(ATR) Wimbledon groundsman Neil Stubley tells Around the Rings that two years of experimentation on rapidly renovating the 12 tennis courts needed for the Olympics is paying dividends.
Stubley, who took charge of the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club's 19 courts during the Wimbledon fortnight, has been working all hours with head groundsman Eddie Seaward and his team since the end of this year's championships on Sunday to ensure the courts are in top condition by July 28, the beginning of the Olympics tournaments.
"I am fully confident they will be in fine shape. We have such a fantastic group of guys here," he told ATR on Tuesday as thevenue was officially handed over to London 2012. LOCOG-branded signage will transform the club for the Games.
"It laid down a challenge for the ground staff who work on the best grass courts in the world – and they have grabbed it with both hands," he said of the 20-day window to reseed and manage turf growth on the courts battered from two weeks of Wimbledon.
"The last two years we have been coming up with different theories to get the grass back," Stubley explained.
He said years of planning meant that "every potential pitfall or hiccup has been smoothed out". Even with London's wet summer, "there's nothing that we haven't experienced in the last few years".
"We are relaxed about it all, we know exactly what's going to happen [with the grass growth]."
Stubley, who has been on the Wimbledon ground staff for 18 years, takes over from his mentor Seaward after the Games. Seaward is retiring this summer with the Olympics serving as his swansong.
The Science of Court Renovation
Work on the storied lawns of the AELTC began July 6, with the release of some courts which would experience no further Wimbledon play.
The ground staff were busy working the courts from 7 to 10:30 a.m. before the club's gates opened for the thousands of visitors. Special attention is being paid to the worn baselines, reduced to dust after two weeks of intensive use, and other areas of the courts, including where the ball boys and girls scuff up the grass.
Stubley and his colleagues were on Centre Court soon after Sunday's Wimbledon presentations completed, assessing the scale of the task to return the Olympics show court to pristine condition in just three weeks.
All 12 courts that needed renovating, including Centre Court and No.1 Court, were finished by 2 p.m. Monday – around 18 hours after the mixed doubles final was decided. The AELTC's seven other courts will be used for practice during the Games.
Pre-germinated seeds were deemed necessary – a decision made after the trial and error of two years of experimenting – to generate new lush, verdant baselines. Seeds were put in bins with warm water added to accelerate the germination process before they were scattered over the grassless areas of the tennis courts.
With germination blankets covering the courts, Stubley said he expects first signs of grass growth to be seen as soon as this weekend.
"This time next week, they should be all nice and green again," he said, adding that the ground staff would then move into a pre-tournament grass management regime with rolling, drying and cutting at different heights among the necessary jobs ahead.
"For the next two-and-a-half weeks, it's a case of nurturing the courts, managing them and keeping them ticking along," Stubley said of the science involved in tending the grass growth and cutting techniques.
Commenting on today's handover of the club and courts to LOCOG, Stubley said the AELTC was working closely with London 2012 officials to fit-out the Olympics overlay.
"All the traditional green canvasses [of Wimbledon] are down and we will have the purply pink canvasses going up with the 2012 logo," he said.
"It is very exciting times for us. It's almost like having your house completely redecorated from top to bottom. It's just giving a completely different feel to [the club]. Everybody is really looking forward to it [the Olympics]."
Wimbledon is hosting the tennis competition at the Games for the second time, having staged it during London 1908. The Olympics features men's and women's singles and doubles and mixed doubles.
Wimbledon champion Roger Federer, who beat Britain's Andy Murray in Sunday's final, is bidding to win his first Olympic gold in singles this summer, having won the doubles event in Beijing. Spain's Rafael Nadal won the men’s singles title in Beijing, with Russia's Elena Dementieva and the Williams sisters winning the women’s singles and doubles golds respectively. All will return to defend their titles except Dementieva, who retired.
Reported by Mark Bisson.
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