Saturday, June 30

Photos from around the grounds: Week one

 A small collection of photos from the first week of the Championships.
 
A line judge opens a can of fresh tennis balls
© Neil Tingle/AELTC
A chair umpire measures the net before a second round match
© Neil Tingle/AELTC
A service man stands on Centre Court
© Neil Tingle/AELTC
Fans on Henman Hill cheer on Roger Federer
© Tom Lovelock/AELTC
Security checks on Court 18 with a sniffer dog
© Neil Tingle/AELTC
Service personnel gather together
© Neil Tingle/AELTC
A ballgirl rolls a ball across court
© Jon Buckle/AELTC
Spectators gather on Day Five
© Matthias Hangst/AELTC
Rackets are re-strung in the racket stringers workshop
© AELTC/Tom Lovelock
Fans set up for the night for day four action
© AELTC/Tom Lovelock

More photos will be following soon...

Friday, June 29

Shutting the roof can give you fuzzy balls

You know that £80 million roof they fitted? The one they shut last night to let the match between Rosol and Nadal run on late into the evening? Well, I don't want to rain on anyone's parade (or Centre Court), but there may be some issues about its use. (But then again, maybe not).
Steve Haake: ball expert
Steve Haake, professor of sports engineering and the head of the Centre for Sports Engineering Research at Sheffield Hallam University, has written an article that looks at the impact of playing under the closed Centre Court roof. It's a great read and, for idiots like myself, even has pictures to show what he's talking about. And the section headings are nice and simple: The British weather, A 130 mph serve, Size really does matter and The best guess.

Yup, got it. All very straight forward.

But one word of warning: Don't be fooled by his easy & conversational manner of writing. Before I knew it, I was reading this:


 "...since the atomic weight of water vapour is 18 g compared to 29 g for air and there is now less water vapour around, click here for a detailed explanation...".

Under no circumstances should you click on the 'click here'. I did, and my tiny, non-scientific head exploded. That aside, the article explains why playing under the closed roof may (or may not) slow down (or speed up) the balls. But he comes to the (scientific) conclusion that the most likely reason that Things May Be Different under the closed roof is, quite simply, fluff.

He says: "...the effect is to increase the wetting of the felt and enhance the fluffing up of the ball. A simple solution could be to change the balls when the roof closes..."   That makes sense. I understand that.


He ends with this simple suggestion:

"Watch the players next time the roof closes at Wimbledon – if the players start inspecting the felt and throwing balls away, then they are likely to be choosing the least fuzzy ones."

It felt like he wrote that bit especially for me to understand.
Brilliant.


Read the full article.

A disturbance in the force?


It's like watching your favourite TV show and one of the main characters is killed off without warning.  It leaves you feeling bewildered, questioning what just happened.  Was it all just a surreal dream? Well no, and in fairness to Rafael he didn't play that badly - Lukas Rosol just played out of his skin in what is being called 'one of the biggest shocks in the tournament's history.'


Less than a month ago Rafael Nadal won his 11th grand slam title and I don't think anyone would have bet on him not making it past day four of this year's Wimbledon.  The match statistics make for interesting reading, it really wasn't that one-sided and is sure to keep the pundits busy analysing what happened.  From Andy Murray's point of view it does clear the way somewhat, since Nadal has been his semi-final stumbling block in the past.  It's shaping up to be an interesting second week.


Looking ahead to day five, Djokovic and Federer play their third round matches on Centre Court, punctuated by Heather Watson taking on Agnieszka Radwanska.  Hopefully the young British player will have something to smile about.

Broadcasting Wimbledon

As included in this blog entry a few days ago, we followed a cable from the data entry specialist high above Court 18 all the way down to the IBM team in 'the bunker', in the depths of the Broadcast Centre.

Of course, that was just one cable linking just one data entry computer to just one server. There are numerous data entry teams, covering all the matches that are being played across all the courts. Every serve, return, double fault, ace, foot fault - everything, in fact - is captured and instantly sent to the IBM servers to process and turn into meaningful data.

Then there are all the cables that link the IBM machines to those that use the data - predominently the BBC and the Wimbledon.com website.

