Wimbledon Day Five: A Fan's Experience

Until you're there, you can't really believe how horrible it is.

When I got off the Tube (subway), there was a friendly traffic control person saying that queuers would not get into the park until after 5 pm.

I didn't listen. "Lala Lala," I said, with my hands over my ears. I ended up having an incredibly lucky experience, which I'll discuss next.

On Day 1, a colleague of mine had arrived at 7 am, gotten a Queue card, which is an official placeholder for the Queue that provides your number.

He was number 4,400 (something) and was able to get into the park with a grounds pass at 11 am, in time for the start of play. (That's about four hours of queuing).

On Day 5, another colleague of mine arrived for the late afternoon matches at 4 pm, was given a Queue card with the number 13,000 (something), and got in around 6:30 after 2.5 hours of queueing, in time to catch the last set of the thrilling Haas/Cilic match.

A man who I met at the food court had arrived about 7 am on Day 5, and after 6 hours of queueing had gotten a grounds pass and arrived in time for the start of play (at 1 pm).

To my eyes, when I arrived at Carpark 10, where the Queue starts, it looked like there might be 10K people in line.

I'm standing there, staring at this sea of humanity winding its way like a line at a ride at Disneyland multiplied by 1000, when a man approached me with a question.

"Would you like a ticket to Centre Court today?"

Oh no, I replied, I've heard about people like you. Everyday in the papers, there are reports written about stolen Wimbledon tickets, and how you should never buy a scalper's ticket for Wimbledon.

No, really, the man says. To prove that these are real Wimbledon tickets, we'll go together through the turnstyles, and you'll see.

His wife couldn't come, and one of the friendly bobbies had suggested that he just go to the Queue and see if someone wouldn't want to take her place. He only wanted face value (L62 - or about $100) for the ticket.

(You have to realize that Wimbledon tickets are going for thousands of dollars online. My colleague who I mentioned on the previous page, at his hotel the concierge offered that he could probably secure only a single ticket (not two) for L900! That's about $1,500.)

I owe an incredible debt of gratitude to this man! Someone who helped scratch an item off my bucket list! LOL

As we're walking through the turnstyles, who should we see but Boris Becker! (This is him from a few days before).

He's a lot taller and handsomer than he looks sometimes in the pictures!

I wanted to say Dude! Congratulations on your wedding! (He got married again last weekend). But he didn't look very friendly. He gave me that icy stare that people do when they don't want to be bothered.

And like an idiot, I didn't have my camera at the ready. Note to self: next time you go to Wimbledon, have your camera at the ready!

The next person I saw was John McEnroe! He was climbing up the stairs of Center Court, which are enclosed in glass so you can see who's there.

This time I did have my camera sort of ready, but by the time I raised it up and got it focused, all I got was the back of his head. This is a shot from last year, to prove that I know what he looks like.

We got there a little early, so I had time to duck into some of the smaller courts. The first court I duck into - Court 19 - who should I see but Novak Djokovic! Practicing! (his match was the last one on Centre Court today)

On these smaller courts, the players are...right there! I sat down in the front row, and the next row is...grass! Novak's coach walks by, and I could practically reach out and touch him!

Novak looked pretty relaxed and confident. Some of the papers reported him seeming stressed out and not himself, but it didn't look that way to me. Of course, I am such an expert! ;-)

I was so engrossed in watching Novak at practice that I didn't realize it was time to start action at Centre Court! Ooops!

I ran over, but missed getting a picture of Roger coming out of those famous green doors in his new Nehru Jacket.

In pictures, the jacket looks kind of...well, in the 60s, the Nehru jacket was revolutionary and hip and counter-culture.

It doesn't look that way on Roger. Especially with the Nike head-band accessory.

But in person it actually looks good on him. As my (male) companion noted: it suits him.

I guess I'm saying that the pictures don't do justice to it - you have to see him moving around in it.

Roger made it look easy again! He never was in any danger, even though he lost a set, and didn't look like he was even playing his 'A' game.

There was very little tension. And all there was to admire was the beauty of Roger's shot making. His backhand is truly a thing of beauty. (This is the forehand, of course).

As a Rafa fan, I'd noticed how Rafa make a target out of Roger's backhand. Now, being able to just watch Roger perform without the pressure, I can really say how beautiful it is. I enjoyed this as much as I used to enjoy Justin Henin's backhand.

