As the Summer of Sports turns the page to its second full month of July, this week the sports world's attention turns to a suburb of one of the world's greatest cities for one of its greatest events - Wimbledon. It is, quite simply, the most prestigious championship in all of tennis, as well as the sport's oldest tournament, and one that's full of history and rich in tradition. It's also a British institution that brings about sights of not just of the world's best tennis being played on its original surface of grass, but also queues outside the All-England Club, the always-present threat of rain hampering with the best-laid plans of the best players, the favorite dish of strawberries & cream and many traditions unique in a sport as modern as tennis and a country with old-school values as Great Britain.
The Championships have grown from beginning as a small gathering in 1877, to now being the toast of tennis with nearly 500,000 people attending the two weeks of play at the complex, and reaching hundreds of millions worldwide via television and extensive media coverage. An additional 6,000 people are on site during the fortnight to perform jobs that have something to do with the tournament either as full-time, year-round Club employees or just for the tournament. And players from 60 countries join with the world's top-ranked players to play for a prize acknowledged as the universal symbol of excellence in their sport...one that's cherished by anyone who picks up a tennis racket.
Every summer going back to when I was a kid, I look forward to watching Wimbledon and where tennis steps to the forefront of the sports scene. It's an event that is at the heart of a sport that was once the domain of the rich & wealthy, and for which every trip to it brings fans and viewers back to simpler times. The appeal of it brings an affection for the event that I have, and is something that never gets old.
The All-England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club was founded in late July 1868, but it wasn't until eight years later that lawn tennis was added to the private club's list of activities. In 1877, the AELTC inaugurated the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships, and introduced a new set of rules replacing those used then by the Marylebone Cricket Club, later a key governing body of the sport of cricket. In that first tournament, Spencer Gore emerged from a field of 22 players to claim the inaugural title in front of 200 spectators at the Club's original home on Worple Road.
The club's original activities back then also included the similarly genteel sport of croquet, but five years after tennis began that sport became an afterthought on the grounds and is only still on the club's official name for sentimental reasons only. The Gentlemen's Singles was the only competition contested at The Championships until the Ladies' Singles and Gentlemen's Doubles were added in 1884, followed in 1913 by the Ladies' Doubles and Mixed Doubles. And back then, the tournament used a Challenge system where the reigning champion automatically qualified for the next year's final, playing only one match against whomever won their way into there to battle for top honors, until 1922.
The turn of the 20th century saw Wimbledon become an international affair, and in 1905, American May Sutton became the first overseas winner when she won the Ladies' Singles, followed two years later by Australian Norman Brookes being the first non-Brit to win the Gentlemen's Singles crown and New Zealand's Anthony Wilding from 1910-13. World War I suspended play at the original club, but upon its resumption, American Bill Tilden would emerge as the best player of his generation in winning the first two of his 10 Grand Slam titles at Wimbledon.
By 1922, Wimbledon's popularity was too much to handle at the Worple Road grounds that were expanded before WWI. Thus, the AELTC moved to a new, larger home on Church Road, which was opened by King George V, just as the French would begin a revolution at the Championships, winning a singles title in each year of the Twenties led by its Four Muskateers who won 11 singles & doubles titles between them in 10 years. In the thirties, Tilden won his 3rd title at age 30, then saw American Helen Mills Moody win eight Ladies' Singles titles. But it also saw the greatest period in British tennis history which saw the country win 11 Wimbledon titles and defended the Davis Cup three times at Centre Court. This included Fred Perry notching a three-peat in the men's singles and Dorothy Round winning two titles as well.
World War II again saw Wimbledon take a back seat to the international conflict, but the club itself wasn't immune. An fall 1940 attack on London saw major damage to Centre Court when five large bombs took out much of its roof and 1,200 seats while the club was still open in spite of wartime. It took until 1946 and after all the conflict ended that The Championships would resume, but it wouldn't be until '49 that the club would return to its full, pre-War condition. Despite that, American dominance would reign at the tournament, with the tournament's first black winner Althea Gibson, future CBS tennis analyst Tony Trabert and Jack Kramer leading the way.
