My very belated Wimbledon 09 report
It's been awhile since Wimbledon ended so this might be a bit late but I still wanted to share my Wimbledon experience with you.
This is Lleyton Hewitt shooting a promo video for Yonex at a local tennis club near Wimbledon. He was also headlining a tennis clinic for little kids. We went there after school since the club is right next to us but beforehand, he stood in line in front of us at the Starbucks at Wimbledon Village! I was so unbelievably starstruck and I was so embarrassed because I think he realised. He did the typical celebrity thing of trying to avoid fans by pretending to talking on his phone... I really wanted to ask for a photo with him but I didn't get great vibes from him... But I really feel quite close to him now coz this is the second time I saw him at Wimbledon Village. A few years ago, we saw him leave a Starbucks (again) with a drink in his hand... and some inside scoop - both times, it seemed to be a Frappucino of some sort.
This is his car... I thought it was quite decadent of him to rent/borrow/buy a car for a fortnight considering there isn't really much need for one. Besides, I always thought the Championships provided the players with rental cars. It's a nice car, no?
Okay the whole Lleyton spotting happened the Friday before the Championships started and my friends and I camped out on Wednesday for tickets on Thursday. You have to get there so early (like 3pm) to get a good position in the queue.
This is the bridge that goes from Wimbledon Golf Club where we queued to the Championships itself. You know you're just a few moments away from entering the historic venue. But they wake you up at 5.30 - 6.00 in the morning and this is so unnecessary as they actually start the queue at 9.30. So basically there's just hours and hours of waiting to just get inside the damn place. It''s really annoying.
When they finally let you in at 10.30 or so, they actually block out most of the place untill 11.30. So the hundreds of us who queued early and have got Centre Court tickets are just confined and crammed into a tiny area full of overpriced shops and 100m-long queues for the toilet as if we're a bunch of battery farmed chickens.
When they finally opened up the rest of the place, we headed straight to the practice courts to see the players... and just my luck (I'm always at the right place at the right time! ) the first player I bump into is Ana Ivanovic! I quickly got my camera out and just blurted out 'Good luck, Ana!' and she replied 'Thank you'. Aww... my 'Ana moment'. She was also practising later on and even though she's plummeted in the rankings, her popularity with the fans has remained intact. ALL the cameras were pointed towards her.
Alize Cornet. She was chatting in French with some guys who were sitting next to us.
Amelie - always nice to see her smiling.
Caroline Wozniacki. I can totally see her becoming the next big star of the WTA Don't her Rayban Wayfarers say it all? She has this charismatic and cheerful disposition which I just find endearing. She was very lively and saying hi to everyone. I remember seeing her in Liverpool last year and then at some crappy kid's fun activity event at Wimbledon a year ago when she wasn't really that big and now, she's in the top ten... oh, how they grow up so quickly
The one and only Miss Serena Williams. My friends who are just casual tennis fans could not stop talking about how big her ass was... "She's very large for an athlete" Poor Serena, but I won't be feeling too sorry for her because she's another one of those players who give off the aloof 'back off' vibe and don't seem to care that much about the fans. For those of you who want to come to Wimbledon and see some of the famous players, just spend a day in Wimbledon Village coz I guarantee that you'll probably see the whole top ten of both tours. Serena, Venus, Marat, Sexy Stepanek, James Blake, Dinara were just some of the spotted stars...
Tim Henman, Pat Cash and a glimpse of Sue Barker filming for the BBC. Aww... I just love Auntie Sue
The back of THE Roger Federer's head You know, as much as I hate this man's guts, I gotta hand it to him, he's still undeniably the most popular man in tennis. When he walked up the stairs the many fans just sponatneously yelled out, 'Roger! Roger! Over here!' He was just like a rock star. No one has the charisma to elicit such a reaction from so many people, not even Rafa or Maria or Serena. BUT - he didn't sign any autographs and just walked past... and it's not like he was busy or anything as he leisurely talked to the man above for a few mins. But you know, he's still a lot more fan-friendly than a lot of other players.
Ok I normally like Nando but... Oh my god - this guy was a nightmare. Señorita Verdasco was scheduled for an autograph session and I queued up like 15 mins before the scheduled time, thinking I was early. We waited for like 25 mins until we caught a glimpse of him. We all got excited and thought that he'd come to sign autographs, but then he goes into a building for like another 20 mins! Thanks to him, we missed the first few games of our Centre Court match! I dunno why he kept us waiting for so long, probably taking a shower and dolling himself up.
The Matches
Hewitt v Del Potro
Lleyton scores an upset
A cordial handshake
This was such a good match. Great quality tennis. Not a classic or a thriller like my non-hardcore-tennis/casual tennis fan friends seemed to think it was but not bad nonetheless. Full crowd for this match. Another thing about Wimbledon is that there are actually fully packed stadiums in the first week, you don't often get that in other tournies... :)
Wozniacki v Kirilenko
Okay not the greatest advert for women's tennis... and being a big proponent of the women's game, I was a tad embarrassed. :P The score was 6-0 6-4. Kirilenko, imo, didn't really play that badly but Caroline's backhand was on fire and Maria just didn't play the big points that well. Centre Court wasn't even half-full. :( But that's mainly because everyone wanted a break after the long Hewitt match and before the Murray match.
A row of fully-hatted rich people in the Royal Box XD
John McEnroe in the commentary box
A nice match. Big disparity in talent between Murray and Gulbis though. A year ago, I saw the match between Rafa and Gulbis at Wimbledon live and thought how talented and skilled Ernie was... well he wasn't exactly on his best form this day. Without his serve, it would have been a much shorter match. And Andy should be a lot more aggressive and stop with the slicing already. It is an AMAZING slice backhand but he over-relies on it too much. Even the annoying American twats behind us were whispering about it.
Well, I guess that's it. :P
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