Mirka was there. In the post-match interview, Roger was asked what he was going to do with his whole weekend off, and he said that he really didn't get much of a chance to enjoy London itself, and didn't know the city that well.

But since his wife was pregnant, they would probably spent a quiet weekend at home.

But my companion, the guy I got tickets from said 'No way.' Then he did a sort of punker's imitation of Roger, pumping his fist: "We're going to the Bruce Springsteen concert..."

One of the things I was most looking forward to was the operation of the roof when the rains came! We were sitting high enough up that we couldn't see the new roof at all. But it is incredibly beautiful, and much more imposing than I thought from the pictures. I was able to talk one of the friendly bobbies into letting me get into the press area to take a few shots of the roof.

Much has been made recently about the overly loud grunts of female players.

There has been talk about the grunting since the days of Monica Seles. And I guess I have gotten used to it. But on this occasion, Centre Court, Day 5, I had the chance to listen to it first-hand.

I was astonished at how long the squeal went on! Well after the ball was over the net and onto the other side of the court.

The squeal lasted until the opposing player struck the ball! But ... if the squealer hit the net, by chance, then the squeal was cut of abruptly. As if there was no need for it, but not as if the amount of energy that went into the shot was different!

The squealer had enough control to cut that noise off when it suited her.

So I am developing my own set of opinions about this squeal issue.

There was a lot more tension in Novak's match with Mardy Fish. At least in the first set, anyway. The two of them seemed to have fun out there, and it was fun for the fans. Novak was trying out this wonderful backhand slice shot. He missed the first couple of times he used it, but got better at it as the match lengthened. Hope he gets to use it a lot more times, it is a beautiful shot. It is one of the ones where the ball changes direction and goes back toward the net after it lands.

After all the action was done at Centre Court, my companion and I said a friendly good-bye, and I wandered over to Henman Hill (I'll never be able to call it anything else) and watched the final of the Tommy Haas / Marin Cilic match. Tommy had won the first two sets, but lost the third. He had a couple of match points in the fourth set.

My colleagues who had arrived around 4 pm and waited in line for 2.5 hours were finally inside Wimbledon, but very disappointed to have missed all the matches.

I texted them to check out the new roof at CC, then get over to HH for the HC match. Only it was match point, so I thought the day was pretty much done.

Only Tommy Haas blew his match point chances, and a fourth set tie-break was on, then a 5th set!

At the end of the day, for L5 (about $10 - the money goes to charity), you can buy a re-sold ticket at the St. Mary's gate inside Wimbledon, and get in to see a match on the show courts. While my friends went in for the deciding set, I stayed on HH.

This was the best match, in terms of tension and drama, of the day! It highlighted a really terrific day at Wimbledon, and was finally called because of darkness. I can't tell you who the winner was, because they'll take that up again in a few hours when Day 6 begins.

As you can see from the clock here, it was 9:20. They continued the match until 9:30. I was very curious about this because of last year's fantastic final, which concluded at 9:16 pm in 'near total darkness'. I wanted to see what 'near total darkness' was.

To me, on HH, it wasn't that dark. It was just about sunset. The sky was still blueish. If I were playing tennis at home on a court at the city center, we could play! But inside these stadiums it is darker by virtue of the fact that it is enclosed except for the roof.

One final note for Rafa fans. I normally don't buy the programmes for sporting events. But Rafa fans should get your hands on the Wimbledon programme.

It contains some very nice articles on Rafa by the leading tennis writers of the day including L. Jon Weirtheim and Neil Harmon. (El Jon writes a summary of last year's final which is sort of taken from his new book). The program itself is printed in a heavy glossy format that is very classy.

They print a new programme for every day of Wimbledon, and when they are gone they are gone. (So I can only speak for what I saw in the Day 5 programme). They only make the programme available inside the park, so I recommend getting one, if you have a chance to go through the turnstyle!

If you are unfortunate, like me, who didn't realize the programme was nicer than the typical cheezy job you get a most sporting events, you can purchase the programme through an online vendor. Check the Wimbledon official website for the URL.

This is what Rafa would have looked like in his dress whites this year! This picture was taken by b/r own Clarabella from the Hurlingham tennis event the week before Wimbledon 2009. Thanks Clarabella!

The tournament misses you, Rafa! Get well soon.