Most of those who know me know that I don’t really like sport, in fact the majority of sports I hate. I don't understand games like Rugby where it seems to me the main goal of the game is to beat each other up. Alternatively I cannot stand cricket- it is literally like watching paint dry!
However I was intrigued to check out Wimbledon Tennis Championships, it is a bit of an institution here in London and with it being so close to my house it seemed a shame to not go and have that English experience.
We were a little late in booking tickets to a main game so we decided we would do the early morning line up- early morning is a little bit of an understatement.
I was informed by my friends in order to secure a spot for the day that I would have to be at Southfields tube station at 5.45am which required me getting out of bed at 4.45am- yes my friends I got out of bed at a ridiculous hour to watch sport- who would have thought that day would ever come!
We made it to the grounds by 6am and were given the 1500th line up ticket, I was told that they only ever allow a maximum of 6,000 people on the grounds every day so I was quite chuffed that we were one of the first (apart from the crazy people that and had camped overnight!)
We stayed in the slow moving queue until we were allowed into the grounds at 10.45am. I was quite surprised how fast that 4 hours went, in between reading newspapers, drinking coffee and listening to the Northerners behind us drawl about their boring lives it was all good fun.
Our plan once we got in the grounds was to pick one court and stay there all day (we were soon to find out that that wasn't possible, if you got up to go to the toilet you automatically lost your seat, this was a bit of a problem for me as everyone knows I have a very weak bladder!)
We lined up to enter through the gates that would lead us to the courts towards the back of the grounds were we had picked Court 18 to watch our first game.
There were about 100 people waiting to enter this area of the grounds and when they finally opened the gates at 11am it turned into a slight stampede/run to get to the best courts. In the mad rush I managed to tread on a poor ladies Haviana and it fell off her foot. I went to stop and pick it up but the crowd pushed me forward- it was ruthless!
We finally made it in and settled ourselves down with our food, mags and water- excited and basking in the morning heat. In the wait we happened to eaves drop on the conversation behind us, two people in their early 20’s (possibly Australian) were discussing the fact that they had been out for a big night the night before and how funny it was that they had decided at 4am to camp out at Wimbledon. They had stayed overnight with no blankets, tents etc and here they were actually sitting in a match on about 3 hours sleep- hilarious!
The first match of the day was ladies single's 4th round, a Chinese lady Na Li against a Polish lady Agnieszka Radwanska. From the get go you could tell Na Li really wanted to win and towards the end she became quite aggressive about it. It seemed to me about half way through the game Agnieszka started to give up and so you couldn't help but will Na Li on. The game was exciting and it wet my appetite for what was to come.
By this stage the heat was starting to get to us, it was one of those freak days in London where it had reached 28 degrees by midday and we were absolutely roasting. Determined not to lose our seats too quickly we stayed to watch the first 20 mins of the Gentlemen's singles 4th round between Tomas Berdych (Czech) and Daniel Brands (Germany). Men's singles games are ridiculously fast and don’t seem to have the same thought process that the previous ladies game had. I mean you barely have time to move your head let alone follow the ball, I didn’t find this game as entertaining as the last purely because there didn’t seem to be a specific tactic other than slamming the ball into the other person’s court so fast the other person didn’t have time to hit it back.
The heat got us in the end and we left (lucky we did as the game went on for about 4 or so hours- Tomas Berdych ended up being in the finals against Rafael Nadal but lost- still exciting I got to see him play).
We decided there was no better time than now to devour a gigantic Haagen Dazs ice cream and wander around the courts. The next game we settled on was a fellow Aussie, Samantha Stosur, in a ladies doubles, she was paired with Russian Nadia Petrova against Vania King (USA) and Yaroslava Shvedova (KAZ).
The game was a tough one and the American lady was feisty, there was a hand slap or a word of encouragement with her partner after every round. That said there were many Aussie's in the seats screaming words of encouragement for Sam, it was almost like being back at home!
By this stage it was about 3pm and we were exhausted, so we decided to sit on the infamous hill at the back of the grounds and watch some of the centre court game between Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova- amazing players.
After half an hour of rest we decided to end the day by watching the mixed double's game which featured a familiar face; Kim Clijsters. She was playing with Xavier Malisse (BEL) against Andy Ram (ISR)and Elena Vesnina (RUS). The game was a tough one and it was extremely interesting to see the mixture of style’s of women playing with and against men. We even started incorporating the hand slap ourselves after every round as a bit of fun! The day was concluded with consuming large amounts of Strawberries (although we didn't have cream and I had been carrying the fruit around all day so they weren’t in the greatest of conditions!) the Wimbledon experience was complete!
All I can say is what an enjoyable day, I am now a converted Tennis fan. I have since taken an active interest in the sport so much so that in the following days I found myself tuning into games on the TV and participating in conversations around the office.
A big thanks to the lovely couple with whom I shared the day with, I couldn't have picked better company
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