29-30 June
Hello everyone!
Another year of teaching has been finished, leaving us to
enjoy the sweet splendour of summer. We have two months of gallivanting to look
forward to; our first stop, however, is arguably the most exciting. It’s
certainly something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. One of the highlights of
a British summer: Wimbledon.
The tournament at the spiritual home of tennis starts at the end of June and lasts for two weeks. Usually the first week coincides with the last week of the school year and the second week is almost impossible to get tickets for. From this year though the tournament has been shunted back a week to give the players more time to prepare. It also lets me, for the first time, visit the hallowed turf of the All England Club.
Of course, Wimbledon is an immensely popular tournament and
tickets are difficult to obtain, yet what is great about these championships is
that you can get tickets if you put some effort in. By effort, I mean camp
overnight in a queue. Four of us – myself, Hannah, Helen and Carl – arrived at
Wimbledon Park shortly after nine in the evening to see that a small village
had been constructed, all in ordered sections. A queue card is collected and
then tents are built.
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| A photo from section 4 of the queue, where our tents were pitched |
After a couple of issues building our tent, we settled down
to enjoying our late-night pizza and wondering about the players we would be
watching the following day. The atmosphere amongst the tents was completely
cheerful and positive.
You’re woken up very early the following morning – if you’re
not awake before, marshals get you up at 5:30am – and have an hour to
disassemble your tent and leave it in storage. You then reform in line
according to the number on your queue card and wait for the stewards to say to
you what court choices are available.
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| Many people were awake from 4:30 am |
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| Wimbledon awaits...after progressing through a long, snaking queue |
Wimbledon has three show courts: Centre, 1 and 2 (in that
order of importance), and 500 tickets for each court are made available every
day for hardy queuers. We were close to the 1300 mark. Centre was hosting
Federer & Murray; Court 1 had Nadal. We thus had to settle for Court 2.
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| A queue card is traded for one of these wristbands |
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| The queue at 7am |
Not that this was a bad thing. On the contrary, we now had
tickets to see Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (one of the tour’s great entertainers) and
Caroline Wozniacki (very talented, very beautiful). These tickets would also
let us roam the grounds and watch all of the other courts, featuring many
famous names and possible stars of the future. We were therefore still
incredibly excited as we patiently waited in line to enter the grounds of SW19.
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| Denmark's hottest tennis property |
We were dressed for the occasion, patriotic flags and hats
blowing in the slight morning breeze. Surprisingly to us, such paraphernalia
was a rare sight, meaning that we attracted quite a lot of attention before
play began. Hannah and Helen were interviewed on ITV’s morning show sporting
Union Jack hats and face-painted strawberries. They were also snapped by
freelance photographers and their photo appeared in the Evening Standard,
London’s local paper. The following day we were also informed that they had
appeared in Wednesday’s edition of The
Times newspaper.
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| Preparations for ITV's morning broadcast from Wimbledon Park |
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| Hannah and Helen in the Evening Standard |
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| Hannah and Helen in The Times |
Most impressively, they were also included on BBC’s Wimbledon 2Day coverage. Carl and I were
filmed for this as well but didn't make the final cut. Life lesson if you’re
going to Wimbledon and want to be seen: wear a plastic UK hat and be a pretty
girl. Stereotypes, eh…
This was just in the queue. Upon arriving through the gates
of the All England Club we were interrupted by a camera crew representing ESPN
who asked us to pose for their coverage. Shortly after this, we were invited to
take part in a live radio interview with Radio Wimbledon, in which Carl and I
were quizzed on our tent-building skills, amongst other trivial matters. All of
these media experiences just added to the sense of occasion and ceremony about
the place, not to mention making us feel incredibly important.
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| Preparing for a live interview on Radio Wimbledon |
You could almost forget at this point that we weren't the
main event and that we were here to watch the tennis. Soon enough, the security
cordons were relaxed and we were able to amble around Wimbledon for a while
before matches started. What’s lovely is that players are doing this to, as
well as spending time on the practice courts. I spotted a Czech player, Radek
Stepanek, and shouted at him. Clearly my Czech accent still isn't fully honed
as he responded with a bemused wave.
First up for us was the entertaining Frenchman and thirteenth seed, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who was playing against a man who is undoubtedly
Luxembourg’s most famous current sportsman: Gilles Muller. Well, how many more
are there? Our seats were incredible; the second row behind one of the ends.
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| Court 2 |
Some people may not want to be this close to the action for
fear of their own safety. Indeed, one mishit return by Tsonga whizzed inches
past my head. My hand raised to catch the ball about a second after it had
almost decapitated me. Tsonga looked back and smiled, before knuckling down to
business and winning the first set on a tie-break.
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| The Frenchman's serve regularly exceeded 130mph |
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| Tsonga won the first set 10-8 on a tiebreak |
It was a glorious, scorching day in southwest London. Factor
70 was being applied to pinking skin and water was guzzled at a rapid rate. After
the second set finished we had to escape the clutches of the sun to find some
shade. Well, that was the plan anyway. We ended up with strawberries and cream
watching Britain’s finest on Aorangi Terrance. You may know it as Henman Hill
or Murray Mount…
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| A staple of Wimbledon: strawberries and cream |
Andy Murray, 2013 champion and carrier of the hopes of a
nation once again, was in action on Centre Court. People congregate on the
terrace to watch his matches on a giant screen. The atmosphere was surprisingly
flat, possibly owing to the heat and it being an early match, but the volume
was ratcheted up during the second set tie-break.
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| Murray beat Mikhail Kukushkin in straight sets |
Incredibly, our first match on Court 2 was still going on.
We returned to watch Tsonga and Muller duel in a final set showdown. To the
delight of the vast majority in the crowd, the Frenchman prevailed. He responded
to a French lady’s shouts by giving her his towel.
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| Tsonga eventually prevailed in a five-set thriller |
Rather than stay for the next match, we opted to wander
around the smaller courts, hoping to see familiar faces or ends to epic
matches. We watched one of my favourites, Germany’s Dustin Brown, smash his way
to victory before spotting other notable names such as Sam Stosur and Viktor
Troicki.
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| Germany's Dustin Brown |
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| Action from the men's doubles |
We’d already seen the biggest name whilst meandering to
Court 2. This Swiss master happened to be practising on a smaller court…
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| Roger Federer |
After watching and supporting a couple of Brits on smaller
courts, Carl and I returned to Court Two to watch Gilles Simon, seeded 12,
finish his match with ease.
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| Nicolas Almagro, who Gilles Simon comfortably defeated |
We then received a phone call from the girls. Somehow they
had snaffled tickets to the biggest stage of all: Centre Court. Being nice,
they’d also got some for us as well. We raced across the grounds to enter one
of tennis’ most famous venues. Caroline Wozniacki had been moved there from
Court Two. It is cavernous.
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| Wozniacki being congratulated by Saisai Zheng |
It was a very long, breathtaking and brilliant day,
something I’ll never forget. The mystique and aura of Wimbledon was in full
abundance. Watching on the television doesn't do the place justice.
Our trip to Wimbledon, and everything that encompassed it,
was one of the best experiences I've had in a long time. From the fun and
friendly vibes of the queue to the fierce hitting of forehands and backhands,
it was everything I’d dreamed of and more. As I told Josh Widdicombe when he interviewed
us (again, didn’t make
the cut!), I spent the whole day being giddy with excitement.
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| Josh Widdicombe preparing for our interview |
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| A wonderful time at Wimbledon |
Love you all
Matt
