juillet 2011
Two days at Wimbledon: Day Two
An Aussie fanatic getting set up for camping
Wednesday, 6.30 am. No such luck today. Andy Murray, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are playing and the quest for tickets for Centre Court has already started the day before. I’m not mentioning Novak Djokovic here, although he was playing too (against the new Aussie hot shot Bernard Tomic as a matter of fact) because the Serb is far from reaching Roger and Rafa’s popularity here (yet). His winning the trophy this year might help though. So back to queuing. The Aussie fanatics supporting Tomic are here as every other day. They’re interviewed by a TV station and asked to demonstrate their fervor: “Let’s go Bernie, let’s go !” We start the process as number 2093 today, which means that getting tickets for one of the show courts would be nothing less than a miracle. As expected, we “only” get tickets for the grounds today but that’s good too, for two reasons: first, it saves money because Centre Court tickets were £90 on day 9 whereas ground tickets were only £17 and second, we’re in for the whole Wimbledon experience: a sunny day after rain and the rest of the grounds after the heart of the Temple.
Roger Federer warming up
Navratilova-Novotna vs Sukova-Temesvari
It all starts with Federer’s warm up on court 14 under Severin Lüthi’s supervision. The place is packed and I’m not the only one taking pictures ! It is then time to move to court 18, the now historical site where Isner and Mahut battled for three days and 11 hours last year, because Martina Navratilova is about to come out to play her invitation’s doubles. Again, the place is cramped. We’re notified that if we go to the bathroom (sorry, to the loo) after the fifteen minutes allowed before the match starts, our seat won’t be saved for us. People are queuing outside in case someone was to abandon their spot. Our neighbor, a pure Londoner judging by his accent and his heavy cider drinking, is what we might call the life and soul of the party, the pre-match entertainment in a way. He’s not willing to attract the attention of the weird guy with a pink hat in the front rows but if the steward could somehow make sure the blonde girl next to him was aware the bloke (let’s be English for once) was single and interested, it’d be awesome. Speaking of single, whenever someone new tries and find a spot in the stands, the steward directs him somewhere, mentioning that a double or a single (seat) is free in such and such row. Inevitably, when the patient steward tells someone that “a short-legged single” is free in our row, our new buddy retorts “hey ! I don’t have short legs !” I think you got the picture by now. Navratilova and Novotna, in the meantime, beat Sukova and Temesvari in straight sets in a match played on a slow rhythm but still quite impressive for 40 and 50-year-olds. It’s also worth mentioning that “Tiger Tim” (Tim Henman for those unfamiliar with the heroic subject of Her Majesty who tried, tried and tried again to win Wimbledon, stopped four times in the semis by Sampras twice, Ivanisevic and Hewitt) makes an appearance on the press terrace above court 18 at some point, duly noted by an observant spectator (“Come on Tim !”) and then obviously by the entire audience.
The Henman Hill
Time has come to move to the Henman Hill (or Murray Mound since Andy is playing next) to watch Federer vs Tsonga on the giant screen while sipping Pimm’s and eating a toffee ice cream. There are worse venues for a tennis match. Unfortunately, Federer seems to be in a pretty bad day, especially as far as his attitude is concerned. The match starts as it should, Federer building a two-set lead pretty quickly, but then completely losing his grip over the match. More than Tsonga’s performance (as much as the French newspapers tried to emphasize this aspect the next day), Federer looks like he isn’t hungry, he doesn’t want this victory that much, whereas it is obvious that the powerful Frenchman is not here to be taught a lesson by the master and has overcome any complex of inferiority toward the best player of all times. The eternal question is in the air: is Federer too old, is he done ? This question has been asked (too) often since 2008 and the journalists have always been wrong to write off the Swiss maestro so far. But still, this time, maybe for the first time, the attitude is clearly wrong more than the performance and this apparent lack of hunger is worrying indeed. The post-match interview doesn’t reassure anybody since Federer doesn’t seem to take what is supposed to be an excruciatingly painful loss in his own private backyard at Wimbledon too seriously. The crowd is quite taken aback by this massive upset but has no time to mourn since Murray is up next on Centre Court.
