Tennis stars at Wimbledon will be unable to bring their dogs onto site despite many players now travelling with their pets.
French Open champion Mirra Andreeva recently celebrated on court with her coach Conchita Martinez’s puppy Luna after winning her first grand slam title at Roland Garros. World No 1 Aryna Sabalenka also celebrated with her puppy Ash after winning the Miami Open, while Marta Kostyuk, Anastasia Potapova and Anna Kalinskaya were among the other players to bring their dogs into player areas at the French Open.
The French Open even employed two dedicated dog walkers as part of its player support services, as well as sitters to look after the pets with their owners were playing matches. Pets can offer emotional support and companionship for players during long and often stressful tournaments, with some tour events also now accommodating them on site.
Wimbledon, however, only permits service dogs and search dogs to enter the grounds, with their policy communicated to the players before the start of this year’s tournament.
The pets who are currently travelling in Europe would have to remain at home during the day, but Wimbledon chief executive Sally Bolton didn’t foresee the policy being an issue.
“The only dogs that we permit on site are service dogs and those security and search dogs,” Bolton confirmed. “We’re in constant communication with the players and we don’t anticipate that being a problem, but that’s our policy and it always has been.”
Wimbledon, meanwhile, revealed that Andy Murray’s statue will be delivered by 2027, the 150th anniversary of the Championships.
The All England Club also confirmed the arrival of ‘VAR-style’ video review and expressed confidence in their electronic line calling system, which malfunctioned last year and missed three calls in one game.
“There was an issue last year that was rectified and the review was undertaken during last year’s Championships, Bolton said.
“We will always test our systems, every single system we have as we go into the Championships, but we’re confident that that issue was in fact rectified last year, so certainly we’ll be going into this year.”
Visual indicators to complement live electronic line calling will also be introduced, showing out and fault calls on scoreboards across all courts during the main draw and qualifying.
