One of the world’s greatest and most famous tennis tournaments, Wimbledon, is entering its final stages in the U.K., and many tennis fans will be watching the matches when they can, or subsequently searching for scores online to find the outcome of those they missed. Google knows what you’re doing, and has included another of its fun Easter eggs for those looking to take a short (or not so short) break from what you should really be doing. Work, probably.
Hidden away in the Google Search page is a secret Wimbledon-inspired tennis game that you can play. It’s essentially a slightly updated version of Pong, with cute 8-bit-style tennis players knocking a ball back and forth. Rather than get bogged down in simulating an actual game of tennis, Google’s tennis game is a high score challenge against an unstoppable opposition. You play until you lose, not until you win.
Sound fun? Of course it does, and who doesn’t want to take a break every now and then? Finding the game is a challenge in itself until you know where to look. The good news is, it’s available on both your phone and the desktop, so you can keep your browsing history free of non-work related activity. Ready? Let’s find it.
Open Chrome on your phone or desktop and type, “Wimbledon Scores,” into the Search bar. Unsurprisingly, this will return a host of results related to what’s happening on the court; but the one we’re interested in is the top box with the purple header, which contains all the current information. You can select different categories — Men’s Singles, Women’s Singles, and so on — but instead, slide this bar to the left to reveal a little green tennis ball icon. This is what we’re looking for.
Tap the tennis ball icon to start the game. If you’re using your phone then tap either side of your player to move left or right, or on the desktop, you can use the cursor keys to do the same. What do you do? Simple, return the ball if you can, and if you think it’s going to be easy, don’t. The speed increases the more you play, and your opponent is cunning, so be prepared to spend a while getting a respectable score. It’s genius, as always. Google, we “love” you, get it?