Thursday 24th June 2010……Oh what a day!!!

Yesterday morning started out with us going to have the scrumptious buffet breakfast and then taking the free shuttle to the same train station as before but this time for only 10 dollars we got return tickets to Wimbledon using the Tram link.

At the station we took a taxi for 5 dollars which dropped us right outside ….to give it the full title All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.

This was a start to one day I shall always remember…it was so crowded but it didn’t feel crowded.

 

The way the ticket system works is that we had reserved tickets for No.1 court these seats were ours all day but the lesser and smaller courts that were unreserved seating we could use our tickets.  I had checked on the Internet and found out who we were going to see and it was clear to me that for this particular day we had the best line up of players , better than even the Centre Court.

We started off by sitting in this court

for a few minutes

Then we walked around

Finally making our way over to our court, here it is without any spectators see the difference??

There were staff dressed in uniforms everywhere and all so very helpful..we found our way to our seats and waited for the first match scheduled for 1pm.

Clijsters is a previous Grand Slam winner (Google that if you are not sure what it means)

and her opponent was no match

and she was an easy winner.

We had 20 minutes before our next match was due to start so what better time to have…..

The next match featured another Grand Slam winner from Australia LLeyton Hewitt.

The fans in the yellow apparently follow him everywhere and kept us all entertained with their chants in between points!!

Hewitt won this match after two sets when his opponent retired due to injury.

Sara and i were just having a wonderful time the temperatures were in the low 80’s and until 4pm we were sat in the shade and it was turning out to be such an incredible day.

The latch match on our court turned out to be some one called Federer…….he has played before and holds the records for Grand Slam wins and considered by thousands to be the best player in tennis history, So how lucky were we????

The world’s best!!!

and his opponent.

The match proved to be very entertaining and a delight to watch with Federer proving to be too strong!!!

 

This was the end of play on our court and it was about 8pm so we walked to the No.2 court thinking we could use our tickets there.  Sara snapped this on the way..

We tried to get into the court but were told there was only reserved seats but two ladies were leaving and were happy to give us their tickets so in we went to court No.2 and found ourselves three rows from the action.

The seats were padded and such a great view very different to watch from behind the players as opposed to out other seats.  This game featured the No.4 seed a lady from Serbia, Jankovic and a Canadian girl, unseeded, Wosniak.  It was a great game and Wosniak was 2 games away from a huge upset but could not get the job done and the seeded girl prevailed.

The main thing that was stirring the crowds throughout was this being shown on the big screens everywhere…

For those of you that don’t know the game too well this is just amazing.  These two men had been playing 9.49 hours and were tied in the last set at 58 games each.  We later found out that this is a new Wimbledon record as the previous longest game lasted almost 7 hours.  Just before we left the game was halted for the night as it was too dark.  I cannot even begin to imagine how tired these two men must have been.

We left the complex at about 10pm and the ride back to the Hotel was as easy as the night before  and we were having tea in our room by 11pm watching the highlights of the England victory in the World Cup.  That game was played at 3pm but no television broadcast was allowed in Wimbledon!!!

So ended one of the best days ever and another item crossed off my Bucket List.

We are heading down to breakfast now and then heading out to the west coast……….