Wimbledon – Check
It was the mid of June, and the Wimbledon season had just begun. There were news about Andy Murray’s chances of winning the title and the tennis buzz was all around the place. It has always been a dream for me to go and watch a tennis match at its Mecca, Wimbledon.
I enquired with a few friends to know the chances of getting tickets to watch a match there. The response I got from most was not very encouraging, most said that I had to wait in long queues for hours and still might not get to watch a match; some said that I had to go the previous night and stand in the queue, and if I was lucky enough I will get to the centre court. But then I knew that “Luck” doesn’t pass me by as often as I would want it to. So, I dropped the plan. Well, almost.
On a Saturday afternoon, (27th June 2009 2:30 PM, to be precise), I felt this sudden urge to pay a visit to Wimbledon. I wanted to give my luck a chance. And I managed to persuade my housemates to accompany me. We reached there at around 4:00 PM, last game was at around 6:00 PM and there was an Andy Murray match happening at the centre court. I had a quick glance at the queue, and it was like an endless trail of snails heading towards the tunnel with no light at its end. And the sudden urge stroke back. As crazy as it may sound, we headed towards the end of the trail i.e. the start of the snail trail.
Notwithstanding the length of the queue, every time it moved a little, the hope of getting in grew a little. For every few yards we moved, I would count the steps and time the wait (with my stopwatch). I tried to calculate the approximate time it would take for us to get in, and it was not very encouraging. But I actually believed my gut, more than the metrics, which said we would get in. Every step towards the entrance built the excitement more and more.
After close to two hours of nervous wait, we finally got there. (I could hear the theme from the movie Gladiator in my ears as I walked in to Wimbledon, a moment of glory). From where we stood, we could hear the huge roar of applause for Andy. We just followed the roar, and it led us to the giant screen, where there were people all around cheering for their favourite player. All I could see was “no hope for centre court”. I wasn’t totally disheartened, since there was a match that Jamie Murray (Andy’s younger brother) was playing in Court 2. I thought we could at least watch the younger one play the game. I mean how different could they be, they are both Murrays after all. So we bought the tickets to Court 2.
While we were heading towards Court 2, we saw a couple of familiar players crossing our path. It took me a moment before I realised that they were Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza, the Indian Mixed doubles champions. It didn’t take us long to unanimously ditch the plan to Court 2 and follow the pair to Court 4. And there it was the snail trail again, smaller one though; I thought the opponents must be a well known pair, and to my surprise the trail was actually for Sania and Bhupathi. There were more than the few of us (fans) than I had imagined. As we entered the court we saw this huge crowd of supporters for the Indian Pair. There were people with the Indian Flags, screaming “Jitega Jitega India Jitega” (Literally translated “Victory victory India Victory”, a cheer mostly associated with Indian cricket) at the top of their voices. The referee had a hard time silencing the crowd, but the Indian champs seemed to love the homely treatment at Wimbledon. We joined the cheer all through the match and the champs won in straight sets. It was a once in a lifetime experience.
It is true that I wasn’t lucky enough to watch Andy play in the centre court at the Wimbledon. But a strawberry with cream after an exhilarating match from the Indian Duo, I would still consider myself lucky and check Wimbledon off the “10 things I want to do in London” list.