But by far the most numerous cables belong to the television companies that descend on SW19 during the Championships. And this year, there seem to be as many camera crews dashing around the grounds as there are tennis players.

The first of the following two videos looks at the some of the global teams and they explain why Wimbledon, more than any other Grand Slam, holds such an enduring appeal the world over - from Denmark to Japan.

This second video looks at one of the American broadcasters and shows the work they do during the two weeks of the Championships.
You need a lot of cables.

Tennis: A Most Foolish Notion

So Rafa Nadal was beaten last night by the obviously very talanted Lukas Rosol.

However, if you were to look at the Twitter feeds, you would have thought that perhaps we were being invaded by aliens or The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse had stormed onto Centre Court.  #SHOCK #disaster #whyohwhy #howonearth #hysterical.
My favourite that I saw was simply: "Rafa! Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo....(repeating until all 140 characters permitted by Twitter were used up).

So, this morning's slightly frivolous post is dedicated to all Nadal fans around the world....

The image below is of a print made by Martin Droeshout between 1620 and 1630, entitled To this grave doctor millions do resort

It's a satirical broadside on the folly that is to be found in all ranks of society. It depicts the interior of an apothecary's shop, with the doctor using wisdom to purge a countryman seated on a stool, who defecates foolish notions represented by asses and geese. Next to them, a wealthy city merchant awaits to be given his dose of treatment, while a fashionably dressed woman holds a squirrel on a lead...as you did, obviously, if you were a fashionably dressed woman around town.

Meanwhile, a young courtier's head is inserted into a furnace so that his idle pastimes go up in a cloud of smoke carrying playing-cards, a backgammon board, musical instruments, extravagant clothes - and tennis rackets.

It would appear that tennis wasn't to be taken too seriously...
Foolish notions
You can read more about the history of tennis - and Wimbledon - on the history page of this blog. We also have a 'Did you know..?' page up and running. Links to both can be found in the sidebar to the right. Please leave us a comment if you have any that we've missed and we'll add it to the list!

Thursday, June 28

A tall order for Murray?

The second match on Centre Court today sees Andy Murray taking on Croatian, Ivo Karlovic.  Andy has won their three previous encounters although he knows he may not get things all his own way and this will be quite a different experience from his first-round match against Nikolay Davydenko.  Ivo Karlovic is 6'10" tall before he puts on his grass court tennis shoes and from this lofty position he has hit 305 aces from his 21 matches this year.

It must be the day for top seeds taking on the tall guys of tennis as next up on Centre will be Rafael Nadal against 6'5" Czech, Lukas Rosol. They have never played before but Rafa is expected to have the upper hand.  It will be interesting to see what SlamTracker comes up with for these matches.

Well, just about an hour to go before the show courts start buzzing, it's only day 4 but shaping up to be another great Championships!

Wimbledon.com: The Beauty or The Beast?

Reading through the plethora of Wimbledon-related comments on Twitter, there appear to be two things that have got some fans' blood simmering (boiling would be too strong a word; these are civilised tennis fans after all).

One is the roof. And the fact it wasn't closed on Tuesday evening. Well, I must say that I'm with the Officials on this one: Wimbledon is an outdoor Championship. Not an indoor one that happens to have grass growing inside. But I will be discussing the roof in more detail in a later post on this blog.
The other thing that has drawn mixed reactions from fans is the new Wimbledon.com website. This is looking like a real Marmite opinion generator; people seem to either love it or hate it.

The All England Club and IBM said Wimbledon.com has been completely re-designed to reflect the 'heritage and appeal' of the event and provide visitors with a more creative and immersive experience through improved content, more powerful imagery and intuitive navigation process.

Built on IBM’s Smartcloud infrastructure to meet surges in demand, the website integrates a new online broadcast channel, Live @ Wimbledon, alongside the interactive analytics-enabled IBM SlamTracker scoreboard.

Featuring TV and radio, Live @ Wimbledon will blend live action from around the grounds by dropping into matches at crucial points in play with the “off-court colour of a day at The Championships”. The resident presenters are former players Mats Wilander and Annabel Croft.

