Back on the grass

05 June, 2009 | 15:06

And so they're back on the grass.

There's no respite for the players at this time of year, and just days after finishing in Paris, Andy and his team were back on the grass down at Queen's.

With days to go until the tournament starts, the venue is buzzing with the sound of workmen, and their finishing touches. It's hard to believe that the venue will be ready to go next week, but finished it will be.

One aspect that does look immaculate are the courts. Just amazing. The ground staff take a lot of pride in the playing surface, and rightly so.

And that's exactly why the players have to do their warm-up on the astroturf.

Thursday's game of tennis football was lent an extra competitive edge thanks to a forfeit which would see the loser carrying all the tennis bags to lunch...

Miles is threatening to get his hair cut, but that elusive shampoo contract might be just around the corner..

And here's Miles on the gorgeous practice courts. No joke, they look like they've been hand-cut with scissors.

Here's Andy making his first steps on the green stuff in 2009...

First up for Andy was some jumping exercises just to the side of the practice courts...

The grass puts very different demands on the body, so we can expect some quite specific training routines over the coming weeks.

There was plenty of jumping, although not so much from Miles.

In fairness, he'll spend some time on getting his back nice and loose, leaving Andy to take care of the hard work with Jez....

And here's why they bother....

In the space of a few days they go from a surface where the ball bounces up to and above shoulder height, to below knee height.

For some of the players, the adjustment is incredibly frustrating. We heard a few few moans and groans out on the practice courts.

Andy seemed pretty fine with it.

Practice done, it fell to Jez Green to carry all the bags back to the player lounge.

Took him a while to figure out a way of doing it in one go, but in fairness to him he managed.

Even if getting through the doors proved a bit tricky...

It's raining here in London today, but we'll have another update tomorrow.