The first week of Wimbledon is now over, and was by far the best week of my life! I either saw or watched very nearly all of my favourite players, and met some absolutely lovely people in the Queue itself! I don't want to forget a second of my first Wimbledon experience, so I've written up a nearly 2000 word rundown behind the cut! (I must stress that it is mostly for my recollection, and therefore is probably just an incredibly dull collection of name drops, especially if you aren't massively into tennis!)
I left home at 4:30am, and caught the coach at 5am that would take me in to Victoria station. When we were just about in London, I learnt that the District line tube service to Southfields (where you get off for Wimbledon tennis) wasn't actually running that day. After a brief period of panic, I asked a very nice man who told me that there was a replacement bus service form Hammersmith to Southfields, and went to catch that. At the bus stop, someone asked me if I was going to Wimbledon, and it turned out that he was a security guard for the Championships!
I finally arrived at the Queue at around 9am, only to be told by the Wimbledon twitter that the Queue was already full for both Centre and Court 1 tickets, which thankfully turned out not to be true! Whilst queueing to be let into the Queue proper and pitch our tents, I got talking to some very lovely people who I would hang out with during the day.
Finally, at around midday, we were allowed through the the Queue itself, and pitched our tents. We all got shuffled around a little, and I made some more Queue friends, who I ate with in the evening and learnt some great new card games from. We were given our Queue cards, and I was number 645, well within the 500 each for Centre and Number 1 courts. I was on/in the background of Sky news that day, which was pretty cool, and just generally had a lovely day in the sun. I talked to one of the lovely and very posh ‘Honourable Stewards’, who worked at Left Luggage throughout the week, and who I therefore saw every day, which was quite nice.
I got court 1 tickets, front row, right beside the umpire/behind the player's chair! The Order of Play for the day was Azkarenka/Lucic-Baroni, Dimitrov/Harrison, Tsonga/Melzer.
I woke up at 4:30am, which would soon become standard, and waved off one Queue-friend (Gaia, medical student) who was already Queueing for tomorrow, and organised to sit next to a couple of other Queue-friends during the day. We saw Sue Barker by the OOP/draws board within about 2 minutes, which was a good start! When we were let into the grounds proper at 10:30 we went straight to the player's entrance, where I saw Alizé Cornet, Tomáš Berdych, Roger Federer, and Fernando Verdasco all within the space of about 5 minutes, which was quite overwhelming!!
The first match I watched was, sadly, Stakhovsky/Berlocq, as I got distracted when I walked past Carlos Ramos and was with someone else who was enjoying the match. When she left to eat I moved on to watch the second set of 16 year old qualifier Ana Konjuh vs Erankovic. I was very clearly supporting Ana, but awkwardly standing next to Erankovic’s team! It turned out to be the only set Ana lost, so it’s a good thing I moved over to Court 1 when I did!
I then settled into my court 1 seat for the entirety of Azarenka and Dimitrov’s wins, before moving to watch a bit of Aljaž Bedene (currently Slovenian, aspiring Brit) vs Kevin Anderson, and saw him take 10 minutes to unfortunately fail to break. I really enjoyed Vika's match, and was especially happy that she was wearing actual shorts! The Dimitrov match was fun, as both he and Harrison kept serving down the T and almost hitting this one poor linesperson, which the audience quickly became very amused by. I was the last in the ranks of fangirls that Grigor signed for, too, which was exciting :D After watching those two games of Bedene/Anderson I moved back into court 1 and watched the first set of Melzer/Tsonga, which Jo won 6-1. I therefore assumed it would be an easy match and left to get in the queue for the next day! As it turned out, the match went on to be 5 sets long, and I actually caught the last game the next day!
Getting back into the queue, I was given queue card number 777, and settled next to a father and son pair who I would continue to see throughout the week, and who introduced me to the man who was first in the Queue for the entire tournament!
For Day 2, I chose Court 1 tickets, for which the Order of Play was: Tsonga/Melzer to finish; Federer/Lorenzi; Sharapova/Murray and Bouchard/Hantuchova.