“We've created a new website which features increased options for people to personalise their Wimbledon experience," said Mick Desmond, commercial director, at the All England Club. "Visitors can follow the progress of their favourite players, view live match play clips of the day’s action, and access scores and results delivered in real-time.  We expect this increasingly engaging and personalised online experience to appeal to fans in ever greater numbers.”

Meanwhile, SlamTracker is designed to provide fans with deeper insight into matches through predictive analytics technology. It's a multifaceted feature of Wimbledon's digital presence that uses both historical and real-time data to add depth and insight to the Championship experience. The Momentum capability maps a match in real-time, visualising key turning points and their causes, such as winners, aces and so on.

The Keys to the Match feature in SlamTracker uses both historical and immediate data to determine the top three things a player must do in order to do well in a specific match. And it's proving to be very accurate.

And as mentioned in our earlier post about SlamTracker, it's an example of how analytics drives insights for tennis, the uses for businesses are almost infinite.

Personally, I love the new website. It gives far greater understanding and insight into the Wimbledon Championships. It feels like it has a lot of computing power behind it and it is giving a great experience for fans, players, coaches and officials alike.

But I can imagine that such technological advances may be too much for some. I guess there are those that find too much innovation and change a little daunting.

And you can probably spot them quite easily: They'll be the ones shouting "Come on Tim!" at their televisions. Which they probably bought from Rumbelows. In 1983.



Wednesday, June 27

The roof is out there

Naturally our preferred view would be a big blue sky but the £80m retractable Centre Court roof, built in 2009, is back in use today. Last year 41 matches on outside courts were lost in a single day due to the rain. As well as protection from the unpredictable English weather the roof has allowed matches to carry on when bad light would previously have stopped play. In 2010 the Djokovic v Rochus match didn't end until 10.59pm, around 90 minutes later than play would have ended without the roof. Play is always suspended at 11pm regardless of the conditions.

The roof can be closed in under 10 minutes although it takes about half an hour for the air management system to remove condensation and ensure the surface conditions are ideal for tennis.  A roof for Court One has been discussed but it has not been confirmed even as a long-term plan. Perhaps Sir Cliff needs to get tickets for matches played here just in case he's needed for impromptu entertainment in the future!

SlamTracker: What is it & how does it work?


We followed four main matches yesterday (Robson v Shiavone, Tsonga v Hewitt, Nadal v Bellucci and Murray v Davydenko), and tweeted to the Wimble2012 Twitter account whenever SlamTracker threw up some news-worthy statistics. 

And every one of the 'Keys to the Match' were 100% correct. It meant we could share our comments on who we thought would win a match significantly earlier - and with more confidence - than others.

But what exactly is SlamTracker?

SlamTracker is IBM's tennis scorecard, designed to provide real-time scores and statistics to share around the world on a variety of devices for all matches in progress.

But SlamTracker is more than just a scoreboard. It's been evolved it into multi-functional analytics dashboard that uses sophisticated analytics software to provide:
  • New ways to enhance the experience of a tennis match.
  • Real-time visualisation of a tennis match using the scores and statistics.
  • 'At a glance' view, which provides fans with a visual representation of the match to help indicate which player is winning and which player currently has the 'momentum'.
  • An enhanced fan experience which deepens their relationship with the tournament by allowing them to interact with the scores and stats to gain deeper insight into a match.

SlamTracker also uses analytical software to present the 'Keys to the Match' feature.

And this bit is really nifty...

The software studies the past seven years' worth of Grand Slam data to look for patterns. In particular, it looks at every time two players have met each other, and works out what three things each player must do if they are to stand a chance of winning. These are known as the 'three keys', and an example might be 'Nadal has to serve consistently above 113mph' or 'Roddick has to win more then 29% of first serves with an ace'.

The 'three keys' are published just before the match commences, and the SlamTracker 'Keys to the Match' dashboard is updated in real time assessing progress against each key for each player.

And if you want to load SlamTracker and see it for yourself, click here.

Tuesday, June 26

Rain suspends play. Already.

Well. We managed to get as far as day two before play was suspended.
While we wait for games to restart (or the roof to be shut), here is a short video from last year featuring Elena Baltacha, who explains why playing in the rain is not A Good Thing.


