At 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, flowers were trimmed, signs were polished and front doors were guarded for another day at Wimbledon.
Andy Chevalier started two hours earlier, and his 7:30 a.m. beginning is often the best part of a day that can stretch until the premier courts host their final late-night points.
Andrew Chevalier has a lot to juggle as Wimbledon’s ball distribution managerAELTC/Adam Warner“That is a lovely point in the day because it’s quiet, and normally this room becomes an absolute mess,” Chevalier exclusively told talkSPORT, while standing inside a small room near Centre Court filled with boxes of bright green Slazenger balls.
“And then 7:30 in the morning is when I can put it back to normal.”
The 44-year-old Chevalier is the Ball Distribution Manager for Wimbledon.
He’s also a former Wimbledon security guard from the turn of the millennium who loved being around the grounds so much that he’s now a primary cog in the nonstop two-week machine that keeps Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, Ben Shelton, Aryna Sabalenka, Coco Gauff and Cameron Norrie happy.
Chevalier is the final man in charge of the 64,500 balls that are carefully transferred from unpopped cans to the swift hands of ball boys and ball girls, then selectively chosen by the best tennis players in the world during a tournament that prizes tradition above everything else.
The balls must be perfect, and almost 50,000 had been used as of Day 8 on Monday.
“They are looking for the ball that they can hit the hardest for their first serve,” Chevalier said.
“What they tend to do is they take three, have a look, and then knock one back. They’ll keep one for their first serve and put one in their pocket.”
And the players must never run out of balls.
“I wouldn’t be here if it happened,” Chevalier joked. “It would be somebody else next year.”
An elaborate system unfolds before Carlos Alcaraz picks the right tennis ball to hitGetty More than 64,000 tennis balls are used during the tournamentAELTC/Ben Solomon Players often prefer the ‘hardest’ ball to serveAELTC/Ian WaltonHe’s an actor and writer when he’s not standing inside a room that features two small windows, and used to serve as the Wimbledon Radio Studios.
From Oliver Tarvet’s qualifying to the men’s singles championship on Sunday, Chevalier orchestrates an elaborate system that relies upon time, precision and teamwork.
“As long as we follow the systems, we are absolutely fine,” he said.
“The first job of the day is to get the balls down to the courts ready for the first matches of the day. And every match is loaded up with 21 cans of unopened balls on each court.”
On TV, Wimbledon wows fans worldwide by blending the classic with the contemporary – all-white uniforms, green grass and well-dressed fans mingle with Instagram snaps and freshly uncorked champagne.
In person, Wimbledon is the same – with well-contained chaos.
Ball game
How do Wimbledon players pick the best ball to use?
Chevalier told talkSPORT: “They’re looking at the fluff, they’re looking at the wear of the logo. They’re knocking the one that’s most fluffy, most worn back, because they don’t want that to serve. And they’re keeping the one that has got the most pressure. The balls in the best conditions, they can hit that through the air the hardest.”Did you know? Slazenger has been the official supplier of tennis balls to The Championships for more than 120 years. The balls were originally hand sewn, and no two were exactly alike.
The grounds are packed, tennis and human movement never stop, and there’s a ton of behind-the-scenes magic required to ensure that the pressure-packed balls keep flowing.
“Our intention is that the spectators don’t notice anything,” Chevalier said.
“It’s beautiful and seamless on the surface. And we are running around behind closed doors making sure everything is in the right place.
“I deal with the ball boys and girls a lot and they are amazing. I mean, they are trained brilliantly. They are really skilled, really energetic. They keep working all the time.
“One of the jobs of the ball boys and girls is to take the used balls at the end of the match, and get back to my office as quick as they can. They could be crossing most of the ground.
“And they’ve got until one chair umpire leaves the match and another chair umpire gets onto the chair to get those balls back. So they’re probably exhausted from their match, running around and being brilliant as they are.”
AFPTennis players are very picky when it comes to the right ball[/caption]Chevalier’s Wimbledon nightmare is being midway through his drive home and learning that players have run out of balls on Centre Court.
Via the TV monitors inside his bunker-like room, he’s watched a match on Court 12 that featured an umpire open can after can of new balls, which were promptly rejected over and over by a frustrated player.
“I got all those cans collected up at the end of the match and I went to the chief umpire and said, ‘Is there anything wrong with these balls?’ ” Chevalier said.
“It turns out there wasn’t. He was just having a bad moment in the match.”
Flowers bloom, trains randomly arrive, the queue never ends, and elusive tickets are everything for two ideal weeks in south west London.
But Wimbledon is nothing without its world-class ball machine, which keeps a tournament that started in 1877 moving forward match after match.
“The morning is lovely when it’s quiet,” Chevalier said.
“I’m the only one in for about an hour in the morning. Taking the balls to the court, the first balls to the court, it’s just lovely.
“You get to go onto the courts and load up the drums, knowing they’re going to be used for amazing moments throughout the day.”
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