Lindstedt & Tecau aka "the spies"
The umpire couldn't remain serious for long with Goran by his side...
Off we go to court 12, where Ivanisevic is scheduled to continue his match started the day before. But first, Arnaud Clément and Lukas Dlouhy are facing Robert Lindstedt and Horia Tecau in a tight fifth set. The Swedish-Romanian pair finally wins 12-10 and will go on to the final, lost to the Bryan twins. Their communication system is the highlight of their game, as you can see on the picture above. Finally, Ivanisevic and his three buddies are back on court and even though court 12 doesn’t seem to be as good a scene as Centre Court to Goran’s taste, this is still great fun to watch. Johnson and Palmer eventually prevail 7-6 7-5. After a little autograph session, it’s time to leave the grounds. This is how Wimbledon, day two, ends and believe me, it was every bit as good as day one ! If I may add a little lesson taught by these two days, although doubles implies less physical effort than singles, this form of the game should not be dismissed as unimportant and TV channels should follow BBC’s lead and broadcast more of them, at least during the main events like the Grand Slams, it’s really fun to watch ! And it’s a part without which the greatest game there is would not be whole.
Two days at Wimbledon: Day One
The road leading to the Championships
Wimbledon. Where the tennis tradition has been religiously kept for so many years. It’s rather easy to watch it on television every year for a fortnight, as they say there, but actually going there to see the players and feel the extraordinary atmosphere surrounding the tournament with your own eyes without the mediation of a TV screen is something completely different. The experience and dream of a lifetime for every tennis nuts in the world. This place lives and breathes tennis for two weeks. The heart of the sport just beats harder here.
The queue
Wimbledon has a rather peculiar way of giving out tickets for the matches. Indeed, one can either enter the “ballot” to get a chance of being among the chosen ones, in other words the ticket holders for the next tournament, or one can simply show up on any given day of the tournament (rather early in the morning if possible) and take part in the famous queue in Wimbledon Park, hopefully leading them to one of the precious tickets for the show courts (Centre Court, Court 1 and 2) or at least to ground tickets, giving access to all the courts except the three previously mentioned and the rest of the grounds including the Henman Hill (or Murray Mound when the Scot is playing) and its giant screen behind Court number 1. The last solution is to show up as of 5 pm and try and grab one of the tickets left by people leaving the grounds for a reduced price.
In the grounds
So here we are on the second Tuesday of the tournament, queuing (I’d use the more American standing in line here, but I don’t think it fits this very British way of waiting) at 6.30 am in Wimbledon Park. The first thing striking the eye is how organized everything is and how calm (how British !) everybody remains all the way through the process taking you to the grounds in around 4 hours, very much part of the show. The most intense tennis fans have been camping for days already so that’s why our queue ticket specifies that we’re already number 919 in the increasingly huge line. That’s where luck comes into play since there are only 500 tickets for the show courts given away every day therefore meaning we were virtually off the main attractions already. However, apparently many people in front of us either couldn’t afford the (huge) prices of the tickets or preferred smaller courts. Anyway, Centre Court tickets are still available when the honorary stewards (this job apparently requires to wear a blazer and to have been there already in 1877) handing the corresponding wristbands get to us. Nobody would spit on such an opportunity, even for £78 !
