LONDON -- Coverage of Wimbledon concludes with a blizzard of numbers which often offer a comprehensive overview of the tournament. Serbian Novak Djokovic, at the age of 37, has won a record 24 Grand Slam titles, which ties him with Margaret Court of Australia who played mostly in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Today he pursued his 25^th title and his 8^th at Wimbledon. But Djokovic is 16 years older than his opponent, Carlos Alcaraz, who was trying to win his fourth Grand Slam title by the age of 21 and join a short list of champions, Bjorn Borg, Boris Becker and Mats Wilander. To the surprise of only the innocent and those ignorant of reality, Alcaraz beat Djokovic 6-2, 6-2, 7-6. That left the game’s experts to debate whether this is the end of the Djokovic era or the start of an Alcaraz epoch.

 I won’t be joining that debate. I’ve already raised enough of a ruckus with my articles about Wimbledon 2024 which some readers consider to be too snarky and irreverent. They’ve challenged me to explain what I like about tennis and why I continue to follow the tour, even with a sore back and a faltering step.

 To start with the court, most sports are played on surfaces and under circumstances that are similar. True, some fields have natural grass and others Astro Turf. But in no game is there the variety of surface that make tennis such a pleasure to watch and such a challenge to play. Tournaments take place on clay, grass, cement, asphalt, shale, carpet, even wood. And within these categories, there exist permutations and sub-categories. Under the general rubric of clay, there’s the red terre battue of Europe and the green Har-Tru of the US. And depending on weather, wind and shadows, no two clay courts, even at the same tournament, play the same.

 To add to the exhilaration of this assortment of surfaces, tennis fans get to enjoy and players get to struggle at indoor and outdoor events, not to mention day and night matches. To win Grand Slam tournaments on different surfaces in the same season as Alcaraz has just done is extraordinary. Only a handful of competitors have achieved this.

 Although professional players may be oblivious to it, the colour and texture of different courts and their surroundings can stir the most jaded spectator. What can compare to the supernal green of Wimbledon’s grass on a summer day? Who can truly capture the beauty of le Court Central at Monte Carlo that features a view of mountains in one direction and the Mediterranean in the other? Is there a heart so hard as not to respond to the dense golden light that filters through the umbrella pines at the Foro Italico? Even the US Open with its penitentiary style might be said to possess the stark, haunting beauty of a Piranesi prison sketch.

 As a yellow ball flies off a racket face, it engages the ear as well as the eye. Tennis aficionados can recognize immediately whether a groundstroke has been struck with slice or spin, and they can easily distinguish between a flat serve and a twist. Adding to the aural pleasure, there’s the squeak of sneakers on a hard court, the shush of a clay courter sliding over brick dust, or the eerie silence of a net rusher ghosting over grass.

 Tennis’s global dimension contributes immeasurably to its appeal. Only soccer rivals the circuit’s internationalism. Europeans, Africans, Asians, North and South Americans compete on even terms, and it takes just a couple of world-class players to transform a tiny, or poor and obscure country into a giant slayer. After Spain’s 2004 triumph over the USA, puckish Spanish reporters rubbed salt in American wounds by pointing out that this wasn’t simply a case of a small country conquering a superpower. Because Rafael Nadal and Carlos Moya both hail from Mallorca, it was actually a fly-speck island walloping a hegemonic monster.

 The same fascinating possibility of upsets exists on the individual as well as the international level. One of the game’s most engaging characteristics is that you don’t have to be a giant to play it. Although male and female competitors are getting taller and stronger and fitter, Goliath will always have something to fear from speedy, brave and heady Davids. Just think of the damage the doll-like Jasmine Paolini doled out at Wimbledon.

 It's worth emphasizing that tennis is the sole professional ball sport where there is a men and women’s competition at the same event and the players also compete against each other in mixed doubles. Although women’s basketball, softball, football and rugby leagues exist, they don’t attract remotely as many fans, nor do they receive the same media attention. And when it comes to equal pay for equal work, women in tennis may not have achieved absolute parity, but at least they are in the same ballpark as men, and a very plush ballpark it is.