Now that the booze-soaked kickoff of the Euros has come and gone, it looks like U.K. fans are taking their energy to the tennis courts.
Monday marked the start of this year’s Wimbledon tournament in London, and though tennis is known to be a relatively tame sport, crowds couldn’t refrain from popping some bubbles during Great Britain player Harriet Dart’s opening match against Chinese qualifier Zhuoxuan Bai.
As Bai prepared to serve in the sixth game, umpire Fergus Murphy noticed an unwelcome object on the court: a rogue Champagne cork. Murphy made an announcement to pause play, and instructed one of the ball girls to swiftly remove it. He then urged the rowdy fans to wait for a more opportune time to open their bottles, stating:
“Ladies and gentlemen, maybe we should do that on the changeovers. Open bottles on the changeovers.”
“Open the bottles on the changeovers, thanks”
A polite request from the umpire that spectators don’t open their champagne during play 🍾😂#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/rLrwDOWMLW
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 2, 2024
This isn’t the first time something like this has happened at England’s esteemed tennis tournament. At last year’s events, an umpire had to make a similar plea for fans to stop loudly popping bottles during play.
Seeing as most sports stadiums stateside remove all bottle caps and open all cans when attendees order a beer or a soda, it’s surprising that Wimbledon still allows fans to pop their own bottles of Champagne — even if it does add a little fizz to the match.