I didn’t stay with any Queue-friends within the grounds this time, giving me freedom to wander the grounds as I liked. I went to the practice courts first, and briefly saw Heather Watson, before catching a glimpse of my favourite Frenchman Benoît Paire practising with Richie Gasquet, and rushing over to watch them for the rest of their practice. Caroline Wozniacki and Fernando Gonzalez also wandered past, but I stayed focussed on Benoît and his coach, Lio. I think Lio noticed that I was watching Benoît and not Richie, and it seemed to confuse him a little bit! Benoît walked off court without going past the fans, as I assume he thought no one would want a picture with/autograph from him, and I wasn’t brave enough to call out. I also failed to get an autograph even from Richie as he walked directly past the fans.
I then moved to stand where the players go from the players buildings to their courts, as I wanted to see Stan Wawrinka even though I wasn’t watching him play. I saw my favourite umpire Carlos Bernandes walk past, and Rafael Nadal’s physio Rafa Maymo, though Rafa Nadal himself went in another entrance. Stan did finally appear, and walk past me, and I followed him right to his court like a complete stalker. I also saw Lleyton Hewitt, Sam Stosur and Kei Nishikori walk past. I wandered aimlessly around the outside courts for a while, before settling to watch some of Stan’s match on Henman Hill, and then heading into Court 1 to watch the end of Tsonga’s match.
The end of Tsonga’s match lasted only one game, and after watching him win I headed out again, just to go to the toilet and get some more water, and while doing that I lost my ticket! I had left all my belongings at my seat as I didn’t intend to be out for long, so I asked the security guards to get my stuff back, and they convinced me to go to the ticket office and try and get my ticket back, even though I’d given it up the instant I lost it, as it was my own stupid fault. After crying over the poor lady at the ticket office we walked back to Court 1, where my ticket had been handed in to the lovely security guard on my gangway, who seemed really happy to be able to give it back to me.
I didn’t leave my seat for the rest of the Federer match, though I did leave between the Federer and Sharapova matches and saw Judy Murray coming in to cheer for Samantha Murray against Sharapova, which was pretty cool! The Federer match was very enjoyable, he was gorgeous and playing beautifully, and the crowd got very strongly on the side of his opponent Lorenzi towards the end of the match, applauding him whenever he managed to hold his own service game. The Sharapova match was also good, with Maria playing extremely well against the British Samantha Murray, adding a bit of atmosphere to the occasion. I tried to get her autograph, to form a couple with Grigor, but it was bit too violent for me!
Genie Bouchard’s match was also very enjoyable, and the most competitive match I had seen at that point. After Genie’s match it was announced that Ivanovic-Schiavone would be played next, which was what I had been hoping for when I picked C1 over CC, so I was utterly delighted!! That was the best match I saw all week, very competitive, excellent quality, and I just adore Ana! Unfortunately I managed to time by toilet break in the second set to miss her break, but I did have a nice chat with the security guard who helped me when I lost my ticket, so that was nice :)
After Ana’s match I headed back to the queue, and set up camp about three tents away from the guys I had been next to the night before, which was nice! I was queue card number 845, from memory, but decided to Queue through the next day to guarantee myself Centre or the first pick of Court 1 for the day after.
Really all I did today was Queue. After I’d moved my tent I went into Wimbledon town to have a shower in the leisure centre, then came back and read Americanah all day, which was lovely! I decided against going to the Sugarpova pop up in Wimbledon Village in the morning, which I did then regret as Queue cards weren’t handed out until 4pm! Luckily I had very lovely Queue-neighbours for the day, and there was a guy moving along singing to the Queue in the evening, which was quite pleasant.
Finally Thursday arrived, and I took my Centre Court wristband with pride! The OOP was Nadal/Rosol, Watson/Kerber and Federer/Muller. I chose the closest seats to the players entrance as I could, hoping to get autographs. While in the CC queue I met a girl with a tattoo of ‘RAFA’ and Rafa’s matador symbol on her foot, and saw two guys with RF tattoos, which was pretty cool! I ended up sitting next to the Rafa girl, though she didn’t much like Federer, which was a little awkward at moments. She swapped her ticket to see Hewitt/Janowizc later in the day, and miss Federer, so was fortunately replaced by a Fed fan when he did play.