The advent of air travel during this time made it possible for more & more players to trek to England, making the Championships more of an international event than ever before. By 1956, it would be Australia that would reign supreme, as from there until the '70s saw the Aussies dominate the Gentlemen's Singles, led by Rod Lever, Roy Emerson and John Newcombe. Fellow Aussie Margaret Court Smith would later become the nation's first Ladies' singles champion, while Brazilian Maria Bruno became the tournament's first South American champion in 1958.
The year of 1968 was a watershed in tennis history, when Wimbledon and the other Grand Slams finally allowed professional players to compete with the amateurs, and this became Open to all tennis players. Before that, only those who weren't paid to play in tournaments would compete on not just the big stage of the majors, but also the Davis Cup and in events sanctioned by the International Tennis Federation. At the same time, there was scandal in amateurs being paid extra money in excess of ITF limits for more than just financial assistance. That, along with a late 1967 pro tournament at the Club (which was also the first tennis event to be shown in color in the U.K.), helped spur change in the sport after years of conflict. In the first "Open" Wimbledon, Billie Jean King won the 3rd of her six Ladies Singles titles, while Lever won the men's event as part of his Grand Slam.
The '70s would see the likes of Arthur Ashe, Jimmy Connors, Stan Smith, Czech Jan Kodes and Ann Jones taste championship glory, but the decade would come to be known as the era when Bjorn Borg reigned supreme. The Swede's first triumph in 1976 saw Borg achieve the Open era's only clean sweep of winning a title without dropping a single set the entire tournament. After two finals wins over Connor and then over American Roscoe Tanner in '79, he saved the best one for his fifth final against upstart John McEnroe in 1980. In one of the greatest tennis matches ever, the two fought tooth and nail the entire way, including a stirring 4th set tiebreak that saw Mac save five championship points by the 4-time defending champion and won 18-16 after 20 minutes. The underdog American, who was booed before the match for his behavior in the tournament, didn't have an answer in the 5th set as Borg won 8-6 to become the first in nearly 100 years to win five straight Gentlemen's Singles titles.
McEnroe would return the favor on Borg a year later to claim his first of his three Wimbledon titles, as the '80s would see the ladies dominate. Martina Navratilova would reign supreme nine times as Ladies Singles champion, but not without a great rival in Chris Evert, who would hoist the Rosewater Dish three times. The two met each other five times in the final with Martina winning all five of them, and either one or the other made it to the final 13 straight years from the native Czech's first win in '78 to her last in 1990. German Steffi Graf emerged as the next big star in 1988 when she beat Martina for the third of her calendar year grand slam, and went on to win six more ladies' singles titles. Fellow German Boris Becker became the youngest to win the men's title in 1985 at age 17 as its first unseeded champion, and triumphed two more times on Centre Court, as did Swede Stefan Edberg.
The recent modern era of the '90s & the 21st century began with Andre Agassi's rise to winning his first Grand Slam at Wimbledon in 1992. During this time, there was joy for Martina Hingis, Jana Novotná, Lindsey Davenport, Goran Ivanišević, Lleyton Hewitt and Maria Sharapova in having their championship moment. But the era, and Centre Court, would be dominated by fellow American Pete Sampras, who would win the Gentlemen's Singles seven times in eight years, starting in '93 when he beat fellow American Jim Courier and then culminating with him beating Aussie Patrick Rafter in near darkness in 2000 for his record 7th title. The ladies' story in the post-Graf era would be dominated by one last name: Williams, as Venus or Serena would win ten of the ladies' singles titles from Venus' first win of five in 2000 to Serena's fifth in 2012; the sisters also met in the final four times as well.
