This weekend, Linda Nosková will face Karolína Muchová and Jannik Sinner will play against Alexander Zverev in the much anticipated Wimbledon finals. The world will be watching.
Wimbledon endures not because it’s the most prestigious tournament, but because it’s the one that most feels like it belongs to everyone—from royals to regular fans. The groundskeepers tend it like family. And generation after generation of fans gets to inherit it like one.
Every spring, months before a single ball is struck, the groundskeepers of the All England Lawn Tennis Club begin their most important work of the year. In May 2023, I was invited to spend time with the staff during their preparation for Wimbledon. I hopped on the first flight, arriving at the club outside London in a dewy morning fog.
For a lifelong tennis player and fan, it was a kind of pilgrimage. I bent down to touch the grass and hoped a few shards of green would rub off on my palm so I could tuck them into a vial. Will Brierley, Lead Groundsperson at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, showed me how they mow, trim, massage, roll, and paint some of the world’s most famous tennis courts.
As I sat in their clubhouse, a well-worn break room filled with whiteboards containing the day’s assignments, black-and-white photos of past groundskeepers, and books from James Patterson thrillers to a Scrabble dictionary, what struck me most was the dynamic among the groundskeepers and the shared language between them. It’s a unique form of family that gathers here before the Grand Slam begins.
The groundskeepers, who don’t really follow tennis, spoke about each court as if it were a sibling or cousin—some demanding and temperamental, others easy to maintain. Some, they joke, they can tend with their eyes closed. They’re exhausted by the time the tournament starts, especially if it’s been raining. They know these courts as family.
When the players arrive, something similar happens in the sta
