Hospitality at Wimbledon

This week we were helping Lavazza to host the first of three hospitality days at Wimbledon.  As the official suppliers of coffee to Wimbledon, Lavazza is a very visible presence at the All England Tennis Club.  This is the second year at the tennis championships for the Italian coffee company, and the Wimbledon cognoscenti were well primed to head straight for the various cafes for a delicious hot coffee or an ice cold crema espresso.

In the private hospitality area, Lavazza hosted a day of lunch, cream tea and strawberries and of course, tennis. Guests arrived and were greeted by Giuseppe Lavazza and the team and our own Anita, in a Wimbledon outfit complete with a specially commissioned Lavazza necklace!

Guests of honour at the marquee were former Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic who created quite a stir, and the Italian player, Andrea Panatta.

In 2001, Ivanisevic was the only person in Wimbledon history to win the men’s singles title as a wildcard.  Tall, athletic and handsome, he was not surprisingly a big hit at the Lavazza marquee.  Earlier in the day he had also helped to serve coffees to very excited and somewhat surprised Wimbledon fans waiting in ‘The Queue’ for tickets.

The other VIP guest was retired Italian tennis player, Adriano Panatta who won the French open in 1976 and is the only player ever to defeat Bjorn Borg at Roland Garros.  Panatta is still very much involved in the game as Tournament Director of the Rome Masters and captain of Italy’s Davis Cup team.

After a delicious lunch, guests headed off to Centre Court.  Appropriately enough, on court was the Italian player Fabio Fognini playing Roger Federer.  And although it was not a triumph for Fognini, the day was a great success for his fellow Italians – Lavazza.