If you are not a big fan of tennis, you can skip this post:)) This is a story of how we fulfilled one of our most fun wishes--going to Wimbledon!
***It's kind of funny, but I am writing this message exactly a year later while Wimbledon is about to crown their new winner.
But back to 2022....
We parked at Felix's house at 5 am on Tuesday morning (Day 2 of Wimbledon) and walked a brisk walk through Wimbledon village to the entrance of the queue.
Once you get to the queue, you join hundreds of other fans who either had been waiting in line all night (sleeping in tents) or got their before us.
You get a ticket, a number in the queue which will later on translate into a grounds pass or, if you are lucky, a ticket for Centre Court/Court 1 or 2.
The whole system is very organized. At a certain time, all tents must be packed up. People pretty much sit/lie/sleep until a certain time, just holding their place in line.
We brought snacks, extra layers of clothing, a blanket, cards and good attitude to help us pass the time.
Oh! Did I mention that Felix from Tennis Brothers decided to join us for the day??? Katya's magic is what I call it-hahaha.
At some point, everyone stands up and the queue starts moving.
Familiarize yourselves with the code of conduct, if you decide to go stand in this queue.
The weather was glorious but chilly for us, Carolina people. We were grateful for no rain!
Once the queue starts moving, they start counting people and those wishing to get tickets to Centre Court.
They have some fun activities and exhibits as you are moving along.
They also offered drinks and we could leave the line and come back if someone held your space.
As the line was moving along, they were giving out bracelets with allocated tickets. When they got to us, we were offered Court 1 tickets! That means we got there early enough to get the last ones to Court 1 but not Centre Court. Our ticket was 1349 but we learned that only the first 600 or so got a chance to buy a ticket to Centre Court. We got three tickets to Court 1 and bought ground passes fort he rest of our group.
So excited!
Once we passed through the gate, we just couldn't believe that we actually were right there!
Mark beaming as we get to spend the whole day at Wimbledon!
Alex, Katya and Felix decided to go watch some matches as soon as they started at 11 am.
We stopped by the souvenir store and bought Wimbledon socks and Wimbledon umbrella, then headed to where one of the British players was playing.
Those who wanted to watch a match going on Centre court could sit and watch it on the big screen on Murray hill.
Katya got some strawberries and cream, of course!
Katya later sent me this picture--this is one of the Australian pro players, Kokkinakis giving an interview.
It was a busy day! Lots of action, lots of matches all happening at the same time!
I went to watch Marta Kostyuk play a British player. It was pretty amazing to see her win!
This is how we kept track of each other:)
Oh yes, and prices for different tickets, in case we forget. They are actually really reasonable for what we get! And the quality of the seats on all non-fancy courts depends purely on how soon you get to the court and where you find a spot!!!
We did have assigned seats for Court 1 and we lucked out!!! They were absolutely amazing seats!
We watched Alex DeMinaur play Dellien. Great match!
The famous grass courts of Wimbledon.
By midday, it got really sunny and hot! It was good to have our jackets in the morning, but now we had to shed layers and put a bunch of sunscreen on.
Robert and I got an opportunity to get onto Court 3 to watch Felix Auger-Aliassime from Canada play Cressy from the US.
Look at how close we sat!!! And now I know that people you see on TV sitting super close to the courts did not necessarily pay a ton of money to watch the match so closely at Wimbledon!!!
I mean, that's incredible!
Here is Felix (second Felix in our Wimbledon story!).
And Maxim Cressy, a famous serve and volleyer.
By the third set I had a hard time staying awake actually. The sun, the early waking up and jet lag were catching up with me, so it's a good thing I was wearing shades...as I know we were shown on TV each time someone served on our side.
Later that afternoon we headed back to Court 1 for another match featuring Tsitsipas! He is a Greek tennis player, top 10 in the world. This is a picture of his player box (his dad and the rest of his team). We were sitting so close to them!
The match was quite exciting but pretty straightforward as Tsitsipas plays amazing tennis and won!
The view from our seats!
Zoomed in pictures of Stefanos.
And a family picture after the match. It was getting cold again!
It was getting late and dark. Serena Williams was playing on Centre Court, so we took a pause to watch her for a bit on the hill.
And finally, because Serena was playing on Centre Court, very few people wished to be on Court 1. So although we only had paid for three tickets, they let everyone come watch it as the court was empty. Felix's friend joined us as well.
We watched Pliskova and Martincova play an exciting solid match.
We left Wimbledon grounds shortly after 10 pm. It was such a successful day full of unforgettable memories! We all absolutely loved it and felt so lucky we got to do this. It proved to us once more that there is no reason to delay doing things that you love and really want to do. Yes, it required planning, research and making adjustments to our trip, but it was all worth it!
And now going to all four Grand Slams is definitely on our bucket list. Which one of them will be our next destination?
Lyana.
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