Before play began on Centre Court I went to the player’s entrance for a few minutes, but after Ana Ivanovic walked past me without signing because I was too far back, I instead moved and spent my morning down at the practice courts. I initially watched Tsonga practice, then moved on to watch Simona Halep and spotted Andy Murray and his whole team (Amélie, Jez, Dani and even Judy!) practising on the far away court behind her, which was quite exciting! Heather Watson and Mikhail Youzhny were also there, and Aga Radwanksa walked past but was not in the mood for interaction.
After Simona had finished practicing, Stan Wawrinka was next up on that practice court!! He was looking especially sweet and gorgeous, as was his coach Magnus, and hitting with a guy I definitely should have known. Stan was sadly not wearing my favourite sunshine/Hufflepuff top, but a new grey checked Yonex shirt, with the fashionable addition of a towel-scarf once practice was over. His new racquet cases (not the bags themselves, but the individual plastic wrappings) say Stanimal on them, because he is the best human. I know I’ve mocked his tattoo in the past for being unreadable, it looks absolutely gorgeous in person. Also, I heard a player and trainer talking about him, and actually, genuinely, referred to him as ‘Stan the Man’, which may well have made my entire week!!
By the time Stan finished practising it was almost 1 o’clock, so I moved on to Centre Court and watched Rafa. Rafa unfortunately dropped the first set, but otherwise was playing well, looking gorgeous, and he looked extremely happy to win the match, as you might expect. I tried for his autograph, but had no luck.
Next up was Heather, and it was all disappointingly empty for her at first, as everyone took a break after Rafa, but it soon filled back up again for her excellent second set. I left at 4-1 in the third, as I thought she’d manage to hold and wanted to go to the toilet before the rush after her match, but unfortunately she failed to hold and I missed the end of her match. I wasn’t too upset though, as I saw Marion Bartoli while I was out there!! I wasn’t quick enough to get an autograph, not least because she was wearing a red competitors lanyard and not a green press lanyard, which confused me.
Finally it was Federer time, and he was, again, gorgeous and perfect and thrilling. I also experienced the excitement of the roof closing, which was genuinely pretty cool. The last game of the match in particular was incredible, as he served three gorgeous aces, to make 25 overall in the match. He was, in a word, stunning.
After Federer I returned to the Queue again, by which time it had thankfully stopped raining, and committed myself to a Grounds Pass and going home tomorrow, as rain was predicted all day. I was Queue card 906, and didn’t make any/many Queue friends, as everyone next to me was in groups.
My last day at Wimbledon dawned slightly gloomy, and I made another Queue-friend from Denmark for the 4 or so hours before we were allowed into the grounds proper, which was nice.
I went straight to Court 17 to watch Fabio Fognini/Kevin Anderson because I trusted Fabio to give me a very entertaining and fairly long match for my one match of the day, and because I didn’t want to have to run to Court 3 to watch Ana Konjah/Wozniacki. It rained to delay the start of Fabio’s match, allowing me to notice that even the groundspeople at Wimbledon wear Bjorn Borg underwear, or at least one of them did. Also, said Bjorn Borg underwear had tennis balls on it, which was pretty awesome. Other than that it was sunny all day, and I moved from Fabio’s match after three sets to the player’s entrance, to try and get the most of the day. I managed to leave the stuff I'd bought from the Wimbledon shop their, though I thankfully got it back fairly easily!
At the player's entrance I saw Heather Watson, Ross Hutchins, Dominic Thiem and Qureshi, along with a few people I didn’t know, which was a very good collection for about 30 minutes! Unfortunately there was a weird old man there who wouldn’t leave me alone, and I left pretty soon after he asked both Dominic Thiem and Qureshi who they were, and it turned out they’d both signed for him before that day! After he asked Domi Thiem who he was I wished Domi luck in the doubles, as a subtle ‘I know who you are’, and then spent the rest of the day panicking that he wasn’t actually still in the doubles, and that I now looked like an idiot. Thankfully, he was still in!
That was the end of my Wimbledon experience, then, and I rushed across London to just barely catch my coach back, and got back home just in time for the end of Andy’s match!
Again: best week of my life, and I'll definitely be returning next year!