Petra Kvitova
Samantha Stosur & Sabine Lisicki
Victoria Azarenka
The actual show starts when we finally get to the grounds around 10 (they open at 10.30, which leaves you some time to wander around the shops and various food joints, how convenient !). The courts 4 to 19 are already quite busy. Petra Kvitova is hitting with her coach, Sabine Lisicki and Samantha Stosur are warming up for their doubles match scheduled later in the day (and that they will actually play the day after due to the weather), Victoria Azarenka is wearing out her male sparring partner behind a fence, watched by a growing crowd quite unsure of who they’re looking at (“-Who’s this ? -Victoria Azarenka. -Victoria who ?”) and the surprise quarter-finalist Tamira Paszek is just finishing with practice, walks away from the court and passes me, completely unnoticed by the rest of the crowd. The juniors starting their tournament get the same treatment, even though some of them might return as top seeds in the adult championships in a few years, who knows ? Just a few names picked up in passing: Jiri Vesely, Luke Saville, Liam Broady and of course Alexios Halebian. In addition, some of the invitation’s doubles players are already out on the courts.
Rain...
... and the roof closing !
Sabine Lisicki
Marion Bartoli
Maria Sharapova
Dominika Cibulkova
But not for long. Indeed, Wimbledon wouldn’t be Wimbledon without some rain. And when I say some rain that means a huge thunderstorm that will make poor Lisicki jump very high at some point. That’s when our luck increases drastically since the Centre Court is the only court providing a roof. Ironically, rain starts at 1 pm sharp, the exact time when the matches are scheduled to start on the show courts. After a display of the very famous and fast covering of the court, the roof can be put in action. It needs approximately 20 minutes to close. Sabine Lisicki and Marion Bartoli can then make their entrance. The first detail attracting the modest club tennis player’s eye is the intensity put in every shot. Women’s tennis is known for its lack of diversity and this is true, no question. You’ll never see Sharapova serve and volley or Bartoli chip and charge and the only drop shots will come from Lisicki’s racket (11 winning drop shots against Bartoli). However, the shots they do master – basically their serve and ground strokes – will be smacked with such violence on every single occurrence that it is rather stunning. TV really doesn’t do justice to the actual speed of the game, as everyone who has ever been in a tennis stadium knows. The grunting is quite the same as on TV though, and with ladies like Sharapova or Azarenka (her grunts follow the ball until the opponent hits it as pressure increases), we’re not disappointed.
Radwanska-Hantuchova vs Mirza-Vesnina
Goran Ivanisevic
After seeing the refreshing and charming Lisicki exhaust energy-wasting Bartoli (the French was constantly jumping all over the place like a boxer on steroids) in a tight three-setter, Sharapova slaughter poor – but still very pretty – Cibulkova in straight sets and the victory of Sania Mirza and Elena Vesnina over Agnieszka Radwanska and Daniela Hantuchova (the last mentioned was not normally on schedule), the crowd shouts its happiness when past champions Goran Ivanisevic and Richard Krajicek are announced next on Centre Court, to face ex-doubles number ones Donald Johnson and Jared Palmer, instead of Jamie Murray playing his mixed doubles as mentioned in the program. Goran is completely living up to his entertaining character, filming his own entrance on the court, asking a ball boy to take a picture of him and Krajicek, answering the crowd (“-Goran, we love you !” -Thank you !”) and firing 4 aces in his first service game when, unfortunately, it starts raining again (the roof has been – quite stupidly – reopened in the meantime). As it is getting darker and darker and hope for rain to stop is growing thinner and thinner, it is then decided that the last female quarter final (Kvitova had had time to get rid of Pironkova on Court 1) will be played on Centre Court since play has been stopped everywhere else. Exit Ivanisevic and Krajicek (they will come back the next day, 3-2 in the first set, to be continued…) and Azarenka and Paszek are up next. The audience is rather disappointed not to see Ivanisevic come back but still delighted to be offered one extra match, especially people that just came in after 5 pm. It’s immediately clear that Azarenka is quite annoyed to have to play at such a time and that she intends to groan her way to the semis as fast as she can. In spite of a fierce resistance of young and small Paszek, her Belarussian opponent wraps up a neat 6-3 6-1 victory.
Victroria Azarenka
Tamira Paszek
Wimbledon, day one, was a complete success. The queue experience is to be renewed the next day, stay tuned.
