www.zeenews.com, May 2006

Nadal’s Pirata shorts preserved for posterity

London, May 01: The new Wimbledon tennis museum boasts high tech audio visual displays and an audio tour which is now available in 8 different languages.

Commercial Director, Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Club Museum, Ashley Jones said, "The Museum is the public face of the Championships for 50 weeks of the year. The old museum was excellent of it's time but what we've actually done is push this forward we actually think this is one of the most forward looking museums that anybody is going to find anywhere we got such amazing technology and such unique films to us so yes we've pushed it forward but what we've really done is bring it in line with Wimbledon brand and the Wimbledon brand globally is excellence. It is known as the best tennis tournament in the world; it's important that it has the best museum to reflect that. "

The state of the art video displays aim to give visitors a chance to experience life as a superstar player and see the world through their eyes. In contrast you can also see footage of the first tennis match ever filmed and plenty of player memorabilia and clothing donated by past champions.

Museum Curator, Honor Godfrey said, "It's very important that when we are collecting from players that we collect for very particular reasons and I can think last year that I collected Raphael Nadal's "piratas" shorts because piratas shorts, which go down just below the knee , a length of shorts like that had not been worn since 1927 and I just thought that was absolutely amazing and that was an item that I was really pleased to get in the collection and then there are things that you hear an awful lot about that have been in the championships like last year the gold trainers that Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova wore and we have a pair of each of those on display. " 

Released at www.zeenews.com at 1st of May 2006