Must admit I couldn’t believe my eyes when I found out that I had been successful in the Public Ballot for Wimbledon tickets. After all, this was only the second time that I had applied, 2 years ago I managed to get Centre Court tickets and for 2012 I found myself with a pair of tickets for Number One Court for Day 1 of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships – to say I was over the moon was an understatement that’s for sure! Find out how my day went and perhaps take heed of a few tips to make your day run smoothly if you too are lucky enough to be at the famous tennis courts of SW19…
I was so excited about going to Wimbledon that I was up and about before my alarm clock went off which in my household is very rare! Anyway, Mum had already prepared the strawberries the night before, the cream was in the cooler bag along with our bottles of water and I had the right sized rucksack to hold the picnic that we would buy at M&S at London Victoria Station before continuing our journey to Clapham Junction then changing for Wimbledon. The weather was so beautiful when we arrived at Wimbledon Station, that we decided to avoid the chaos surrounding the bus and taxi queues, opting instead to leisurely walk the 15-20 minutes to the Tennis Grounds (admiring the properties that went passed & imagining ourselves owning them)!
The queues weren’t bad when we arrived at The Grounds but we still had to follow the obligatory security checks and had
our bags checked for any prohibited items. We were then free to begin our Wimbledon experience. We already knew who was due to play on Number One Court and as it was getting near lunchtime, we decided to find a suitable spot to have our picnic. Unfortunately, many others had the same idea so “Henman Hill/Murray Mount” was jam-packed. Instead we found a spot on the wall, ate our sandwiches, enjoyed the strawberries & cream and people-watched which was great fun. With 20 minutes to go, we freshened up and made our way to Number One Court. Our seats were perfect and the view of the Court was amazing, my photos really do not do any justice as to how close we were, we could practically touch the players! Our afternoon was then filled with four fantastic tennis matches (1) David Nalbandian vs Jenko Tipsarevic (2) Roger Federer vs Albert Ramos (3) Kim Clijsters vs Jelena Jankovic and (4) Vera Zvonareva vs Mona Barthel.
The highlight of the day has to be seeing Roger Federer. We felt very sorry for his opponent as the experience that Roger has clearly shows in the techniques he used throughout the match, it was almost as if he was giving his opponent a masterclass in how tennis should be played and it was wonderful to watch! The other games played were equally exciting but nothing really beats seeing a player who is ranked one of the Top 4 in the world. Last year we managed to see Rafael Nadal & Andy Murray play. This year, we got to see Roger Federer so we are hoping that I’ll be successful in the ballot again for 2013 and we’ll get to see Novak Djokovic – we can then say that we’ve seen all the players ranked in the Top 4 of the Championships!
Have you been to Wimbledon this year, what did you think and would you go again? We’d love to hear from you…