Wimbledon diary: Tarvet's prize money mystery and Bear Grylls in the box

The Guardian

2 days ago

When Oliver Tarvet revealed that he would be unable to accept the vast majority of the £99,000 in prize money he earned for reaching the second round here because, as a US college student, he is still an amateur, the fairness of the rules was widely questioned. But what happens to that money, now that Tarvet can't accept it? Just because Tarvet can't take it, Wimbledon can't just give it to charity, for example. Contrary to popular suggestion, the cash does not get put into a fund for a lavish staff Christmas party at the All England Club. Instead, it goes back into the overall pot and will form part of the surplus profit from the Championships, 90% of which will be handed to the LTA. Last year, the LTA received £50.4m in total from Wimbledon, so Tarvet's decision to stay on at college means British tennis will benefit even more than usual.
Some players this week have been suggesting that the courts are slower than usual this year, a topic of discussion that always throws up some confusion, not least since players can be the worst judges of all when it comes to court speed. There's no doubt that the courts (and balls) have slowed in the past 25 years and the days of Boris Becker diving around the net are long gone. But serve and volley, contrary to popular opinion, is not quite dead yet. Maybe it was because he was enjoying himself so much against Dan Evans on Thursday, but Novak Djokovic served and volleyed six times, winning all six points. It can be done.
The replacement of line judges by electronic line-calling has been widely appreciated by most players, but some appear to miss the old traditions. Corentin Moutet, the talented but volatile Frenchman, likes nothing more than a heated discussion but when one of his serves was called out, his incredulity quickly abated when he realised there was no one to argue with. When he asked the umpire if it was out, the reply was 'apparently', immediately dissipating any prospect of an escalation.
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The Royal Box included an eclectic mix of personalities on day four, from the actors Rory Kinnear and Niamh Cusack to the former home secretary William Hague, the former Undertones frontman-turned environmental campaigner Feargal Sharkey and Eliza Manningham-Buller, the former head of MI5. Also in the box was Bear Grylls, the adventurer and TV personality. Grylls was part of a panel discussion at Wimbledon this morning looking at 'how we maximise our platforms using sport and entertainment to inspire action on protecting nature'. Grylls, by the way, once made Roger Federer eat fish eyeballs in the Swiss Alps.