In this article, we talk about the ties of Rolex with Wimbledon for 45 years, tennis players such as Federer, starting from the history and traditions of Wimbledon, and the watches that are the subject of tennis.
Here, there are 4 prestigious tennis tournaments in the world: Wimbledon, Australian Open, US Open and French Open. The tennis player who wins these four tournaments is entitled to the Grand Slam; especially if the same tennis player wins in the Olympics, he gets a Golden Glam Slam. Also, each of these tournaments takes place on different grounds: soil, hard, grass. Thus, it can be understood how great an athlete Rafael Nadal, who has 22 Grand Slam winners in men’s singles, is.
The current Wimbledon is the oldest and most prestigious tennis tournament since its establishment in 1877. It is a different pleasure to watch it; because the tournament, which takes place in the southwest of London, has its own rituals and rules. First of all, it is played only on grass (which is the only example in this respect); the washing and drying of these grasses are subject to special care and the original grass courts that have been preserved must be 8 mm. In Wimbledon, which is played for two weeks at the end of June every year, it has become a rule not to play on the first Sunday. The most interesting thing is that the white color, which is identified with tennis in our minds, is actually a Wimbledon color. Tennis players wear white at Wimbledon as an unwritten rule. There are also public days in the tournament, for which the ticket is paid ÂŁ 1,500 per day. It is said that 40.35 million pounds will be distributed this year in the tournament, which was restricted last year.
Wimbledon, which was founded by the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, changed its name in the first period because this club was originally established for croquet in 1868; However, with thousands of people coming to watch tennis, the fate of the institution and Wimbledon, today known as “The Championships”, changed. The tournament, in which amateur athletes competed, became a place where professionals competed in 1968, thus the golden age of tennis began (until 1921, champions did not compete until the finals, they went to the final; then they competed from the beginning).
In 1978, Wimbledon was signed by Rolex. Wimbledon, where more than 300,000 people came in 1978, also attracted the attention of the watch brand, and the collaboration that started between them was the beginning of Rolex’s connection with tennis. Today we see a Rolex watch hanging among the leaves at the Wimbledon arenas, and at the entrance of the 15,000-seat Center Court on the Church Road field, which is celebrating its centennial this year, a line from the English poet Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If” is written: “If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster/And treat those two impostors just the same”. That is, “When faced with Victory and Defeat, treat these two rogues alike.” Expressing that the greatness of the sport is not in the victory but in the humility and determination of the champions, this phrase also reminds the watchmaking of the stable determination that lasted for centuries. Rolex clocks on the court, on the other hand, show not only the local London time, but also the time of the world’s metropolises such as New York, Rio de Janeiro, San Francisco, Shanghai, Tokyo and Melbourne.
