Total winners, unforced errors, percentage of first serves in, break points converted: numbers are an important measure of match performance at a tennis tournament, but ultimately of ephemeral significance.
The number 2,631, however, carries an enduring resonance at The Championships - as fans in The Queue are discovering as they walk past a spectacular art installation that embodies an important message in Wimbledon Park.
The striking fountain, created from 2,631 balls donated by Slazenger, represents the number of lives that could be saved on average each day if everyone, everywhere, had clean water and decent toilets.
Part of the #TeamWater campaign, the sculpture highlights the partnership between WaterAid and the Wimbledon Foundation, which is helping to make clean water, reliable sanitation and good hygiene normal for health centres, schools and communities in Ethiopia, Malawi and Nepal.
A donation of £100,000 per year over a three-year partnership will help transform people’s health, keep children in school, and empower women and girls to be the best they can be.
The fountain will remain in the park for the duration of The Championships. Queuers stroll past the fun, geyser-like structure in the early stages of joining the line to buy tickets.
A few hundred metres later, they walk past the #TeamWater GIF Booth, where fun photographs taken with a giant racket are framed in strawberry images and posted up on the wall. Supporters also get one to take home as a memento.
“I am delighted to see that people in The Queue are looking at something that makes them think about something they take for granted,” said Olga Ghazaryan, Director of International Programmes for WaterAid. “They’ve probably got up this morning, showered, used a toilet without realising that clean water is still an issue around the world. It is energising to see the awareness growing and the desire to share in the project.”
Unfortunately, one in 10 people around the world don’t have access to clean water, which is why the Wimbledon Foundation is partnering WaterAid in its mission to ensure everyone has a healthy future, courtesy of clean water and basic hygiene facilities, by 2030.
Adding a bit of topspin to the fact that it takes a team to make a Wimbledon champion and a team to make The Championships happen, the WaterAid booth also displays a photography exhibition of the team involved in bringing clean water and good hygiene to a particular community in Ethiopia – the teacher, plumber, government official, trench digger, labourer, community elders and children.
It’s a positive story of action, but a poignant reminder that water – the same element that keeps Wimbledon’s grass courts maintained and competitors and spectators hydrated – is a precious commodity that should be accessibily to all for health, fitness and a fulfilling life.
