‘It makes water wetter’: How Wimbledon keeps grass green in soaring temperatures | Wimbledon 2025

A special chemical is used in Wimbledon to make “wet water” to try to reduce water bills and combat the increase in temperatures.

While the championship welcomed the rain on Wednesday after opening with scorching temperatures, Neil Stubley, Wimbledon courtyard and horticulture, said the tournament uses a floor spray to adjust the amount of water that a system of vegetable roots can absorb.

Stubley said: “This seems a strange term, but it makes water wet. The surface tension of a water molecule, a vegetable root system, at a certain point, cannot penetrate it as humidity becomes smaller, because the surface tension is more. We can adjust it so that a plant root can draw from this water.”

Wednesday, tennis fans flocked in Wimbledon in the light rain after the warmest start of the championship recorded while temperatures climbed 32c on Monday and 34.2 ° C on Tuesday.

High temperatures meant that additional water was necessary to avoid rapid drying of the courts, which could cause cracks. But with cooler temperatures that should arrive, Stabley plans that a “routine championship” will follow.

Stubley and the team of 20 full-time employees, who have 250 experienced championships between them, are used to being reactive and adaptive to the capricious time of Great Britain.

To maintain the delicate balance between the whims of mother nature and the conditions required for elite tennis, the data is collected every day, including the considerations of the balloon, the firmness of the soil and the humidity, to determine how the courts are managed in the evening. In the morning, the mowers are adjusted and the grass is adapted to an 8 mm precise.

Although irrigation is the key to controlling the way the surface is played, it is only one of the many considerations Stubley and his team take into account. In addition to the conservation of water, they also looked towards plants more “tolerant of drought”.

Stabley said: “We have actually made a conscious effort that hydrangeas – and these types of flowers that we have used historically here that really need a lot of water to survive – if you look at the land in the past 10 to 15 years, although they are still in areas, there are much less.

“We are now selecting grasses that are more tolerant and more tolerant to drought that we can use in the United Kingdom that have been used elsewhere.”

Compared to other sports, namely those that use winter or complete locations, the amount of water used throughout the summer championship will be less, he said.

“It is a living surface, the environment will always have an impact on the way it plays,” said Stabley. “It’s just responsive and make sure you adapt.”