And then, there was what happened in 2013. Before Sunday, July 7th of two years ago, no British man had won his nation's national tennis title since Fred Perry in 1936. And no Brit had lifted a trophy on Centre Court since Virginia Wade won the Ladies' Singles in 1977, the event's Centennial. Andy Murray was the latest man who was determined to erase 77 years of close calls, which included fellow Brit Tim Henman coming close many times in the '90s. And after a straight sets win over Novak Djokovic in front of Princess Kate, that drought ended in a sea of the Union Jack colors. This would become the pinnacle of Murray Mania in Britain as the previous year the Scot won Olympic gold on Centre Court a day after his nation's Super Saturday, and followed that up with a 2012 U.S. Open win, the first British men's Grand Slam title since, also, Fred Perry's 1936 U.S. title.
This is the latest chapter in an era where Murray, Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer have won each Gentlemen's Singles title since the Swiss' first Grand Slam title in 2003, though Federer's first moment of glory was taking out Sampras early in '01. Federer had won five straight times until what many consider the greatest Wimbledon match ever in 2008 when for the 3rd straight year he met the Spaniard Nadal. In the greatest match of their storied rivalry which saw them all but two of the last 16 'Slams, just as it was for Borg-McEnroe the players battled each other shot for shot, but also battled both the last two pre-roof rain delays on Center Court and, later, darkness. Federer was two break points away from his 6th title, but Nadal held serve and came back to win the classic. It delayed the inevitable for Fed as he won the next year and broke Sampras' Open Era Grand Slam titles mark.
NEED TO KNOW
The Wimbledon schedule is as broad as any event in tennis. Yes, there's the Gentlemen's and Ladies Singles and Doubles for the Men, Ladies & Mixed teams. But there are also Junior events with Boys' and Girls' Singles and Doubles, as well as a Disabled Doubles event. And there's also five invitationals: Gentlemen's & Senior Men's Invitation Doubles, Ladies' Invitation Doubles and Wheelchair Doubles for both Men and Ladies. That's fifteen events in all, but of course all eyes are on the Singles competitions, and that's where the best from the ATP men's and WTA women's tours have their sights set on being on Centre Court that last weekend of the fortnight.
The match format is very simple (6 games wins you a set, 2-3 sets to win a match), but the difference between a tour event and a Grand Slam like Wimbledon is that the match distance for the Gentlemen's events are best-of-5 rather than best-of-3, which is used at other tour events and of course by the ladies. After two Americans played what was, at the time, the longest match in Wimbledon history - 112 games in 1969, a tiebreak system was implemented two years later for all sets except the last set where it takes a 2-game lead there to win (only U.S. Open has a last-set tiebreak among the Slams). That mark stood until 2010 when another American, John Isner, outlasted France's Nicolas Mahut 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (7-9), 7-6 (7-3), 70-68 after 11 hours & 5 minutes (8:11 for 5th set), 183 total games, over 200 aces and 3 days of play on Court #18, and worldwide attention.
The draw in both singles brackets double that of the NCAA Basketball Tournament where there's 128 players instead of 64 of what is obviously a seven-round tournament, with entrants being admitted by virtue of their international rankings and direct entries of 104/men and 108/ladies. There's 32 players given seedings in the singles (half for the doubles), and a committee also decides wild-card invitees based on recent play and fan interests this was how Ivanišević won his 2001 singles crown as a wild card. And like in golf, there is a way for other players to play their way into Wimbledon by playing a qualifying tournament in Roehampton one week before the event; John McEnroe made it to the '77 men's semis after being a qualifier. All the players and pairs are seeded by both their rankings and sometimes by how they had played on grass.
The schedule for Wimbledon is also different from those of other tennis events: while it does follow the traditional two-week GS schedule of beginning on Monday and ending two Sundays later, it takes one of those days off. Traditionally, there's no play scheduled on the event's Middle Sunday, which is a rest day for the players ahead of when the Round of 16 begins in both main draws on Monday of week two, as well as junior and invitational events starting as well. But if rain has its way and pushes things back, there have been three occasions where a heavy, backloaded schedule forced a "People's Sunday" on that day off with concert-style, general admission access to the grounds. And it was only in 1982 that Sunday play was introduced when the men's singles final moved to Sunday that extended the schedule to 14 days, and a year later saw the ladies' draw increased to 128, which ultimately moved start times at 11:30AM local time, 1PM on the show courts and 2PM the last weekend.
