On my next trip, I’ll definitely stay in either Wimbledon Village or central London (logistics can’t even escape this daydream) and play tennis with friends in Battersea Park, Regent’s Park, and Dulwich Park. If this daydream faces no budget constraints, I might stay at the Belmond Cadogan Hotel in London, if only for access to private tennis courts in Cadogan Square Gardens.
Resorts for the Racquet-Crazed
Speaking of resorts with tennis, you might consider several outside the city if you are a die-hard like me. Stoke Park is a resort with six grass courts and a 27-hole golf course, and Coworth Park is an iconic country house hotel in Ascot, where Prince Harry stayed the night before his wedding to Meghan Markle. You could venture northwest to Lucknam Park Hotel & Spa in the Cotswolds, where yes, there are two tennis courts, and you can ride a horse, enjoy a massage, take cooking classes, or leave the cooking to the professionals and indulge in a full English afternoon tea featuring warm scones and clotted cream.
One year, I might even jump on a two-hour flight to Nice in France to check the ultra-luxurious Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc and its red clay courts off my bucket list.
This June, the closest I’ll get to Wimbledon is a towel, or, if I can find it, the faded green cap that was part of my uniform. I hope my next visit will come in 2021. Whether it’s a seat in the stands of a show court, on a picnic blanket with friends on Henman Hill (or Murray Mound, depending on whom you’re speaking to), or standing room only next to a smaller court, I’ll be stoked. I’ll soak in rays of sunshine, smile at revelers dressed in anything from Scottish kilts to Bjorn Borg wigs kept in place with a green, white, and purple headband, and bite into a strawberry or 10 while watching players warm up. Eventually, an umpire will signal that it’s go-time with a simple “Ready? Play.”
While I dream of the thwack of tennis balls and freshly manicured grass courts, I’m thinking about the current spotlight on racial inequality. A number of charities seek to support remedies. If I must pick one, it’s the NAACP, which says its mission is to secure the political, social, educational, and economic equality of rights in order to eliminate race-based discrimination and ensure the health and well-being of all persons.
This article was provided by Bloomberg Newws