More later...

Joker-vic


Day one of the Championships saw world number one, Novak Djokovic, entertaining the Centre Court crowd by pulling a golf club out of his racquet bag. His fans were quick to point out he wasn't on the golf course and realising his 'mistake' he meekly unwrapped a brand new tennis racquet. So fully equipped, he went on to defeat Juan Carlos Ferrero in straight sets. The defending champion remained relaxed and upbeat at his post-match press conference where he kept the laughs coming with tales of his dog Pierre - even Maria Sharapova couldn't resist joining in!

For me, being somewhat easily amused, first day silliness came in the form of #wimbledonfilms, a thread on Twitter where people contributed such plays on words as 'Full Metal Racket' and 'Chalk The Line'. Twitter has been busy with all the news from Wimbledon and our very own account Wimble2012 reporting early on that Venus Williams was not hitting her three 'keys' and was heading for defeat. The five-time Wimbledon champion lost in straight-sets to Elena Vesnina. So on to day two and it's a packed schedule with Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal, Petra Kvitova, Serena Williams and Andy Roddick in action... I can't wait!

And now for something completely different...

Here's a gentle start to Day 2 of the Championships for you...a rather charming cardboard cartoon video from Robin Ward.


More later...

Monday, June 25

Win tickets for the Women's singles final

Enter this competition and you could be at the Women's Singles Final on Saturday 7 July. The prize also includes a three-course lunch prior to the match at the Wingfield restaurant, which is located within the centre court building.

Advantage Wimbledon

So as the first day gets underway, I find myself almost overwhelmed by the multitude of media that is carrying Wimbledon infomation. Personally, I have one laptop running SlamTracker and Live@Wimbledon, another following live broadcasts, an iPad following Twitter feeds and the Wimbledon app and of course the television (but which channel to choose? And what about the red button, too?)

I am an end-user in this flow of infomation; it starts with the data entry specialists. But between them and me is the IBM team who collect & collate every bit/byte and turn it into something meaningful. This short video goes someway to explaining how it all happens.




Oh...and not forgetting the cables. Miles and miles of cables. This 60-second video follows just one cable from the data entry team's lofty position above Court 18 all the way down to 'the bunker'.


Quiet please...play

The crowds are let in to the grounds...and then 'kettled' in a most civilised manner.

As 10.30 approaches, a disembodied voice announces over the P.A. "Will the Stewards please open the gates". The World's press await the mad dash.

Fans dash for the outside courts to secure unreserved seats for the matches they want to see. Others, with prized show court tickets, take their time and ponder whether 10.30 is too early for a stop at the champagne stall or whether they would be better off sticking with strawberries & cream (apologies for cliché).
Play begins at 11.30 this year...thirty minutes earlier than previous years.

Very civilised kettling
The World's press await the mad dash
Too early for champagne?
A healthier option (exc. the cream)

More later...

Saturday, June 23

Flamin' June: rain & court covers

The last Friday before the Championships begin is always a flurry of activity.

And amongst the fleets of white vans deliverying essential supplies and forklift trucks moving bulkier items all around the grounds, a few players wait for the rain to stop so they can get on court and practise. But then, as is so often the way with British Summers, the rain suddenly stopped and the groundstaff used the opportunity to run through their 'covers-off' procedure.

Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and both Williams sisters were out practising at various times betwen the downpours.

One good thing about all the rain we have had so far: Henman Hill is looking lush. Good enough to play tennis on.


Serena Williams
Venus Williams
Novak Djokovic
3-D viewing available this year
Going to need a bigger pot
Flamin' June

The lushness of Henman Hill




The ground covers billow in the wind, giving the impression of rolling waves.



Groundstaff run through their 'covers-off' proceedure.


Thursday, June 21

Hosted on the cloud

I find this quite intriguing, we all talk about this notional cloud but it's actually really clever and conjures up all sorts of funny images in my head.

I borrowed a 'tablet device' from my husband quite some time ago.  I think he realised there was not much chance of me parting with it and so had a reasonable excuse to get a newer one.  I have become very attached to it and there seems to be no end to the things it can do.  And as for my phone, well being a phone is its most minor function since, amongst other things, it can act as a personal hotspot for the tablet. 