While it's been the only Grand Slam played on grass since the Australian Open converted from grass to hard-court in 1988 (and the U.S. Open had also used grass until '75), Wimbledon isn't the only tennis tournament played on the lawn. To help players adjust from playing on the demanding clay of the French Open at Roland Garros in Paris, there's now six Wimbledon warm-up tournaments played in England and Europe: the Queen's Club Championships in London, the Gerry Weber Open in Germany, Eastbourne and Birmingham in England, Rosmalen in the Netherlands, and the Stuttgart a open in Germany. And the U.S. does have its own grass court tournament, the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships in Newport, RI the week after Wimbledon, which doubles as induction weekend too.
THE ALL-ENGLAND CLUB
The All-England Club is a private members club that like any other athletic club, it's one that's used year round during those 50 weeks' worth of calm that takes place between the storms of the Championships invading its grounds. Its full membership comprises of 375 people, along with 100 temporary playing members and a number of honorary members including past champions. Membership have its privileges, and an applicant must receive letters of support from four members to get on its candidates' list and hope they are chosen by the committee and be given the right to purchase two tickets for each day of Wimbledon play.
The grounds were relatively the same as they were when the AELTC took up residence at Church Road in 1922 until seven decades later. In 1993, the Club embarked on a several-stage plan to modernize the facility and improve the quality of the event for the tennis community, spectators and neighbors in the SW19 district, while maintaining its unique appeal. This included the building of a new No. 1 court and extra courts, the expansion of Centre Court and new facilities to meet expanded demand for players, officials, members and the media during the summer fortnight.
At the moment, The Club has 19 tournament courts, eight American clay courts, two acrylic courts and five indoor courts, as well as 22 additional practice grass courts at adjacent Aorwngi Park; and the total capacity is just at over 35,000. But of course, most of the attention is paid to the two main show courts: Centre Court and No. 1 Court. They're so sacred and revered in tennis that, with the exception of the ladder being used sometimes for Great Britain's Davis Cup home matches and both used during the tennis competition at the 2012 London Olympics, both courts are generally only used for those two weeks in June & July. That only adds to the allure of the tournament and of the All-England Club.
First, there's the arena that longtime NBC tennis commentator Bud Collins called "the tabernacle of tennis." The inscription that hovers above the entrance to Centre Court takes lines from a Rudyard Kipling poem that reads, "If you can meet with triumph and disaster, and treat those two imposters the same." Centre Court's name comes from when its original home placed it at the center of the grounds. When the AELTC moved to Church Road, the name was kept. After it survived the WWII attack, the arena has been renovated over the years, starting with the roof being raised and then pillars being removed to allow for both more seating and a clearer view of the action.
And of course, in reply to rain always plaguing the tournament for years - and also when very hot weather arrives, the most notable addition has been of a retractable roof, for whch work began after the 2006 tournament and debuted three years later. It can open and close in 20 minutes, for which play is now only temporarily halted for 45 minutes to allow for air conditioning and lights to take effect. Today, Centre Court seats 15,000, and has been modernized lately to include a new LED scoreboard (with Hawk-Eye replay display), new media facilities, wider seats and additional stairs and lifts as well.
For Court No. 1, it was introduced in 1997 north of the main court to replace the aging old Court No. 1, which sat next to Centre Court (now where the Millennium Building stands) which, like the Louis Armstrong Stadium's Grandstand at the USTA National Tennis Center, was known for its intimacy. The new No. 1 Court was opened on 1997 with a capacity of 11,432, and a match with British star Tim Henman was the first to be played there. Two years ago, the Club announced plans to also build a retractable roof over the court, expected to be in place for the 2019 tournament.
