Garry and May's Adventures: Wimbledon Washout!!!

Saturday (30 Jun 07) - Woke up at 4am to make our way to Wimbledon. Train arrived at 5.30am. Still smiling despite an extremely early start to the day.

There were heaps of tents at the start of the queue as we were walking down towards the end of the queue. Lots of people actually camped out at Wimbledon on Friday night for showcourt tickets. Spot the Greek boy with the green cap and the floral umbrella! We were in the queue for so long that we got to know him and the other queuers quite well.

Our Greek friend standing on the side of the pavement. He told us his family went to Rome to watch tennis and they met Nadal and Mauresmo in person, pretty serious tennis fans. They were queuing up for Court One tickets even though they had already successfully ballotted for Court Two tickets! Our little Greek friend kept us entertained by giving us a lecture on how Nadal's technique defies the law of tennis, how Nadal will damage his wrist in the long run cause he doesn't play with the right technique, how Federer plays classic tennis, etc....this was all coming from an 11 year old boy!

It was worth the wait after all! We were early enough to get Showcourt One tickets but still not early enough to get Centre Court tickets.

Started to pour once we got into the All England and Lawn and Tennis Croquet Club (AELTC) and it didn't stop pouring, except for an hour during the Sharapova and Sugiyama game. The Lawn Championships have been held at the AELTC since 1877.

We had time before the Sharapova game so we sat at Court 13 hoping to catch a glimpse of Ana Ivanovic (the runner-up in the French Open and apparently very popular amongst male fans). Just when the canvas was let down and everyone started cheering, the rain started again and the piece of canvas had to be pumped back up again. We never got to see Ana Ivanovic.....

......but we saw heaps of Aussie fans all out to cheer for Wayne Arthur! One of these two guys had "Wayne" painted on his forehead and the other had " Train" on his forehead (the Wayne Train!!!). "Wayne" caught us taking a picture of them. The rain was so bad that Wayne didn't even get to play on Saturday.

Outside Centre Court.

Inside Centre Court - covered up to protect the court from the rain.

At the Aorangi Terrace - or nicknamed "Henman Hill" (by the Brits) or "Mount Philipoussis"(by the Aussies)

You can watch the court games on the large screen TV if you can't be bothered queuing up for showcourt tickets!

Outside Court One

Inside court one

The audience was cheering and clapping when the guys brought down the canvas.

I don't know how Garry managed to convince the old guy at the ticket office to give us such good seats but the old guy was happy to give us third row tickets directly opposite the umpire. Maybe cause a lot of people wanted seats further up to shelter themselves from the rain.

Amazing experience watching tennis so close up, it was definitely a first for us! Would have been better on the umpire side. I would have asked for Sharapova's autograph. Denning called us after the Sharapova game, he was watching it live in Melbourne. He suggested calling our mobile during the next game and letting our mobile ring to annoy the umpire so we could get ourselves on TV! Just as well Baghdatis and Nalbandian never got to play after Sharapova and Sugiyama! I didn't want to be on the front page of London news for being a nuisance at Court One!

Sharapova (seeded 2) and Sugiyama (seeded 26) entering Court One. Poor Sugiyama was so small compared to Sharapova. A lot of people in the audience were going for the underdog, so were we.

The back of Sharapova's swan-like dress.

A tower of strength.

A short break......

Deep in meditation....

A mid-air shot!

The first year at Wimbledon that hawk-eye can be used by the players to challenge any line balls. Sharapova challenged 2 line balls which were called out by the linesman but they were both in. Sugiyama challenged 1 line ball which she claimed was out, but was in fact in. That's why if you see the screen behind Sharapova, Suiyama only had 2 challenges left. When Sharapova won, she pointed the racket straight at the linesman and shook her head. Apparently at her interview after the match, she criticised the linesman for being hopeless.

One of the very few shots of Sugiyama taken by Garry. He must have taken thousands of photos of Sharapova but not very many of Sugi....hmmm....I wonder why.....