This year for the first time we will be able to access Live @ Wimbledon - that is live feeds from the courts!  So as long as you're connected then you can take the tennis with you wherever you are.



Wednesday, June 20

Déjà vu or déjà view?

There's something familiar about the BBC's trailer for this year's Championships...

With a little bit of graphic jiggery-pokery, key words appear to be wrapped around the top players - somewhat akin to a real life, skin-tight word cloud. And to give the film footage a degree of dynamic movement, a few trailing flakes of the words appear to be peeling and floating off each player.

Compare that to the marketing material used by IBM a couple of years ago, where a player, net and ball were all made up from layer upon layer of a mass of data.

Both are very effective. And as the voice-over from the BBC trailer says: "In the end, one word will set them apart - Champion".

Monday, June 18

A Short History of Tennis...

Less than a week to go now...and as we start 'build week' at the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC), and things start to get busy in and around the grounds, we've included a few more short videos clips for you.

In an interview for Croatian TV, Cameron Brown (author of Wimbledon: A Short History of Tennis, the Club, the Championships, the Village) gives some interesting history and insights about Wimbledon.


A couple of things I would say in response to Mr. Brown...people can still get into the grounds of an evening when other people leave; using some pretty straightforward I.T., the AELTC adopts a one-out, one-in policy and tickets can be re-used if the original ticket holder leaves before the end of play for the day. All money from the re-sale then goes to charity.

Also, when asked who was the last British player to win Wimbledon, Mr. Brown said it was Fred Perry. Now, Mr. Perry might have been the last Brit to win the Mens' Singles title...but what about the Ladies' title? Feel free to use the comment option below and reassure me I'm not going mad.

Oh and croquet isn't only played on the lawns of grand, old English houses. Just 98% of the time.

Sunday, June 10

France -v- Egypt

Just in case you are beginning to worry that this behind the scenes blog is starting to look a little 'corporate-heavy'...please don't fret. The videos posted here so far are just little warm-ups (from last year) for the main event. We haven't included any quirky or unusual stories or photos so far because, frankly, they haven't happened yet (this is a blog after all - not a TARDIS and/or crystal ball).

But for those of you after a couple of snippets of tennis info...

Some say that the word ‘tennis’ comes from Old French ‘tenes’ (modern ‘tenez’, imperative of ‘tenir’), meaning ‘to hold’. Also, there is an Egyptian town on the Nile called Tinnis (in Arabic) and some believe the game may have its roots here.

Now you just need to find the right trivia quiz....

Getting closer...

In addition to being the most prestigious tennis event in the world, giving the crowds the information that brings them closer to the players (see "The Passion of Fans") and the whole sporting event, is key to the enduring success and popularity of Wimbledon.

But so much of the information dissemination is tacit and unseen - the fans don't necessarily make the connection between being an avid Nadal or Murray follower simply because they follow them on blogs, tweets, track their performances (in real-time) and (somewhat akin to proto-stalkers) track them around the grounds on their smartphones.

As seen in this short video clip from last year, when asked what they liked most about the 2011 Championships, fans talk of their favourite players and the whole Wimbledon experience (including, for one, fond memories of a streaker from a previous year) - but because they have had access to such a wealth of information, they feel as if they really know their favourites before the Championships even begin.





[If you're having trouble viewing the video on this page, you may want to watch the video here.]

Wednesday, June 6

The Passion of Fans

"The closer a fan gets to a player, the more passion they feel about that player and that passion drives them to want to get more information."

As the experience of following tennis - and other sports - continues to evolve over the coming years, fans will come to expect deeper engagement with all aspects of the sport. Fans are more engaged than they have ever been before and they want to consume more information. Higher engagement means smarter fans and smarter fans means more passion.

This short video clip from last year shows some of how technology can be used to give the fans what they crave.

[If you're having trouble viewing the video on this page, you may want to watch the video here.]
  • A variety of more videos will appear on this blog as part of the build up to this year's Championships - follow the blog and come back soon.