And there's the No. 2 Court, which, the No. 1, is a new reinvention. The new 3rd court in lineage was opened for the 2009 event on the old No. 13 court site. But it's the old No. 2 Court that has both a history and a sense of Friday the 13th. There, the 3,000 seat former court was given the name of the "Graveyard of Champions" as many former champions were upset in early round play, including McEnroe, Connors, Agassi, Sampras, Sharapova and the Williams sisters.
How about the grass? For years it was a combination of ryegrass and Creeping Red Fescue, but in 2001 it was made 100% perennial ryegrass to make sure it's more durable and to withstand the wear of the modern game. Both show courts are resown just after the Championships end instead of being re-turfed to make sure they're in pristine condition when it begins again. And due to South England's summer climate, Court Attendants are used each year to help maintain ideal court conditions, making sure they're covered once a raindrop falls on the grass and clearing it when it's all dry.
INSIDE THE GROUNDS, AND TICKET TALK
Besides the show courts, just being at The Wimbledon Championships and roaming the All-England Club should be on any sports fan's bucket list. Of course, any entry to the grounds requires a ticket, and since 1924 a majority of the centre and show court passes sold to the general public has been made available by a public ballot that the AELTC holds at year's beginning, which of course are always substantially oversubscribed thanks to the overwhelming public demand. Those lucky thousands of people are then selected by at random by computer.
Another way for fans to get their hands on tickets is with the Queue. Fans without having bought tix via ballot or debentures can queue up and still be able to watch action on three of the show courts on match day. The sequestial number wristband method was first used some years ago in the battle to get about 1,500 seats at the three courts, and in order for those to get tickets, they have to camp out overnight like those waiting to get One Direction tour tickets, with toilet & water facilities included. Of course, those who get chosen get first dibs at the tickets once grounds open at 10:30AM.
And to help it raise funds for capital expenditure and to help underwrite costs of building new facilities and maintaining the club's revenue aside from sponsorship & television revenue, the AELTC issues debentures to tennis fans every five years with five years' worth of season tickets to the event. And only debenture holders are able to legally sell or transfer their tickets to third parties.
Once fans are inside, the atmosphere is unlike any other sporting event anywhere. First, often during TV coverage, you see sights of fans cheering on British players when they do well at Wimbledon when they're watching it on a large television screen outside Court 1. This large mounded hill is officially known as Aorwngi Terrace, but this is more well known as "Henman Hill" after the aforementioned '90s British star and sometimes now as "Murrayfield" for the 2013 champion. Picnics are held here for those who have tix, and this is also where non-show court fans watch those matches live.
There are famous landmarks, such as the Doherty Gates to honor 19th century tennis greats Laurie & Reggie Doherty at the main entrance; a statue of the last British man before Andy Murray to win the men's singles, Fred Perry; and both a weather vane and water tower. The world's largest tennis museum resides on the AELTC grounds, as the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum pays tribute to the sport and its greatest event year-round.
And then there's that dessert. Strawberries & Cream are to Wimbledon what hot dogs are to baseball...it's the preferred dish of the spectators. More than 61,000 lbs. of it are consumed over the fortnight, calling from 142,000 portions of the berries with 1,850 gallons of cream which fans can buy a bowl of 10 berries for £2.50 UK/$3.90 US. That's only part of the largest annual catering operation at a European sporting event, where 1800 staff serve all kinds of food to the AELTC patrons.
TRADITIONS AND TIDBITS
Just as it is at golf's greatest tournament, The Masters, Wimbledon is an event that's full of tradition, not surprising for a country that takes its traditions very seriously.
First, there's the colors and uniforms, for which dark green and purple are Wimbledon's traditional colors, which have been since 1909. But a long-time tradition has been of all players being required to wear all-white or nearly all-white clothing during competition, with an exception of a cardigan, pullover or headwear, with some color accents allowed. This pales in comparison with what's usually the case with other tennis tournaments, but when the London Olympics came rolling into the club, as the tennis action was under the auspices of the International Tennis Federation and not the AELTC, national colors took precedent. And several years ago, Ralph Lauren started providing outfits for the officials and BBG's as navy-blue & cream-colored uniforms joined the color palette.
