Wimbledon

Today JC and I went to Wimbledon for the first day of play (June 21, 2004). Since we had no tickets (since we hadn’t won any in the ballot in January, and I was unwilling to pay $500 or more for a debenture ticket), we had to queue up early in the morning to try to get a ticket. We got up at 5am and hopped on the Picadilly Tube (subway) at Hyde Park Gate at 6am. Got off at Earl’s Court and hopped on the District Train to Southfield’s. At Southfields we followed everyone else toward Wimbledon.

When we got there at almost exactly 7am, the stewards (volunteer guys and gals in yellow armbands) directed us to a big open field to get in line (or queue up). The steward we passed as we got onto the field told us that there were less than 1,000 people there so far, so we shouldn’t have a problem getting in (the first 3000 to 5000 get in). The stewards directed us to form big individual lines on the field (in clumps of maybe 500 or so). We got in a line and started waiting. Folks selling newspapers wandered past trying to entice us to buy one by offering free extras with the paper. One that was pretty good was a paper with a free radio for 55 pence). I got one just to get the radio. You can tell electronics are ubiquitous when someone can sell a paper and a (decent) radio together for $1 USD and still make a profit.

The stewards came through and gave everyone a “Guide to the Championships”, which included a map of the grounds, and a queue card. Everyone had to have a queue card, which contained the number in line you were and prevented queue jumping. JC and I were numbers 1178 and 1179 respectively. So, the steward had been off by 178 people, but hey, not bad by eye. Since only the first 300 or so folks can get into the main courts (Centre Court, Court 1 and Court 2 (non-standing)), we were relegated by our number to being only able to visit the outer courts 3-19. However, considering that the only way to get in the first 300 would have been to start queuing the previous night, I didn’t feel too bad about it. Besides, we got to see some great tennis anyway. We stood in our line for about 15 minutes, until the lines in front of us had moved enough for us to get started walking and then we were off. I figured at that point we could probably be inside by 9am or something. Not so. We moved slowly but steadily for about 250 yards, off the field and onto the sidewalk on the road to Wimbledon and down it a ways, but then the line just stopped dead. We stood there for about a half hour before a steward came by to tell us why. Appparently the gates don’t open until 9:30am, so we were going to sit there for an hour and a half before the line would start moving again.

We all sort of hunkered down to read the papers and wait. I took a few pictures, including one of the Osborne house (is this where Coach Osborne hides when he isn’t in Nebraska)? The only good part about the waiting was that the people around us were nice and periodically folks trying to promote some product or other would wander by and give us something for free. In this manner we got free postcards and flags promoting London for the 2012 summer olympics (I wore my flag samurai style, sticking out of the back of my coat), free Tropicana orange juice (dispensed from the giant carton shaped backpack of a vendor through a keglike protrubance), free chocolate bars and free stress squeezy tennis balls (from a London bookie). After we started moving again, we fairly quickly got to a rather depressing sign that told us the gate was 300 yards away still. Sigh. After another hour and a half or so we finally we got to the gate around 11am. This year, due to all the terrorist threats, the security was pretty tight. I have to admit that this security was probably tighter than the security I saw at US airports right after 9/11. I got frisked quite literally (I’m not talking wanding here) since I had my coat pockets full of camera, and all the various crap we had been given by the vendors. In anycase, it was soon done and we were finally inside. Once we were inside we walked around briefly and found a restroom and then grabbed a slice of pizza for lunch. We wandered through the outer courts and finally settled on court 11, where Miss V. (Vera) Zvonereva (Russia, 12th seed) was going to play Miss S. (Samantha) Stosur (Australia). At 11:30 there was almost no one there, so we got some great seats. However, I quickly realized that the 6’10 guy who beat Hewitt in the first round last year was playing Srichipan on court 18, so we ran over there (all the way across Wimbledon) to see if we could get a seat. Nope. 100% full. So we ran all the way back (not really running, since running at Wimbledon is ‘verboten’, just walking REAL fast).

On the way back we passed Daniela Hantuchova (I think, hadn’t realized she’d gone blond) coming back from the practice courts. And wound up back in the same seats we had just left. I was impressed with how close they let you sit on the outer courts, since on a few of them there are only one row of wooden benches that are right against the canvas divider. You can put your foot onto the court through the divider if you were so ‘gauche’ as to do so. Anyway, we watched Zvonereva play Stosur. Zvonereva looked suprisingly like my young cousin Erin (and is the same age I think… it was a little disturbing :). In fact, I’d never seen a natural redheaded Russian, but Zvonereva is (or at least appears to be, can never tell with all the hair dyes that are around now). At 2-1 (Stosur) in the first set, it started raining and we had a 30-40 minute rain delay. JC and I didn’t have an umbrella, but it wasn’t a really hard rain, so we just sat there and waited. There were a number of Aussies in the audience cheering on Stosur. It was a good match. Stosur lost the first set 6-4, and her coach was sitting about 10 feet to my left, giving her the occaisional encouragement like “Let’s go Sammy!”. I thought I recognized her coach, but his name wouldn’t come to mind. I’ll look him up when I get home. The 2nd set started with Stosur getting down 3-1 to Zvonereva, but fighting back to get to only 5-4 down and serving to pull even at 5-5. I was really impressed with how incredibly good both of these women were. Because of the angle that they televise most matches at on TV, it never seems that impressive. But when you get down close to the court, you start to realize that these folks hit amazing shots. When I was a kid, I used to think that “pros” weren’t that much better than I was… boy was I wrong, and these were the women, not the men – ack! Stosur finally lost the second set on a missed overhead (put it into the alley) just as the rain started to pelt down again and they suspended play right after the match ended. I felt bad for her because she had played very well, but I guess there is a reason Zvonereva is #12 in the world.

After that, JC and I wandered around and I got a pint of beer to take to the next match, which we went to on Court 19 (Alex Corretja vs. Radek Stephanek). If the girls had impressed me, the guys were nothing short of overwhelming. Amazing tennis here, but we only got about 6 games (3-3) in before another rain delay occurred and JC and I left to go buy some Wimbledon stuff and head home. We had to get back in time for our 7:30 PM showing of Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre. Wimbledon was amazing and it is a memory I will always treasure. The smell of the grass, the contrast of the players white uniforms vs the amazing green of the grass. Rubbing elbows with the rich and famous 🙂 Great fun. Anyway, Phantom was good, but I was dead tired and started falling asleep in it, which earned me some elbows from Christi :).

Editor’s Note: Looking back at this, I realized I’ve written a god awful lot about Wimbledon, but frankly it is probably the place I’ve most wanted to go in the whole world from the time I was 14, so I think I’m a little justified. I’d go back today in a heartbeat too. I will miss it. God willing, I’ll be back someday.