Wimbledon!

Yesterday we came to London having no idea that Wimbledon was even going on and today we decided to go and watch. We woke up at 9 am, the earliest start to a day of the trip, and walked to the metro. We went across town planning on just getting tickets for the small side courts and just watch tennis all day and maybe see a few names we recognized.

The trip started out as a mess. We got to Wimbledon only to find the longest line I have ever seen. 3,000-4,000 people wrapped around the city blocks each without a ticket. We decided that we were already there so we would give it a shot. We waited in line and the line went surprisingly fast. After about one hour and 45 minutes of waiting, we got down to about 100 people in front of us when they shut down the gates that were in our sight. The grounds had reached its maximum capacity. They told us that they were going to let us in on a 1 out-1 in basis. So since there were two lines for the whole grounds and we had to sit there and wait for about 200 people to leave. The problem was that it was only about 12:00 and people were just getting started. So we waited and waited. We thought about calling at quits but then decided to continue. Two and a half hours later, we finally got up to the gates. When we got there, the ticket man said that they just got four tickets for the Center Court because those people left. We asked how much they were and they said they were 43 pounds, 26 pounds more than just the ground tickets. Then we asked who was playing on the Center Court and they said that Federer and Henman were playing the final match. That made our decision real easy. So we splurged and took the tickets for the Center Court.

We got inside at about 2:30 and there were courts everywhere. Twenty in total. We went to take our seats in Center Court and Nalbandian was playing some other guy. Nalbandian is ranked top 10 in the world. He finished his opponent in straight sets and then they announced that the next match was going to be forfeited because Kim Clijsters' opponent had a viral infection. So they skipped right to the Roger Federer-Tim Henman match. Henman is a successful player who is also playing in front of his hometown so this was supposed to be a really tough second round opponent for Federer. After a 6-4 first set win, Federer proved that he was by far the best player in the world by winning the next two sets 6-0 and 6-1. He pretty much made Henman look like an eleven year-old girl. Though it was not the most exciting match, it was sweet to see Federer play and watch him get into his unphaseable zone. We also sat only three rows above the families of the players, so we may get some TV time. That would be aight.

After the Federer match, we went around the side courts looking for other notable players. We watched American James Blake win and we also saw Justine Henin-Hardenne dominate her opponent. Overall, this has been one of the best, if not the best days of the trip so far with only one week left to go for me.

I decided to head back a week earlier than Colin and Duncan. I will leave Amsterdam on the 5th and head to Hastings to see my girlfriend on the 6th. I will probably stay there for about a week before I head off the Vegas to join Dave and his poker posse.