Wimbledon Prep: Grass, Flowers & Tennis Balls Ready!

LONDON, June 26, 2025

Behind the scenes at Wimbledon

From perfectly manicured courts to precisely graded tennis balls.

• Wimbledon’s groundskeepers manage 88 grass courts across three locations.
• 28,000 plants are embedded and bloom for the tournament.
• 64,500 tennis balls are meticulously tracked and graded.
• Expansion plans face legal challenges.

With Wimbledon just around the corner, meticulous preparations are underway, and the all England Lawn Tennis Club’s (AELTC) dedication ensures a pristine tournament, where tennis balls are graded based on usage to maintain consistent play.

The air at the All England Club is buzzing. It’s five days before the first serve, and while two robins flit across Center Court, the team is already in full swing.

The Greens Keepers

Neil Stubley, head of courts and horticulture for the AELTC, oversees the management of 88 grass courts across three venues. The main Wimbledon grounds have 18 match courts, while three miles northwest, Roehampton hosts 34 qualifying tournament courts. An additional 16 practice courts are at the AELTC Community Centre in Raynes Park,and 20 more practice courts are at Wimbledon itself.All have been in use as June 23.

Novak Djokovic,the 24-time Grand Slam champion,arrived around 11 a.m. Tuesday for gym work before practice. French Open champion Coco Gauff trained with amanda Anisimova, and world No. 1 Jannik Sinner warmed up against Grigor Dimitrov.

Pressure washers, ladders, and the occasional drill underscore the meticulous setup. Wimbledon’s green and purple wonderland is gearing up for its 138th edition.

Anything that grows

This year marks Stubley’s 30th tournament. He began as an apprentice, taking over the year before London 2012. His team of 18, which expands to 31 during the event, manages “anything that grows,” with a preference for no weeds at all.

At 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Centre Court’s grass was freshly cut before performance checks. The International Tennis Federation (ITF) conducted further tests the next day.

“Every day we test the ball bounce height and the hardness of the surface,” Stubley said.

To adjust the court, Stubley explained, “If they’re getting too hard, we can add a little more water.If they get too soft, we can just hold off on irrigation and let Mother Nature dry it out a little more.”

He added,”At this stage,we’re ready. Last week, it got its final liquid fertilizer on to give it the right color that we need.”

The right color

According to Stubley, the ideal grass color is less green than most think.

“Player perception is if it’s green,then it’s greasy,” he said. “You get the green color from nitrogen,but for nitrogen to be used up by the plant,it needs to take water in to break it down,which means ther’s more water in the plant and that makes it kind of juicy.”

Iron-based fertilizers darken and enhance grip.Compliments are welcome, but Stubley and his team prefer the courts to go unnoticed.

“We always talk about the grass being the canvas and the players paint the picture.If there’s a problem with the canvas, that’s when our work gets highlighted.”

while baselines become dusty over the two weeks, the grass, though churned by serves over 100 mph, recovers quickly. Two weeks post-tournament,it’s almost fully regrown.

A Blooming English Garden

Grass isn’t the only growth at Wimbledon. Head gardener Martyn Falconer embeds 28,000 plants for each tournament.

Falconer’s team includes 12 full-time gardeners for the 42-acre members’ club, supported by eight seasonal staff. He estimates 14,000 to 15,000 petunias are on site, key to wimbledon’s aesthetic, along with arbour roses, ivy-clad Centre Court, and hydrangeas.

Maintaining the wimbledon flora is just as important as tending to the grass courts.

“Our ethos is tennis in an English garden,” said Falconer, now in his 26th year. When the tournament commences, the 20 staff members on duty start at 5 a.m., each responsible for specific areas. Their tasks include watering, deadheading, pruning, and weeding to ensure each area looks its best, aiming for Day 14 to mirror Day 1.

each year, 28,000 plants and 170 hanging baskets are sold to benefit the Wimbledon Foundation. Remaining plants are donated to local groups, and preparations for the following year begin instantly.

falconer and his team plant 10,000 bulbs each winter, timed to bloom by June’s end. This year, they’ve bloomed right on schedule.

Grading the Fuzzy yellow Spheres

Andy Chevalier, an actor and writer, has been Wimbledon’s ball distribution manager since 2018. With 64,500 balls to manage, Chevalier, deputy Esme Gritten, and their team ensure each ball is in place.

Each morning, 2,000 balls are delivered to practice courts via buggy. On match courts, the process is more intricate.

“We bring the balls down at the start of the day in a cylinder drum,” Chevalier explained.

“Each court starts with 21 cans of unopened balls. Throughout the day, as the matches are going on, the ball boys and girls are collecting up the used cans. Every nine games you’ll hear the chair umpire say,’New balls please,’ and the ball boys and girls will open two fresh cans. The two cans that have been used will be put into a bag and at the end of the match, they bring that back to my team on the corner of Centre Court.”

“There’s a constant turnover.”

Each box contains 24 cans of Slazenger balls, and the team uses 24 boxes daily. Chevalier’s most complex task is “ball grading.”

“Throughout my day, I’m doing something called ‘ball grading,’ where I’m trying to work out which balls have been used for three games, five games, seven games and nine games.”

Do you know what happens to the used tennis balls? Chevalier says, “the nine-game balls get sent down to be sold as souvenirs. But each umpire will have a secret tin. In that tin will be a ball that has been used for three games, one that’s been used for five and one for seven.”

“I’m judging on the fluffiness, the wear of the logo and how much pressure is left in the ball with a squeeze test. so if a ball is lost during a match, the umpire can go to their 3-5-7 tin, take one of the balls that’s in the current rotation and try to match it with the closest ball. That way, there’s not a brand new ball in the rotation of six when you’re on an eight-game ball.”

A line of tennis balls in various states of use ready for the ball grading system.

Expansion Plans and Legal Hurdles

The AELTC aims to shift the qualifying tournament from Roehampton to the main site, aligning with the other three Grand Slams.

This requires more space. Plans to expand into Wimbledon Park, adding 39 grass courts and an 8,000-capacity stadium, received approval from the Greater London authority (GLA) in September.

However,Save Wimbledon Park (SWP) opposes these plans for the 23-acre former golf course,a Grade II* heritage site owned by the AELTC.SWP has funded a judicial review of the GLA’s decision, scheduled for July 8 and 9 in the High Court, during the championships’ second week.

The Stage is Set

For now, the preparations continue.

“All of this is realy similar to putting on a stage show,” Chevalier said.

“You’ve got all these different departments coming together for this amazing live event, where you never know what is going to happen. It is world-class live theatre.”

With cameras rolling, scoreboards lighting up, and screens on Henman Hill activating, Wimbledon is almost ready to raise its curtain.

To the used tennis balls? Chevalier says, “the nine-game balls get sent down to be sold as souvenirs. But each umpire will have a secret tin. In that tin will be a ball that has been used for three games, one that’s been used for five and one for seven.”