A British Wimbledon champion has admitted telling an All England Club groundsman to “get the f*** off the court” during a practice session before this year’s championships.
Henry Patten, 29, who won the men’s doubles in 2024, received the biggest fine of the tournament for verbal abuse at £9,000. This has since been increased to £11,000 after an appeal, although it will be reduced to £5,500 if he receives no further warnings at grand-slam tournaments contested within a year of the incident.
“While practising at the AELTC [All England Lawn Tennis Club] Raynes Park facility, a member of the grounds crew entered the court approximately three minutes before the end of my scheduled session in order to prepare it for the next players,” a statement from Patten read on Sunday.
“My coach and I asked that he wait until our allotted time had finished. Despite this, he proceeded onto the court. In frustration, I told him to, ‘Get the f*** off the court’.”
Patten claimed in July that the All England Club had not “acted reasonably or fairly with due process” and his appeal was launched because of “inaccuracies and procedural failures”. A new statement released by Patten gave more background on this, revealing that he had also been the subject of more complaints, raised during a meeting with the referee, Denise Parnell, and the tournament director, Jamie Baker, two days after the incident. Patten disputes these allegations.
“Together with my coach, I was informed that they had received complaints from the grounds staff,” Patten said. “They confronted me with the above incident [verbal abuse], which I acknowledged.
“Additional allegations were also raised, which I strongly contested, and I requested that they be properly investigated using CCTV footage and witness accounts [there were approximately ten people present, and the incident occurred off-site].
Patten was informed of his original fine of £9,000 on the morning before his first-round match on July 2, which he claims covered both the verbal abuse and additional complaints, despite disputing the latter.
“I subsequently filed an appeal, making clear that while I accepted full responsibility for the initial outburst, I categorically denied the further accusations and reiterated that no independent investigation had been carried out beyond the testimony of the grounds staff,” Patten said.
“At the conclusion of the appeal, the tournament agreed to dismiss the additional charges and confirmed that I would be fined solely for using inappropriate language towards a staff member.”
Within 24 hours, Patten apologised to the groundsman who was the target of his outburst and offered him gifts, including Wimbledon tickets.
Patten is a two-times grand-slam doubles champion
PETER TARRY FOR THE TIMES
“As a gesture of goodwill, I gave the grounds crew member a Wimbledon Shop gift card [worth £250] that players had received from the tournament, and I offered grounds passes or tickets should he wish to attend the Championships,” Patten said. “He accepted my apology, we shook hands, and the matter seemed resolved at that point.
“Throughout the appeal process, talks with the organisation and with the grounds crew member himself, I maintained that my behaviour was unacceptable, and continued to offer unreserved apologies to him. I take full responsibility for what happened.”
The rules of tennis stipulate that an initial fine should be decided by the tournament referee in consultation with grand-slam supervisors on site. Any appeal is then considered by the wider and overarching Grand Slam Board, with the chief supervisor taking charge of the investigation before making a decision and potential further determination of the fine amount.
The All England Club and Grand Slam Board made no comment on Patten’s fine, as per regular practice.
Patten and his partner, Harri Heliovaara, of Finland, subsequently reached the quarter-finals of Wimbledon, splitting a prize money total of £87,500 for their efforts. They have only won one of four matches since on the tour, including a first-round defeat at the US Open.
Patten, who was born in Colchester, provided one of the best stories of Wimbledon 2024 by winning with Heliovaara as an unseeded pair after they had only started playing together three months beforehand. This came eight years after Patten had worked on the outside courts as a statistics collector for the tournament’s official data provider, IBM.
Patten has since established himself as one of the top doubles players in the world, going on to reach a present ranking of No5. He and Heliovaara have won a total of five tour titles together, including this year’s Australian Open.