Wimbledon is the one place where they DO like Mondays — particularly the second one

When it is tea time at Wimbledon, even if there is a nail-biting tennis match being played, most of the dignitaries in the Royal Box and even most of the fans out on Court 14 or Court 19, the ones wearing cocktail dresses and those wearing jeans and T-shirts, head out for refreshments.

That’s just tradition, and it is the traditions more than anything that make Wimbledon still the most coveted tennis title.

Tracy Austin, a two-time Wimbledon semifinalist who now does commentary for the British Broadcasting Company, said that now and when she played, Wimbledon was special.

“The history, the tradition,” she said. “It is a gorgeous club with flowers all around and in a beautiful neighborhood. Grass makes it unique, the royal box, the most beautiful Centre Court in the world. You just feel part of history in playing on it.”

One of the traditions is the queue. Fans without tickets wait patiently. The ones with tickets turn in the precious pass when they leave the grounds. A lucky line-waiter gets a chance.

They wait the longest for this second Monday of play.

Another of those Wimbledon traditions is that there is no play on the middle Sunday, which means that there are eight women’s and eight men’s singles matches.

How to pick, for example, between watching defending men’s champion Rafael Nadal against 2009 U.S. Open champion Juan Martin del Potro, or six-time Wimbledon title-holder Roger Federer against 18th-seeded Mikhail Youzhny of Russia? Nadal-Del Potro is scheduled to be the third match on Centre Court, and Federer and Youzhny are third on Court 1.

Defending women’s champion Serena Williams will start at 1 p.m. London time against tricky Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli, same time as fourth-seeded Andy Murray is scheduled against Frenchman Richard Gasquet on Centre Court.

It promises to be a day of breathless action, and former champion Lindsay Davenport gave an almost breathless summation of why Wimbledon is so important to players.

“Because of the tradition,” the 1999 Wimbledon champion said. “It’s so unique, it’s at this exclusive club. Every court is always packed for every match. It’s an educated tennis crowd, they treat the champions specially, fans line up and camp out for just a chance to get in and see the place.

“Yet they have done an extraordinary job of modernizing the facility [while] still keeping the character and charm and history alive.”

In 2009 Wimbledon added a roof over Centre Court. This year a new Court 3 debuted. There is a large-screen television out on the grounds so that people with only a grounds pass can sit and watch the main matches, and there is a large board outside Centre Court where others cluster to watch a man climb a ladder and manually update the draws when each match is over.

U.S. Davis Cup Captain Jim Courier, winner of four major titles, was a Wimbledon finalist in 1993 but never a winner.

“The history puts it at the top of the list for most players as the most coveted,” said Courier, who later this year will be part of the upcoming Champions Series with seven-time Wimbledon winner Pete Sampras and 1992 champion Andre Agassi.

Courier said that even though he never felt comfortable playing grass-court tennis, he embraced its uniqueness.

“I liked the challenge of having to adjust to grass,” he said. “Playing as a junior in Wimbledon was an amazing and somewhat overwhelming experience. The event seemed much bigger than it did on my TV screen. That’s rare. And it had a mystique. It still retains that mystique for me today.”

The idea of playing in front of royalty was intriguing to Americans 60 years ago and it still is.

Bob Kramer, who runs the Farmers Classic Los Angeles Open, is the son of the late Jack Kramer, who won Wimbledon in 1947.

“To my dad Wimbledon always had a special pull,” Bob said. “Even back then it seemed to have such great tradition and the unique attachment to royalty.”

Kramer remembered that when his father won he was presented the trophy by King George VI, more famous to the current generation as the protagonist in the Academy Award-winning movie “The King’s Speech.”

“My dad’s final was delayed because the king was late,” Kramer said. “That was part of the allure though. I think it still is.”

Last year Queen Elizabeth II made an appearance in the Royal Box and the excitement was palpable. Serena Williams, who went on to win, chattered about how she was practicing a curtsy. The practice went to waste. Williams was scheduled on Court 2 on the day the queen arrived. But her curtsy was first-rate.

diane.pucin@latimes.com

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