Hardcore tennis in your face

There are a handful of people (you know who you are) who I would get up very early in the morning for. There are even fewer events that I would willingly arise at the crack of dawn to participate in - Art, Democracy, Education, and Tennis. Yesterday, I got up at 5:30am to catch a bus into London, another bus out to Southfields, stood in line in a field for 2 hours and finally arrived inside the hallowed grounds at 12:45pm. Worth every second of it!

During the first week there are lots of matches on the outer courts as well as in the show courts. Oh, and just try getting tickets for those courts anyway. So I was able to watch James Blake's match sitting on a park bench by the side of the court. I could hear him speaking to himself. He was just a few feet away from me! I also watched Arnaud Clement and B. Becker (not Boris), Danielle Hantuchova, and as the light was fading into another English summer night, the Williams sisters, Serena and Venus, play a doubles match on court 19 at the furthest reaches of the grounds. It was pure magic. Venus has a beautiful serve. Serena is muscular but not nearly as BIG as I thought she would be. And all the tennis I watched was good tennis. 

It's interesting to see these world class athletes making the same errors as we club players do. But the strangest thing is that you feel like you know these people - from watching countless hours of tennis you know their service motion and how they move. And there they are right next to you! Also, they make the court seem much smaller than when we play tennis. I guess they move more and faster. 

So that's what I did all afternoon and evening  - watched live, in my face tennis at Wimbledon. Didn't buy any souvenirs, only got a bite to eat (no strawberries or champagne at inflated prices), just hardcore tennis watching.

And then, I had to get back to Oxford - it was almost midnight when I walked in the door.