The fortnight, a ground pass versus a show court ticket, the order of play, the night session, the Queue as a proper noun, a five-setter, the practice courts, seeded and unseeded, retirement as an outcome. October to December and the gaps between slams are thin for travel, and busy for ballots.

January, late May to early June, late June to mid July, and late August to early September. Four fixed fortnights that structure the entire year, plus the autumn indoor finals.

Public ballots for the summer slams open the previous autumn and results land in the spring, which means the buying moment is a single email four to six months before the event. Play at a club, watch obsessively for two weeks a year, enter ballots together, and compare notes on which sessions are worth attending.