My Wimbledon Experiences

Federer - Wimbledon - 2007.

A memory which is comparable to me graduating, getting my first job - even my sister getting married (okay let’s not go that far) - shoutout Sweetu though.

This memory is so deeply entrenched in my mind, I attribute it to the reason I got involved in tennis.

Basically, it’s the year Roger Federer won his 5th Wimbledon title - in a row.

Watching Federer with his sleek one-handed backhand, (something to this day I try to emulate), his cool and calm nature on the court and his sportsmanship like conduct even when losing is pretty remarkable.

If given the chance to see the great in action, you know I’m dropping everything for that one opportunity. Thankfully I have seen him live, twice, and both at Wimbledon - his hunting ground.

In 2015 and 2017. Which is actually wild, writing this now 10 years on from his famous match with Murray where ‘that game’ in the second set went on for around 15 minutes.

The experience of being at an actual Wimbledon game is great - but seeing Federer play well that’s unrivalled.

The below pictures are from 2017. My friend and I, also a die-hard Federer fan, decided to camp in order to potentially secure tickets to see Federer for the Quarter-Finals. Emphasis on potentially, as it’s not even guaranteed.

In-fact two days before going to see Federer, my friend messaged me saying there’s a chance we may need to go one night earlier (so camp for 2 nights instead) as more people were joining the queuing system - at least that’s what Twitter was saying at the time.

We actually go to Wimbledon park, around 6pm on a Monday, the quarter finals were 2pm on Wednesday, so nearly 48 hours earlier did we reach. Still no confirmation whether we were in the first 500 (first 500 are guaranteed center court tickets - where Federer would be playing his match). The suspense was drown out at the fact we had to wait until 10am the next morning to find out.

That night was spent mingling with ‘die-hard tennis fans’ like literally, some had flown from Canada for two weeks, to sleep in a tent, these guys had some impressive stories - also some questionable tennis tattoos.

It was around 10am the next morning when the stewards were handing out the card numbers, as they approached we got given 475 and 476 in the queue. The feeling was immense. The tickets for center court were guaranteed. All we had to do now, was wait another 28 hours to get in…

The wait was fine (somewhat) the torrential rain was not, which resulted in poncho’s at the ready. Our tent was an Aldi special, unaware of the fact the rain would continue for 15 hours straight and seemingly waterlog our tent. Out of the full two weeks of the championship this was the only day it rained. Yet, again we had center court tickets, who cared.

Waking up on the day of the quarter-finals at around 6am didn’t mean the queuing stopped there. Rather we continued to queue, walk, pause, walk again and queue a little more until 10am, which is when the gates to Wimbledon opened and everyone who didn’t have a ticket ran to Murray mound/Henman Hill whatever you want to call it.

Thankfully, all we had to do was hand our tickets in and find our seats.

As you can see for the final picture, our seats were good, not too much neck-turning due to the angle - which helped considering how long the matches went on for.

Below I’ll share some tips when ‘joining the queue’ at Wimbledon.

Top Tips When Queueing at Wimbledon

  • Arrive early - with the big four players out of the game now, it may be less busy when queuing, yet to avoid disappointment get there early

  • Bring a foldable chair, snacks, and a good book or podcast - the queue moves slowly.

  • Bring a power-bank!

  • Waterproof tent (you never know with British weather)

  • Be patient, there’s a lot of waiting - speak to the people there and share your memories of tennis, you’ll find time goes by much faster this way.

All in all, both Wimbledon experiences were great, mainly due to the fact I saw Federer play - which had always been my dream and watching him play 10 years on from his famous 5-peat, made it all the better.

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