For tickets this year it was all online, and I did try (on 3 tabs simultaneously!) to get tickets but I totally missed out. The online queues were really long... So I assumed that I wouldn't get anything at all - until I had a tip from someone at work. There were actually tickets going up on sale the day before for different courts! So I quickly messaged to make sure that I had a friend to go with (of course I did!) and starting on Thursday night, right after I heard about this, I checked every 5 minutes. You had to be quick enough to get the seats in the basket, which I wasn't for the first few ones, but then around 10pm on Thursday night, I got some!
Next it was about getting ready. Wimbledon is part of Part 3 of the pilot scheme, so all we had to do was make sure we take a lateral flow test within 48 hours of entry. Of course, I'm testing twice a week for work anyway so it was just a matter of timing it so that I did one on Friday morning.
On the day, we packed all our stuff - sunscreen, hats, umbrella, raincoat, water, tickets on our phone, email of the Covid test results... and Linda and I met at Wimbledon station around 10:30am. We caught the train to Wimbledon Park and walked through the big park to the courts! Test results checked, tickets checked, security checked... And we were in! We decided to start with a lap of the area, and as we were doing so, it started to rain! So we watched (as by now it was after 11 and outside courts play had started) as the ball kids pulled the court covers up and play was suspended, before continuing our wander, this time with umbrellas up. We headed over to the shop and picked up some souvenir bits (towel, notebook, keychain and programme for me!), then decided to start our eating with strawberries and cream! By the time we had finished eating those it had stopped raining, but we then decided it was lunch time. We had our lunch, got some tinned gin and tonics, and extra snacks, bathroomed up, then headed to our seats!
We were in block 302 - which sounds quite far away but was actually closer than expected! We were behind and to the right of the royal box and had a really good view of the action without needing to do the head turning thing. Up first was Coco Gauff. I couldn't believe she's only 17! She won in straight sets with some really great points.
We were really excited though for the other 2 matches - next up was Roger Federer, and he was playing a Brit - Cameron Norrie. It was a really tense match (much closer than the score let on!) and Norrie did a great job. The combination of Fed and a Brit made for a very intense crowd - lots of oohing and aahing and really tense cheering!!! Luckily Fed came through in the end and won. That match ended around 6pm and at that point most people went home, I think partly because of the football match that started in just a few hours.
But next up with the womens world number one - and she's an Aussie - Ash Barty! Her opponent was not a very good sport, she actually got a warning from the umpire for banging her raquet! She also was very visibly getting annoyed at herself as she started losing and that didn't help her. It also doesn't help that Ash is phenomenal with great placement and really great use of her slice backhand - plus a serve which is almost as fast as the men! She also came through and won, hurray!
Play on Centre Court finished around 8pm and there were only matches on the other ticketed courts still going. We headed for one last lap and wander, and ended up leaving around 8:30. We decided to walked directly home, only stopping at the fish and chip shop on the way to pick up some dinner! The most phenomenal day at the tennis with great company and amazing play.
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