It was more than 2 years ago, in April 2013, that I first saw the Centre Court at Wimbledon. I had gone to the UK for a vacation and to meet my wife (girlfriend at that time) who was completing a 6 month course at Oxford. We stayed in London for a while, went south to the beautiful Isle of Wight and then up north to the even more beautiful Scotland. I made the customary pilgrimage to Lords while in London but somehow Wimbledon got postponed to the last day. We almost couldn't manage it but I was determined to not miss the chance. I didn't know when I would be back so with a kya pata, kal ho na ho or YOLO (as they call it now) attitude we went to SW19. But the moment we entered the grounds and finished a fantastic tour at Centre Court, we decided that this is one thing which shouldn't just remain as a 'Bucket List' item.
What followed from that point on was a series of extremely unlikely and unbelievable events. Two very good friends moved to UK for work that year. They being tennis fans themselves were already planning on watching The Championships. On my birthday, it was they who got the best gift - 2 tickets to watch Rafael Nadal play on Centre Court. This strengthened the resolve to watch Wimbledon even more and we then decided it was time to start planning a UK trip around Wimbledon 2015.
Of course, planning things so well in advance is not always easy. It's like when you get a big break before an exam. You are always lured into that false sense of complacency before realizing that the exam is just 2 days away and you have wasted a week. But we got the ball rolling and started our research on 2 things - Flight options and Wimbledon tickets. The former was quite easy. Though we still didn't figure out the best time to book tickets (between too early and late), we weren't too bothered about that. But the Wimbledon tickets were a different matter.
We found out that there were 3 ways in which you could get tickets:-
- Ticketmaster - A limited number of tickets are sold online on this website on the previous day. But it's not as easy as it sounds. This is 10 times harder than getting a tatkal ticket. Having said that, our friends got tickets from here itself. So I would say it is more like getting a positive result in Pune University revaluation process. You can keep trying and you might succeed once in 5 years.
- Online Ballot - There are different ballots for locals and overseas residents. The ballot starts in November and it's a simple online form. Again, the number of people applying is humongous. To quote the term on the Wimbledon website - "the ballot is substantially oversubscribed".
- Queuing - The Wimbledon queues are legendary. You might need to queue for 10 hours to get tickets. If you want a slight chance to get Centre Court tickets then you need to camp out the night before on the golf course with your tent and food. So that means you need to queue about 15 hours before.
Not wanting to miss out on the chance of seeing Wimbledon after travelling all the way from India, we planned to try all three options. We applied for the Online overseas ballot in November, we made plans to queue the night before and we planned to try our luck with Ticketmaster the day before. With these things in mind and after looking at many flight options, we booked our tickets in February 2015. Now, I'm not a believer in destiny or the law of attraction but just a week after we booked our flight tickets, I got an email which said "We are pleased to offer you a pair of tickets for Tuesday June 30 for CENTRE COURT".
I couldn't believe it and still can't comprehend the luck of getting Centre Court tickets through the Online Ballot. Some times I wonder if we hadn't booked the flight tickets, would we have still got the Wimbledon tickets? Is the law of attraction real?
Now it was easier to plan the rest of the trip. We booked tickets for a musical, a cricket match, planned a trip to Oxford and then to Cornwal. But now the excitement was which matches will we get to see. The schedule for a particular day is not revealed till the previous evening. We knew we would be watching Petra Kvitova since the Ladies Champion plays on Day 2. We knew we would not be watching Novak Djokovich since the Gentleman's champion plays on Day 1. But the biggest question on our mind was would we watch Roger Federer or not. Though I am a Rafa fan, I have always been amazed by Federer's elegance and his backhand. Plus there are some people who you need to watch in certain venues. E.g. Sachin at Wankhede, VVS at Kolkata. In the same way I wanted to watch Federer at Centre Court and Rafa at Roland Garros. I wasn't too excited to see Murray. For some reason I've never been attracted to his style of play. But there was a very good chance of that happening since he was the local favorite.
I still remember when I first found out the 'Order of Play'. My wife and I were on Putney station and my cousin had messaged me saying I would be watching Federer play. But I wanted to cross-check before I jumped to the conclusion. I checked on the Wimbledon App and on the website and saw match number 2 for Centre Court Day 2 - Damir Dzumhur v/s Roger Federer. At 11 PM on Putney station, 2 mad Indians were jumping up and down unable to believe that a dream which started 2 years ago was going to come true in less than 24 hours.
Now, we had been to the Wimbledon grounds and on Centre Court 2 years ago but being there on match day was something completely different. When we actually took our seats in Centre Court and the players walked out, we really had to pinch ourselves. After watching Wimbledon on TV for more than 20 years, we were actually there on Centre Court watching live action. The ladies champion Kvitova made short work of her opponent and much as I would have liked to see more of a fight, I was happy that I would get to see Federer that much sooner.
Then the moment came and out he walked onto the immaculately cut hallowed grass of Centre Court Wimbledon. It's hard for me to describe the joy of watching Federer play. He just personifies the words grace and elegance. Some times when a great batsman plays the cover drive or the straight drive you go 'aaah'. Watching Federer play make you go like that on almost every shot. I didn't take many photos or videos and I am glad. Glad because you need to experience the moment without any distraction.
When the second set ended, we really hoped that Dzumhur will take the third set. And even the fourth. Anything which would give us more time to watch the master. But alas it wasn't to be and the match ended in 3 sets. The local favorite Andy Murray played next and though it was great watching him play and listening to the surprisingly vociferous Brits, the difference in class showed. It was Murray who made me miss Federer even more.
Our lucky streak continued and even though only 3 matches were scheduled at Centre Court, we got a bonus match! Caroline Wozniaki played Saisai Zheng in the match which was originally scheduled at Court No. 1. Some people just don't appreciate what they have and left the court. Good for us as we went really close to watch the match taking the vacant 1000 GBP seats. Mind you, it was good that we had 50 GBP seats earlier as it was extremely hot but we were in the shade since we were very high up in the stands. The expensive ticket holders were the ones fanning themselves with whatever they could find.
The wonderful day almost over we walked on the grounds trying to catch the matches on the other courts. Our day ended eating the very traditional Strawberries with Cream soaking in the atmosphere at Henman Hill, content in the thought that some dreams do come true.
