Wimbledon stars have been asked to be “judicious” about maxing out their daily food allowance so supplies do not run out.
Competitors are given a £90 a day allowance to spend on food and drink in dedicated restaurants across SW19. Coaches are allocated about half that amount, with the funds available on accreditation tags that can be scanned at checkout.
Players can access six different outlets – two restaurants, two sandwich bars and two coffee shops – so that they do not need to worry about bringing their own meals to Wimbledon.
But some people have reportedly been treating the allowance as more of a target and have been trying to max it out each day, leading to concerns about supplies.
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One coach is said to have walked away with 27 probiotic yoghurt drinks in order to use up his daily allocation.
It has led the All England club to email all players about the issue. Legendary stars such as Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic are competing at this year’s tournament.
The email is believed to have appealed to players to be more “judicious” in their use of the allowance. It is understood that it is to stop potential food shortages rather than a cost-cutting exercise as the money for meals has already been budgeted.
Competitors at Wimbledon tend to frequent the Players’ Lounge where offerings include a salad bar and fresh pasta dishes.
Gary Parsons, the executive chef, said in 2017: “The players will come up and their coaches will guide them what they need to build up on. That’s why we have basic core salads so then the coaches might say ‘you need plenty of spinach, cucumber, radishes’ so they’re building their own dishes.”
The Australian Open experimented with offering unlimited food to players but this was abandoned after the scheme was exploited.
