I have been a tennis fanatic forever. In fact, it was while watching John McEnroe play a US Open final that I decided I was going to go into the sport industry – sport reporting to be exact. That led me to Carleton University’s journalism program and 3 years of radio sports broadcasting while in school. Life has a way of changing directions and after time spent in London, then in the art world, then in corporate storytelling I found my way back to the world of sport. Full circle – although my role in the sport world is different than that originally envisioned (which to be honest was to be the first woman on Hockey Night In Canada – me and Don Cherry, now what would he do with that?).

But back to tennis. I made sure that my trip to London would coincide with Wimbledon. With all the time I’ve spent in London over the years, I’d never actually been there when Wimbledon was on. I could hardly wait. So upon arrival I made my way to Tina’s, showered, changed and headed to Wimbledon. I landed at 7am and was there by noon. I was expecting to simply scope it out and see what it is I would need to do to get on the grounds later in the week, however as I made my way around the site to where “The Queue” starts I was told there was no queue, nobody lining up, and I could pay my 20 GBP and walk right in. Hells yes! It must have been the cloudy weather. Why else would there be no queue on manic Monday? Monday of week two everyone remaining in the tournament plays, it’s a very, very full day. Djokovic, Roger, Murray, and countless others were all playing that day.

I walked the grounds, stopping to watch matches on the outer courts – men’s double, women’s doubles, mixed doubles, boys, girls, etc. I sat on Henman Hill and caught some of Roger’s match on the big screen. Then the screen flipped over to Murray’s match. I even headed to one of the restaurants for tea – at that point I’d been there 4 hours and was a little on the cold side. Besides, high tea at Wimbledon seemed like the thing to do.

It was a great way to ‘arrive’ in London. Apologies for the lack of photos, I blame the overnight flight from Vancouver….well it’s either that or the fact that I was walking around stunned and in awe.

As much as I thought I’d return later in the week – a week in London isn’t a long time and I got busy. Although I toyed with the idea of joining the Queue for the finals, there was really no way I was going to spend a night out in the line-up – see earlier post about meeting Ketut in Bali if you want to know why this woman doesn’t do line-ups.

I can confidently say that I will return to Wimbledon. I’ll be entering the lottery for tickets or accepting an invite to the Royal Box.

Aaahhh Roger…