.
So I think Nidalee has been talking to him, just, I mean Djokovic has been talking to him to see kind of how it went. So, Djokovic is the ultimate competitor. So I'm sure he's going to do everything he can to get back out there. They figured it out. Interesting. And we obviously, we've talked a little bit about Carlos Alcaraz who has had a great season, but he could become the youngest man to win a Grand Slam title.
So there's four Grand Slams or you can call them like a major four Grand Slams across all three surfaces. And so he was looking to become the youngest man to win Grand Slam titles across all three surfaces, which I think is pretty cool. he did. Okay, sorry. French open was, there's three surfaces for the majors. There's the hard courts, which are Australian and US open. And then French opens, clay and Wimbledon's grass.
So, to win across all three is incredibly hard and he's already done it at his young age. So, it's pretty remarkable. And then we have Jannik Sinner who is now ranked number one in the world after Novak went out during the French Open and we've talked about him before but his fan base are the Corotaboys, I believe I was saying that right, but they dress like carrots because Jannik has once eaten a carrot after a match and now they all dress like carrots. It's a phenomenal following if you will.
So you won't miss his fans. I'm not sure are you allowed to wear carrot costumes to Wimbledon? I feel like that would be a no. I believe you can, I don't know that a carrot would be welcome in the royal box. Can you put a suit coat over a carrot? Or a suit coat as well? So maybe... top hat? I mean, I don't know. Yeah, why not? don't think there's any, I didn't see any underlying bylaws that say no carrot suits. It just says suit, tie and jacket. So that's a classy carrot.
A classy carrot as you would expect. And then on the women's side, Iga Swiatek who is also number one ranked in the world, she's never won Wimbledon. She's won the French Open, she's won the US Open, but she's never won Wimbledon. Yes, this is not her best surface to play on. The grass doesn't necessarily fit her playing style, like the hard court and the clay. And that's what makes what Carlos has done so impressive that he's able to master all three.
So the women's side is pretty much wide open, I would say, just based on Ego's not necessarily the best on grass. Maybe this is her year, but I want to say there's been a different women's champion at Wimbledon for. many consecutive years, maybe since I want to say Serena. That could be very wrong. Interesting. I need to look up because Venus Williams sent a record last year for the most, what's the word I'm looking for? She's played in the most Wimbledon's.
And so I wonder if she's playing again this year. We'll have to wait and see. I don't know if she's completely healthy to play. If she is, she's going to play. She said she'll play as long as she can. I was going to say last year, an unseated woman won Wimbledon, which is pretty remarkable to think about. That would be like a 16 seed winning March Madness, something like that. That's pretty wide open as to where. The man's is very top -heavy. Well the surface is a game changer, right?
If you get someone who just specializes in grass, you can go a pretty long, make a pretty long run into the tournament. Now I have a, did you know? So we obviously, we're playing tennis, obviously. There are 53 ,000 -ish tennis balls used during this two -week tournament. But do you know why tennis balls, they used to be white or black, but not yellow? Do you know why they're yellow now? Somebody's brother paid somebody off. That actually seems quite logical.
No, they changed them yellow to be seen, easier to see on TV. And so Wimbledon was a late adopter of that color change right around the 80s. So Hockey, please take note that it's yellow so people can see it. Just saying, Hockey, I can't follow the puck half the time. yellow hockey puck. Could you imagine how much easier that would be? Or like bright orange? much nicer actually. If Wimbal can adopt it, Haki can adopt it. true. I mean, Wimbledon is way more uptight than hockey, so.
Is there anything that you want to leave us with as we wrap up Wimbledon this year, which will start on July 1st? I'm going to make one slight correction real quick. There's 11 PM curfew at Wimbledon. Yeah. So no back one have to pay till 3 AM. Actually, other than that, I want to just discuss the prize money for this time. Cause it's jumped dramatically based on ticket demand. So like the amount of money these people are making is pretty incredible. And if I remember, the purse is equal, right?
all the tennis tournaments are equal for men and women, which is great to see. So winners of the tournament get 3 .45 million, which is a 14 .9 % increase from last year, which is pretty remarkable. And then probably the more impressive part is players who just get to the first round lose. It's about 76 ,000. Okay. And I mean, people who lose in the first round are likely lower ranked. So that's a tremendous amount of money for them to make. Absolutely, yeah, absolutely. That's incredible.
There is one thing I did want to bring up that we talked about before we got online and I forgot. Grunting. We're talking about, you know, someone like Maria Sharapova, who you all may remember. Her grunt used to be like 105 decibels, which is the equivalent of standing next to an accelerating motorcycle. But as we've talked about, Wimbledon is proper. So tell me what the rules are around grunting at Wimbledon. So you're obviously allowed to grunt at men and women. It helps them hit their shots.
But you can get called for its hindrance, which is actually going to be a penalty. That's maybe when you're grunting a little too loud and too long after you've hit your shot, and it can impact your opponent. So there is a limit to your grunting powers. Interesting. So you're using it as a tactic basically is what they're saying versus you you're using it to get your shot further. Yes, and that's up to the umpire to give a call. I'm sure it's rarely called only in extreme situations.
Interesting. See, you learn something new every day here on the Sports Curious podcast. Things you never thought you even wanted to know and may never want to know again. Hindrance, grunting and hindrance. Well, there you have it. And that's how we wrap up Wimbledon. Anything else you'd leave us with before we depart? That's it. That's it. That's a wrap. Thanks Rufus for holding down the fort in the air and go enjoy Wimbledon. For more, check us out at lastnightsgame .com.