Lorenzo Musetti & Co. are wearing out their balls a lot. © ANSA / TIM IRELAND

Wimbledon needs 63.000 tennis balls

63.000 – this unimaginable number of new tennis balls are ordered for Wimbledon every year.

July 11, 2024

From: dpa/det

That's what it says on page 418 of the 566-page reference book with a series of statistics, records and information about the grass court classic. 63.000 - that means 21.000 ball cans for the two-week Grand Slam tournament. There are three balls in each can.

How many balls are used depends on how the matches go. After all, you never know how many sets they will last. The All England Lawn Tennis Club reports that 55.000 balls were used last year. The rest are also used for ball training.

Six balls in circulation

The number of balls includes not only the singles competitions, but also the doubles and mixed competitions as well as the junior men's and women's competitions, the wheelchair competitions and the invitational doubles with the ex-tennis professionals.

63.000 tennis balls are used every Wimbledon year. © APA/afp / BEN STANSALL

Six tennis balls circulate on a court during matches - whether in a rally, in a player's pocket or in the hands of the ball boys. The balls are replaced after seven games at the beginning - including hitting - and then after every nine games.

The players will also be provided with the balls for training. Two cans will be distributed per training session, the organizers said. The used balls will be sold for a good cause.

By the way, qualification for Wimbledon, which is being played at a different venue in Roehampton, is out of the question. That adds a whole bunch of balls.