These teams of talented grounds people work around the clock to get the grass courts in immaculate condition to host the biggest names in tennis.

Many underestimate the time, energy, and skill required to prepare world-class grass courts ahead of the British summer swing - but the reality is, the grounds staff begin preparations for the following year begin pretty much as soon as the event comes to an end.

We sat down with the Queen’s Club’s Head Groundsman, Graham Kimpton, to discuss the hard work and efforts that he and his team put into the pristine courts leading up to the cinch Championships, how they maintain the grass during the tournament week, and the reasons why each grass court plays differently to the next.

“We’ve worked backward from the start date of the tournament for the previous year and the closer it gets the more work and accuracy goes into it,” Graham said.

“It’s all down to the weather and how we change our programme, but we have targets for hardness, grass colour, and moisture levels and we’re tweaking that all the way through.

“We’ve been mowing, rolling, and watering to get enough moisture in so that the rolling gets the courts firm and we’re regularly testing the hardness of the courts to make sure the balls bounce high.”

For Graham and his team of eight full-time grounds staff who work to keep the Queen’s Club in its iconic state across the whole year, the demand of upkeeping the show and practice courts throughout the tournament means their team expands to a group of 23 for the event.

Although months of preparation go into getting the courts complete for tournament week, the hard work doesn’t stop when the action gets underway, as the team's focus shifts to maintaining the courts’ condition when they’re being used to keep them in the best shape possible for the players.

“Our team takes measurements every day and feeds data back to us. We’re all very experienced here so we can tell if a court needs a bit more moisture or if it needs drying out.

“We’re mowing, marking, and irrigating the courts pretty much daily when we get later into the tournament. It’s just about keeping on top of it, using your experience, and trying to keep the courts consistent throughout the week.

“Obviously when you play on the court on Monday, it’s going to be a lot different to when you play in the final on Sunday but the players need to be able to cope with both.”

The cinch Championships is one of a host of grass court events that take place across the summer months – Lexus Surbiton Trophy, Rothesay Open Nottingham, Rothesay Classic Birmingham, Lexus Ilkley Trophy, Rothesay International Eastbourne, and The Championships, Wimbledon all line the tennis calendar throughout June and July but despite all being played on the same surface, each court will play noticeably differently to the grass at the previous tournament.

“A lot of grass courts are evolved from what was there originally - there aren’t many that have been purpose-built to a modern specification.

“If you go to All England (Wimbledon) some of the newer courts such as Court 1 and Court 2 have been built to a specific specification, whereas Centre Court is a lot older and a bit more evolved from what was there from the original ground and that’s the same with our soil.

“The biggest reason grass courts play differently is down to the soil, not so much the grass. The soil has such a bearing on the way the grass grows and the PH levels in the soil that the plant likes.”

Despite the tournament being wrapped up for another year, Graham and his team are already gearing up to get started on preparations for the 2024 cinch Championships, with the grass courts at the Queen’s Club set to undergo a rigorous recovery programme.

“When the tournament has finished, we allow our sponsors to use Centre Court. After that, our members will be straight back on all the courts – we let them have every court on the Monday and then we take two courts out on a rotational basis to give them some rest and irrigation.

“We’re doing a lot of stuff during the tournament week which it doesn’t like - you’re drying it out too much, probably making it too hard and cutting it too short so you need to take the stress off the grass.

“With Centre Court, we’ll put it back in play in August for the members for three weeks – it goes to a ballot for charity and they have their time on there then after that, we’re getting it ready for next year from September”.