Wimbledon 2006

Wimbledon has been brushed aside this year it seems, as World Cup fever sweeps the globe (blasphemous I tell you!). Anyway this little tennis nerd managed to get all excited about it and on Thursday June 29th, went and experienced the wonders of Wimbledon (didn't see the Wombles from Wimbledon though - remember that show?!)

I had originally planned to go on the first Tuesday, but as Monday was totally rained out it meant a lot more people would be there on Tuesday than normal. It caused the schedule of play to be pushed back a day, which worked in my favour as on Thursday all the big names were playing. We're talking Agassi, Roddick, Williams, Hewitt, Nadal, Safin, Sharapova. In Perth we'd be lucky to get maybe 1 of those names in the Hopman Cup!

Woke up at 4:30am to get ready to catch the first tube of the morning at 5:30am to Southfields. Can you believe they don't have the tubes running 24 hours a day in a big city like London? But I digress...managed to get to the grounds of Wimbledon at about 5:45am. Thankfully its only 3 or so tube stops down from Fulham Broadway, so I didn't have to change lines. On the tube a guy called Ben struck up a conversation with me about where to get off.

The tricky thing is on the District tube line there is Southfields, then Wimbledon Park, then Wimbledon which is the end of the line. Everyone who comes to London assumes that they need to hop off at one of the Wimbledon stops, but you actually get off at Southfields. Ben was an Aussie from Melbourne, so I walked with him to the tennis grounds and then queued up together. We queued in the field next to the grounds...the line actually snaked all the way from the ground, down the main road, around the corner and into the field. Hundreds of people had camped overnight in tents or gotten there in the early hours of the morning armed with sleeping bags and a thermos. It was quite a sight - obviously really dedicated tennis fans! As you arrived the ushers handed you a queue card and a book - which was totally hilarious - called the 'Guide to Queueing at Wimbledon'. They have a book just about standing in the bloody line! Amusing to read but you understand why they need it - my queue card (which tells you your position in the line) was person #836. And this is before 6am. And this is only one of 2 lines around the ground, the other being on the opposite side of the complex.

There were heaps of Aussies in the queue, you could spot them a mile away with their flags or green & gold outfits. The queue started to make ground when all the tents packed up, although you didn't really notice how long you were queuing for as lining up was actually quite fun! There were breakfast stalls every 50 metres or so, selling hot coffee, muffins, hot English breakfasts etc. The smell at 6am was so good! Later on, people would walk down the line handing out freebies - peanut butter chunky Kit kats (scored about 3 of those), fruit juice, bottles of water, we were even given cute stickers saying 'I queued at Wimbledon 2006'. It was just those little touches that made a big difference. They were incredibly well organised and there was such a good atmosphere in the crowd. Plus the weather was gorgeous, a slightly cool morning which later warmed up to a sunny 26 degrees.

Actually got into the Wimbledon complex at 9:45am. Gates opened at 9:30am (even though no games start till 12 or 1pm!) so we did very well, although there was then another hour to wait before they opened any of the areas like Henman Hill. Had a good chance of scoring tickets to Centre Court/Court 1/Court 2, but they only offered those tickets to the first 750 people in the line (they only release a limited amount every day). Settled for a ground pass which got me into courts 3-19 (and standing room at Court 2, confused yet?). Had a browse through the Wimbledon shop (and almost gave into buying a Wimbledon teddy bear for 18 pounds!) and then waited with Ben and his friend Dale to get a table on the top of Henman Hill. Alison (a friend of my flatmate Amy, who has been staying with us for about 3 weeks) had arrived at the grounds a couple of hours after me (#2000 and something in the line!) so I had to wait for her to be let in to the grounds.

When Alison got in we decided on the games we'd like to see today and thought of a plan for getting seats to them (you have to plan these things because they're all so popular!). We decided we definitely wanted to see Alicia Molik play, the 2nd game scheduled on Court 13. We also really wanted to see Lleyton Hewitt play, so we thought we would try our luck with the resale tickets. What happens is after 3pm many people leave, so rather than waste their tickets, they're resold. Because they're legally not allowed to sell a ticket twice, the tickets all become 5 pounds each (no matter which of the 'show courts' it is) and the money goes to charity. They're very popular with people who were unable to get the show tickets in the line, like me.

We grabbed some food (I spent like 15 pounds on food that day! It was 6 quid for a glass of Pimms!) and went and got 2nd row seats at the 1st game on Court 13 (before Alicia's match) - S. Peer vs S. Peng. Lots of Aussies started to filter in to the game as it progressed, including one with a blown up kangaroo. Game over, on comes Alicia (the turn around time between games is like 10 minutes!). Massive cheer from the crowd, lots of 'Aussie Aussie Aussie!' but sadly 58 minutes later its goodbye Alicia, losing 6-2, 6-1. It was honestly so quick we looked at each other and said 'That's it?!'.

Decided to make a bee line for the resale tickets office and lined up with the couple of hundred people who were already there waiting. Had to wait just under 2 hours before we scored seats to see Hewitt, we were so excited about seeing a game on the show court! Got in, saw the end of Venus Williams' game and then the Hewitt game began. Spotted Bec, Tony Roche and Mark Philippoussis in his guest box - Bec was giving him these baby claps everytime he looked over which was quite funny.

The game, well talk about intense! The longest rallies and some awesome down the line shots, with games going deuce-advantage-deuce-advantage-deuce about 25 times each! The crowd were so emphatic as it was so tight, they were cheering on the unknown who was really serving it up to Lleyton. The Aussies of course, were screaming 'Hewy' and 'Lley-Lley' and jumping out of their seats when he won a point. We got a few 'Cmons' with pumped fists and he even did that move where he drops a knee to the ground and pumps his fist back and forth. The crowd went insane, I love the fact he's usually so entertaining to watch - has this total fighting spirit inside him. I was planning on heading over to Court 2 to see some of Andy Roddick's game, but it was basically over and Hewitt's game was too exciting to leave.

Lleyton was up 2 sets to 1, but then in the 4th set began to falter. Ended up in a tie break where he fought back from 6-3 down, but the Korean took the 4th set to level it at two a piece. Then, the devastating announcement. The game was suspended due to poor light! What kind of tennis court doesn't have lighting in this day and age?! Tradition, pfft. We want to see the game played out thankyou! I was shattered as it was so close and it meant we wouldn't see the end of the game, but it gave Lleyton overnight to sort himself out. He ended up winning the last set the next day.

Ended up getting home at about 11pm, totally knackered but still buzzing from the great day I had - which is probably the best on in London so far! Pictures in the next post!