The Wimbledon Tennis Championships

Yesterday marked the start of the 132nd Wimbledon Championships at the AELTC. It’s the second tournament where both men and women win the same prize money (as the ladies final is a maximum of three sets compared to five for men, they do better in the pounds-per-set ratio, but with ¬£750,000 to win I’m sure the men aren’t complaining) and the first where hawk-eye technology can be used to challenge any decisions by line-judges. Players get 3 challenges per match - although they only lose one should the challenge be wrong. I’ve seen hawk-eye in the cricket over the past years and it’s both a cool and useful technology which adds to the experience for spectators. Now it’s improving things for players too, making bad line-calls a thing of the past.

I went this afternoon, taking advantage of the fact that for the first time in my life I can be at the front gate in less than 15 minutes from leaving my flat. A person under the train at Monument stopped me getting back from work quickly so we didn’t sit down until 2pm, just in time to watch Venus Williams destroy Cavaday 6-3 in the final set.

Later it was time for the start of the annual contest of a British person getting close-but-not-close-enough to the final. Murray won in straight sets but his performance was nowhere near that of Nadal who beat Beck in the second match of the day.

Finally we saw the beginning of a ladies doubles match involving Venus and Serena Williams. The Williams sisters dominated throughout the first set, but the lure of the chip shop got too much so we left after five games.

It was the first time I’ve gone to Wimbledon with a ticket and the experience was considerably less hassle than the usual queues to get in - the longest wait was for the 493 to turn up! In previous years I have queued outside for hours on end and got tired by mid afternoon due to being on my feet all the time.

Plan to go again next week, weather permitting. It’s good that for two weeks of the year, every weather forecast mentions what’s going on in my local area. From my childhood I always remember it pouring with rain during Wimbledon fortnight. Hopefully the sun stays shining and Cliff Richard stays away.