Wimbledon -- one of the four major international tennis championships -- certainly had an off year. Normally, tickets are sold out well in advance, and in fact you have to enter a national lottery just for the chance to buy tickets. This year, however, they had a very low turnout (they blamed the World Cup in South Africa, although I personally doubt there is much overlap between football fans and tennis fans) and so were selling tickets online the day before the match.
I was happy to take advantage of the situation. If you'll recall, in previous years, the only way to get in without a ticket was to queue for hours -- many people camped overnight -- but all I had to do was log in at noon and buy the tickets. It was with great frustration, then, that every single day at noon something would come up -- an important phone call, a time-critical task, a discussion with a colleague -- and by the time I was able to get on my laptop, they were already sold out. This went on for a week and half! I was finally successful, only to realize after the fact that I had just bought tickets to the Women's championship.
Jess isn't a fan of tennis so I went with her cousin (who, ironically, was in town from South Africa) who had been to Wimbledon before, but never Centre Court. And I have to say, the stadium is fantastic, full of hanging baskets of flowers, and the seats were even more amazing--fifth row along the service line! As I told Jess, the people on court were actually people-sized! Strawberries and cream are a Wimbledon tradition that we happily partook of, and I swear the restrooms were nicer than the ones at my office.
Unfortunately, the game wasn't particularly interesting -- Venus Williams was knocked out earlier (as was Roger Federer) -- and Serena Williams won her fourth title in straight sets and with no serious challenge. Nevertheless, I had a great time and will definitely be entering the lottery for next year.
P.S. I forgot my camera, but snapped a few pics with my phone. View photos
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