Often times, the cameras and the tabloids focus in not on the action on the grass but on the Royal Box located above Centre Court on its south end. This is where members of the Royal Family and other dignitaries watch matches from whenever they're on the premises. For many years, players bowed or curtsied to members of Britain's first family seated there when they enter and exit the hollowed court. But in 2003, HRH Prince Edward, the Duke of Kent and President of the All-England Club, discontinued the tradition and modified it to only bow or curtsy if The Prince of Wales or The Queen were in attendance, just as it was when she was on the grounds during the 2010 tournament.
In Britain, tradition is everything, and at Wimbledon, it's no different. What's called the "Men's" and "Women's" competitions elsewhere is referred to as "Gentlemen's" and "Ladies'" competitions here, while the junior competitions are called the "Boys'" and "Girls'" events respectively. Until 2009, female players were preceded by the title "Miss" or "Mrs." on scoreboards & by the chair umpire, even including husband names too. It was only recently that the Ladies' full names were used for the first time, while Mr. is only used for amateurs, and full names are used if there's two of the same surname playing.
It's an honor for any tennis player to play at Wimbledon, but it's also an honor for any school age Brit to lay their feet on the hollowed grounds as a ball boy or ball girl, or BBG's. Since 1969, local schools in the London area have provided 250 kids, usually age 15 and in American equivalent 8th-10th grade and chosen out of 750 entrants, a chance to be on court with the world's best and provide them with fresh sets of balls, picking them up when points end and everything that comes with being in a surreal experience as taking part in their country's greatest summer tradition.
There's also a Hawk named Rufus who flies over the Club at 9AM each morning of the tournament to scare away pigeons before the fans flock to the courts. And like the Masters, the NCAA Tournament and the Olympics, Wimbledon is the only tennis tournament that doesn't have advertising or signage on its perimeters, all in spite of millions in sponsorship and television revenue.
PRIZES AND THE CASH
Prize money is a relatively new tradition at Wimbledon, having been introduced when the pros first started coming in 1958. Before 2007, it was only the U.S. Open that awarded equal prize money to both men and women, and that year Wimbledon changed its policy of awarding more to the men than to the women and began awarding equal prize money. This year's 2015 purse will see the event pay out a record £26,750,000 - nearly $42.5 million U.S., including £1.88 million (approx. $2.86 M U.S.) to the Gentlemen's and Ladies' Singles Champions, and at £29,000 (app. $46,000 U.S.) to each player. Plus, the champions are given 2000 extra ranking points in the race for the ATP & WTA year-end titles.
But the most important honor, along with the fame that comes with winning the most coveted event in tennis, is a trophy to go along with it. The man who wins the Gentlemen's Singles Championship receives a silver gilt cup called the "Challenge Cup" that reads, "All England Lawn Tennis Club Single Handed Championship of the World," which stands 18.5 inches tall. The winner of the Ladies Singles title receives the "Challenge Trophy" that's best known as the Venus Rosewater Dish, which also stands 18 inches in diameter and features figures from mythology. Both winners are given one year lease of the prize, which they also bring with them to the closing gala dinner after the Gentlemen's Singles final, as are silver cups given to Gentlemen's, Ladies' and Mixed Doubles champions as well. The runners-up receive an inscribed plate, and all trophies are presented by the AELTC President.
It's no secret that in the U.S., there isn't as much interest in tennis as it was in the '80s and '90s. The lack of an American presence to challenge the likes of the Big Four of Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray in the men's game has something to do with it after the retirement of the last successful American men's player, multiple runner-up Andy Roddick. But we still have the Williams sisters, who've been the dominant force in the women's game since bursting on the scene 15 years ago, and Venus and Serena remain perennial favorites.
