11 o'clock and all's silent on Wimbledon's would-be Day 1 - watsupptoday.com
11 o'clock and all's silent on Wimbledon's would-be Day 1
Posted 30 Jun 2020 11:59 AM

When the clock struck 11 a.m. at the All England Club, there was silence.

Not because a player dressed all in white was about to whack a serve on one of Wimbledon's many perfectly kept grass courts, but because there is no tennis this year at the oldest Grand Slam event in the world.
Monday should have been the first day of the two-week Wimbledon tournament, and matches usually start just before noon on the outside courts. But because of the coronavirus pandemic, the tournament was canceled for the first time since World War II.

�Sad,� said Mary Robbins, a local resident who grew up in Wimbledon and relishes getting a glimpse of Roger Federer or Serena Williams walking through the neighborhood. �It's been part of our lives forever.�

Every year, just in time for strawberry season in Britain, the world of tennis turns its focus to the All England Club. The traditional tennis whites worn by every player, the gleaming green grass at the start giving way to brown blotches along the baseline at the end, the majesty of Centre Court on the final weekend.

�It�s the highlight of the year for us,� said Robert McNicol, the librarian at the All England Club who has been working from home since March. �As somebody who loves tennis, it�s what I live for every year.�

But 2020 is not like any other year. The coronavirus has claimed more than 500,000 lives around the globe and caused havoc on much of the sports world. And while many sports have gotten back into action or are about to, Wimbledon decided in April to skip this year, in part because it had the foresight to buy insurance against a pandemic.

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