The Championships may be the most prestigious international Grand Slam in the calendar with players from more than 37 countries in the singles draws alone, but it also has the celebratory feel of a strong local community event.

“Working here is the best summer job I’ve ever had,” says Elisha Peters. He and his twin sister Eleesha are in their fifth year of working in the Court Services team, jumping up to cover the grass when raining, uncovering when fair, dressing the court with net, equipping players’ chairs with towels and accessories, generally making sure the courts are in optimal conditions for the world’s best players to practise and compete.

Whether on No.1 Court (Elisha) or on the practice courts (Eleesha), the twins spend more than 12 hours a day, three weeks a year, with their teams striving for visual and practical perfection. 

“It's a lot of details you don't expect,” says Eleesha. “So when you're doing all that and then you see it looks so pristine and perfect on the TV, it all makes sense.”

The pair, now 22, came through the Wimbledon Foundation's Work at Wimbledon scheme in 2021, via Wandsworth Community Empowerment Network (WCEN)'s “Black Minds Matter” programme, a Battersea-based project that promotes good mental health and access to employment openings to help empower young people into thriving career paths.

“It started in 2020 with a message about job opportunities at Wimbledon on the Black Minds Matter WhatsApp group,” says Elisha. He hopped on the Zoom call, heard about potential roles in seven teams including retail, court services, transport and ticketing, applied, got an interview – and the rest is family history.

They were initiated in the Court Services role at the Qualifying tournament at Roehampton. "That was a good introduction to understanding what the pressure might be like in bad weather.  Once we stepped into the Grounds here, we were like, ‘Oh, this is really big,’” recalls Eleesha.

“And the exhilaration, having to do rush covers on Centre Court, that was absolutely insane,” says Elisha. “I remember after doing my first rush cover thinking that I would really like to come back to this. It's a really, really good job. And five years later, we're still here.”

This year, Elisha and Eleesha are two of 57 young people working at Wimbledon having applied for summer jobs through the same route, supported by the Wimbledon Foundation. Both are impressive and eloquent advocates of the experience and last year had the honour of being included in the line-up who greeted the Princess of Wales as she arrived at the Club on men’s finals day.

Elisha, who has always worked on teams looking after Centre Court or No.1 Court under the eyes of the world, says his first-year experience taught him how to handle pressure. He’s also welcomed the opportunity each year to team up with people from different backgrounds - and the chance to be on court with Serena Williams. "That was my little star-struck moment," he laughs.

“Meeting people I wouldn’t usually encounter really opened my perspective on life,” he says. “I had the option to study abroad for a year in my degree [Economics and International Development at the University of Sussex] but I didn’t want to take it. Talking to others in my court services team about travelling was key in persuading me to go to Hong Kong for a year abroad.”

For Eleesha – equally impressive with a master’s degree in Environmental Science from the University of Southampton –  the take-home lesson was the importance of teamwork.

“If you’re not all pulling in the same direction, the boom doesn’t move,” she laughs, talking about the carefully choreographed physical effort involved in pulling a heavy court cover across the grass at speed. “And even when we do finish, we make sure we check and see if any other team needs help and we’ll run over to another court just to make sure that the grass is protected and covered.”

The siblings are both so busy on-site that it’s only when they get home at night that they have time for a debrief about any cool moments in their day – and to be vigilant over laundering their kit.

In the first year, Elisha grabbed his shirt from the drier one morning. “I got to court, did the uncovering, and one of my teammates was like, ‘Your shirt looks a little bit short. 
And then I noticed it barely reached my shorts. I put my hands up and it looked like I was wearing a crop top!

“I was looking around thinking this doesn't make sense. Like I thought the drier wouldn’t shrink the clothing, would it? And then one of my teammates said, ‘You have a twin, don't you?’ 
And I looked at the label and saw Eleesha had written her name on it.  We've both written names on our things ever since.”

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