The second Friday at Wimbledon is without a doubt one of the best days on the tennis calendar every year. This year was no different, although unfortunately the great Federer wasn’t around to participate in the festivities. Roger’s absence was perhaps the only dark spot on what otherwise was an amazing day of tennis. Oh yeah, and we were lucky enough to have Centre Court tickets.
Showing posts with label Wimbledon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wimbledon. Show all posts
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Friday, June 24, 2011
Wimbledon: Wednesday
On Wednesday we were back for more…this time queue style. One of the big traditions at Wimbledon is the queue, which is pretty unique for major sporting events because you can line up the morning of (or night before for the more hardcore fans) and gain entry for reasonable prices. Plus, a substantial number of tickets for Centre Court, Court 1, and Court 2 are made available. Unfortunately for us, the British favorite Andy Murray was on Court 1 on Wednesday, so the queue was longer than Tuesday. We got in line at 7:30 and just missed the last of the Court 2 tickets. I wanted those because my old nemesis Mardy Fish was first on Court 2. Anecdotally, the Murray effect is quite large as the person sitting behind us on Centre Court on Tuesday said they got tickets from the queue and they said they entered also around 7:30.
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| The Queue |
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| Working it out in the queue, guns like those don't make themselves |
Anyway, we landed grounds passes and got to see a lot of this to start with.
I have to say though that the Wimbledon weather forecasters are pretty solid. They said at 11 a.m. that it would dry up by 3 p.m. and play ended up starting at 3:30. The weather delay gave me that chance to try clock my serve in the Let’s Play tent (a somewhat respectable 85 mph…I could definitely compete with second serves of the women). And we also had more time to eat 6 to 8 more containers of these…
Apparently the strawberries are special ordered and delivered from Kent. It shows. The consistency and quality is incredible. I really can’t say enough about this.
And most importantly during the rain delay, I learned once again how great my wife is. The couple behind us on Court 12 during the delay featured the whiniest girl friend/wife ever. At about 11:30, she was complaining that they had now "wasted the entire day" and that sitting there waiting for it to stop raining was "ridiculous." I did like the guy's reply though..."It's not even noon yet...how have we wasted the whole day?" And also while we were waiting for the weather to clear, Venus was playing on Centre Court. She dropped the first set in a tiebreaker prompting the guy beside us to say, "Venus isn't out of it." My wife responded eagerly, "No way...Venus is a fighter, she's never out of it." (I was like, "Huh, where did that come from? I like it.") The guy then said, "I wouldn't be surprised if she comes back and wins." My wife asserted with great conviction, "Oh, she'll definitely win." (I'm so not worthy...and by the way, Venus won 8-6 in the third).
We finally got to see some live action on Court 12. Richard Gasquet versus Igor Kusnitsyn. Gasquet has an awesome backhand and pretty much dominated. But the highlight of the match was definitely the chair umpire (see below…it’s pretty obvious why).
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| Kusnitsyn, Gasquet, and the dreamy chair umpire |
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| Richard |
So, I guess that's about it. We have to run off to Edinburgh now, so that's all I've got time for.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Wimbledon Coverage
Our pilgrimage to the promised land...aka The 125th Wimbledon Championships aka The All England Lawn Tennis Club aka The Championships aka "A waste of an entire day" (seriously...I heard this last one...much more on that later).
Be on the lookout for wall-to-wall coverage with lots of pictures and commentary tomorrow. In our two days, we saw a lot of the big names and some of the other fodder. We had some great weather and some terrible weather...typical Wimbledon. We had the best strawberries in the world...in copious amounts. It was a great experience.
For now, here's a bit of video footage I captured from the John Isner v. Nicholas Mahut first-round match. Luckily for us, the match clocked in at about 9 hours shorter than their match-up last year. And Michelle's favorite player (Mr. Isner) prevailed. He is quite dreamy after all...and so tall.
One thing I noted watching Isner is that I really feel like I could make it as a tennis coach for professional players. First off, Isner is 6'9", so telling him to bend his knees more would almost definitely be appropriate. Second, telling him to hit more aces would be a solid strategy. And finally, all I would really do is nail his size 16 shoes to the baseline during practice until he becomes comfortable taking the ball early. There's really no reason for a man his size to be endangering the lives of the lines men and women by rallying from 6 yards behind the baseline...ever. Heck, he should never stray more than a couple of feet beyond the baseline. If you lose some points quickly by playing more aggressively, so be it...it will pay off in the end. In all the points in the video he maintained very positive court positioning...it's no surprise he won them all. Simple as that. The ball is in your court John. $250,000 per year plus travel expenses and I'll put you in the top 10....
Be on the lookout for wall-to-wall coverage with lots of pictures and commentary tomorrow. In our two days, we saw a lot of the big names and some of the other fodder. We had some great weather and some terrible weather...typical Wimbledon. We had the best strawberries in the world...in copious amounts. It was a great experience.
For now, here's a bit of video footage I captured from the John Isner v. Nicholas Mahut first-round match. Luckily for us, the match clocked in at about 9 hours shorter than their match-up last year. And Michelle's favorite player (Mr. Isner) prevailed. He is quite dreamy after all...and so tall.
One thing I noted watching Isner is that I really feel like I could make it as a tennis coach for professional players. First off, Isner is 6'9", so telling him to bend his knees more would almost definitely be appropriate. Second, telling him to hit more aces would be a solid strategy. And finally, all I would really do is nail his size 16 shoes to the baseline during practice until he becomes comfortable taking the ball early. There's really no reason for a man his size to be endangering the lives of the lines men and women by rallying from 6 yards behind the baseline...ever. Heck, he should never stray more than a couple of feet beyond the baseline. If you lose some points quickly by playing more aggressively, so be it...it will pay off in the end. In all the points in the video he maintained very positive court positioning...it's no surprise he won them all. Simple as that. The ball is in your court John. $250,000 per year plus travel expenses and I'll put you in the top 10....
Monday, June 20, 2011
Big plans...
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| Because who doesn't enjoy a miniature pine cone? |
1. Attend lecture by Nobel Laureate economist and NY Times columnist Paul Krugman
tonight. Travel down to London afterwards. Might not have time to blog about this talk, but I'm assuming it will be good. Krugman is pretty awesome and always seems to be a much needed voice of reason in the economics debates. Also, you might remember him from his incredibly random cameo appearance in Get Him to the Greek
.2. Tomorrow morning, suit up in our best all-whites, take the underground to Wimbledon, devour some strawberries and cream, and take in some Centre Court action from our front (and by front I mean back) row seats. How cool is it that those of us who are sufficiently tech savvy and quick on the trigger (like me, obviously) can buy tickets for Centre Court at the greatest tennis tournament in the world the day before you want to go for less than 50 pounds? I read somewhere that the Wimbledon ticketing process should be the model for all major sporting events...so far, I would agree.
3. Repeat #2, but this time joining the morning queue for grounds passes...to get the full experience. Practice court and outside court action is usually the best watching at the big tournaments.
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