As close as possible to Wimbledon's Centre Court
At the crack of dawn on the Saturday of the middle weekend of Wimbledon 2010, I met another American tennis fan who was trying to queue for Magic Monday and attempting to figure out how this whole queue thing worked.
Standing in a field with thousands of people and we seemed to be the only ones without any camping equipment. Yes, we had both planned to camp without a tent and Taylor didn’t even have a sleeping bag! Here is what it looked like!
Me in my sleeping bag, queuing without a tent
Knowing that we would be hanging out in a field for the next 50+ hours, we got to talking and became friends during our very long wait. We also were educated in the queuing process by some experts that happened to be near us. Fortunately there was not a drop of rain that year, in fact it was brutally hot and sunny (completely opposite from expected weather in London and I ended up using my umbrella as a sun shade instead of its intended use).
After 2 nights camping in Wimbledon park and walking to grab food, many many hours later we finally got the opportunity to see Federer on Centre Court at Wimbledon. We had amazing seats and Taylor even got Federer’s autograph as Roger was leaving the court following his quick victory! We had a Pimms (the official drink of Wimbledon) and agreed to keep in touch.
Over the past 5 years, we’ve met up periodically in NYC including once at the US Open. Today we had a great day walking over the Brooklyn Bridge and chatting about our job search frustrations.
5 years later...
The Wimbledon queue is such an incredible, unique experience. If you are willing to camp out for many, many hours (see my "How does this Wimbledon ticket queue thing really work" post for more details) you can get 5th row Centre Court tickets, score your favorite player’s autograph and make a long-term friend. Don’t forget to bring a tent and other crucial items and read my insider tips to learn ahead of time all you need to know about Wimbledon queue!