Still, there's always that appeal of seeing the world's best players play in a place where the game of tennis is at its best, and it's something that never gets old. By the time the man who wins the Gentlemen's Singles title holds the trophy aloft on Sunday, July 12, 662 total matches will have been played, over 54,000 balls will have been used, nearly 500,000 people would've walked the grounds, a potential TV audience of 1 billion viewers will have watched it, and millions more accessing it digitally (including 1.6 million Twitter followers). There's nothing like The Championships, Wimbledon.
Be sure to follow the DC Social Network as I'm staying busy both here on DCBLOG and across my social media platforms this summer. And again, the focus, for right now, is on the Summer of Sports.
- First, follow my dedicated live tweet hub, DCNOW at Twitter @DC408DxNow. That's where you'll be with us to experience championship weekend at the FIFA Women's World Cup from Canada. I'll be live tweeting the 3rd Place playoff on Saturday between England and Japan and of course the Final on Sunday as the U.S. and Japan meet again. Right after the final, you'll then experience the closing stages of the beginning of the 2nd half of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season as the Coke Zero 400 takes place under the lights at Daytona, and of course Wimbledon championship weekend as well.
- DCBLOG is complementing those live tweets with extensive and unique blog coverage of all things sports right here, taking you beyond the headlines and highlights for a unique look at sports from my press box. We've covered soccer, golf and boxing here so far this summer and if you haven't checked out those previous posts take an opportunity to check them out here when you got a chance. Next on our slate are posts on the World Series of Poker and the Tour de France to come your way here in the next couple weeks, and plenty more sports articles still to come.
- For MTV fans, my live show tweets resume next Wednesday with new seasons of Catfish and Teen Mom 2 premiering on back-to-back nights, plus the return of America's Best Dance Crew and the VMA's. We'll then be offering wall-to-wall coverage here of the MTV Trifecta of Season 3 of Are You The One? in Hawaii, plus Challenge 27, currently taping in Turkey. To get you in that mood, we have a special backtracked edition of DC SocialPulse in the coming weeks to cover the final act of season 2 and Team 21's epic comeback.
- For MTV fans, my live show tweets resume next Wednesday with new seasons of Catfish and Teen Mom 2 premiering on back-to-back nights, plus the return of America's Best Dance Crew and the VMA's. We'll then be offering wall-to-wall coverage here of the MTV Trifecta of Season 3 of Are You The One? in Hawaii, plus Challenge 27, currently taping in Turkey. To get you in that mood, we have a special backtracked edition of DC SocialPulse in the coming weeks to cover the final act of season 2 and Team 21's epic comeback.
- Also ahead, my fellow sports/MTV fan, webcast host and recent college grad Andrew Kirk will do a special Big Time Reality TV webcast on his YouTube channel where he'll offering his thoughts on the recent Trifecta cycle, answering questions submitted by yours truly. Be sure to follow the both of us, Brian Cohen, Ali Lasher and Reality Radio as we'll be covering the MTV Trifecta both on our respective blogs and on their webcasts when the buzz for AYTO3 begins later this summer, plus Big Brother 17 as well.
- And as always, don't forget to follow my primary Twitter handle @DC408Dxtr, my Instagram account also at the same handle, and at Tumblr at dc408dxtr.tumblr.com. I'm open for you to chat with me anytime on Twitter, so if you want to talk sports, MTV or pop culture, I'm here for you.
Thanks for checking out this look at tennis' most-prestigious event, The Wimbledon Championships, all part of the Summer of Sports. Again, make sure to join me on DCNOW this weekend for the final act of the FIFA Women's World Cup from Canada and NASCAR's Coke Zero 400, and then back here next week as we shift the attention to cycling and poker. Until then, thanks for reading, have fun, see you then and, in the words of former BBC Sport presenter Des Lynam, "Cherrio."
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Acknowledgements: Wimbledon.com, Wikipedia: Wimbledon, A Guide to The Championships Wimbledon 2001
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