BEST DAY, I'd never been before, so the night before was complete madness, went to sleep at 9, didn't get to sleep till 12 - that was partly due to the inexorable heat, but a bigger part was to do with my unbridled excitement. I follow tennis week in week out, but not like some mugs follow football; i actually CARE about tennis, and i know everyone and their mothers, and their sisters, and their coaches and their partners. I always felt, for some reason, that Wimbledon was untouchable, i almost preferred watching it on TV and heralding it as something that was unreachable - but a friend suggested we go, and i suddenly had that as the one thing on my mind for the whole of last week. I didn't end up going with the same person i planned on going with but still everything worked out amazingly.
I was meant to wake up in the morning at 2:30, to leave at 3 to my friends house, but three different alarms failed me and i woke up at 3:45 - the time i was meant to BE THERE at. Consequently the morning was a frantic hurry, grabbing clothes, shoes, food and didn't even have any time to eat breakfast. We ended up getting there in great time, as they was NO TRAFFIC and when we got there, Wimbledon was eerily quiet, so we thought we may be 'early birds' when we saw the queque on the field, we were brought down to earth. We were just in time because it seemed like as soon as we arrived, a 1000 more people came. We waited in the baking sun for 3 hours, but time flew. Wimbledon is SUCH a posh town, the stewards were all really posh too, GOD i'd KILL to live there, must cost an absolute fortune to buy a house there, someday.
Looking at the schedule (order of play) the night before, there was only ONE court i wanted to go on, court 12 - with Jankovic, Soderling, Ferrer, Tsonga and Vera Zvonereva, i thought i was tennis-clever and sneaky so i would be the only one that knew how good that court was. I was early, i went there on time, and still the seats we filled, and the queque for like 4 places was RIDICULOUS. So, i just went to court 5, which i thought would mean my day was worse, but not at all. The match between Pironkova and Bartoli was the best that day for me, and the first match on Court 12 ended with a retirement, so i'm glad i dodged that disappointment.
Sidenote - All tennis players are REALLY REALLY tanned, like MY GOD! If i was white, i'd be so jealous of these guys. Marion Bartoli was a lot skinnier than i thought she would be, and far more tanned. I really cheered for her, all in French, but she still lost, there were some bulgarians cheering for the other girl, they were louder so i think that did it. I said to Marion after the match 'Bien fait' and i think she gave me evils, knowing her that's probably her smile! The match was so entertaining though SO SO many long rallies, and both made few errors. Great to really SEE how hard and WELL the players hit the ball.
After the match, i left the court and roamed around the grounds. The place was HEAVING, with people, just walking around, it was amazing, there were crowds and crowds. Henman Hill was the tip, i had lunch there and watched Federer win EASILY, the crowd were amazing. Then i went to Court 18 and saw Berdych v Brands, that was quite dull, too serve dominated, not enough rallies, and you can only applaud service winners and aces for so long! My hands hurt THROUGHOUT the day, i clapped so loud at EVERYTHING, i'm sure i was on tv at one point. I left and right by Court 18 was henman hill, and Serena was in a tiebreak with Sharapova. I went MAD, people got so freaked out, noone was shouting at the screen, but me, then some chinese people joined in and started supporting Maria. It was WAR, the tiebreak went ON and ON, and then Serena won, i was like 'Feck y'all' and walked away to watch some live tennis on some other courts.
In the afternoon i was back on Court 5 watching some men's doubles, but really i was watching some girl's singles on the next court - far more exciting. I started applauding that match, and got told to be quiet - turned out that was the father of one of the players on the court playing doubles. HOW FUCKING DARE HE, i fucking paid for this, so imma shout. So after that i got louder, cheering against his crappy son - and guess what, his son lost, so seeeyyyaa!
I've delibarately missed out some famous people i saw, that's for another post ;) But did see Serena's Hitting Partner, Federer, Djokovic, Clijsters, Hantuchova, Mattek-Sands and Billie Jean King!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I enjoyed the day so much, because i knew EVERYONE, even some umpires, i love all the umpires and seeing as i watch so much tennis I KNEW THEM ALL, i love them! Kader Nouni, my favourite one was on COurt 5, managed to take a picture of him, but from behind :( Also saw Eva Asderaki, i swear i was almost as excited to see the umpires as the players. All the ballboys and linesmen are so well dress, they are so kitted out, i mean i knew this, but to SEE it, i wanted to steal one and take their outfit. HOW do i work there next year? I HAVE TO!!!!
The last full match i saw was Clijster's mixed match, that was so much fun. Everyone in the crowd loved Kim, espiecally me, she is so so so lovely (and tanned :) ) She won, thanks to my amazing support. I tried to support Elena Vesnina too, she was russian, and every now and then i'd scream something in Russian, her and the whole crowd would look at me, she would look nicely, they looked at me like i was a freak!
To finish the day was just roaming around the grounds, saw some nice juniors, some nice doubles and took SOOOOOOOOOOO many pictures throughout the day.
Just such a nice day, as i drove there, not much fuss about travel. I know though, next time it will never be like that. Was so easy to get there and back, but with a train, coach and bus would be a LOT more hassle and take longer and more stress. But i'm ready for that!
Didn't see any of my top 3 favourite players (Venus, Serena and Caro) but still enjoyed it, in fact i'm almost happy i didn't see them. I like to think of them as Gods away from me, when i do see them, i don't want to be disappointed if they don't LOVE me :L
Next target is however, Venus or Serena on center court! Needs to happen, will enter the public ballot and all that jazz. It WILL happen, i'm going EVERY year now, just SO MUCH FUN!!!!
This LONG summer BETTER be good, don't want to waste my time, and it better not ZOOM by!
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