Wimbledon 2001

Part 1:- Monday 25th June, Tuesday 26th June

Wimbledon 2001 saw both myself and Dave Roper head down to old London Town to watch the opening two days of the championships. It turned out to be a superb ocassion, and as early morning risers we had the added bonus of obtaining tickets on Monday for Number 1 Court, where we were to see the exit of Martina Hingis, and on Tuesday we saw Kim Clijsters and Wayne Ferreira in action on Number 2 Court. On top of this there were plenty of familiar faces displaying their talents on both the outside courts and the practice area. So follow the links below for reports on each of the days events, as well as a photo gallery that includes Pete Sampras and Martina Hingis, and a number of movies of the players in action.

Sunday 24th June - the arrival in London Town.
Monday 25th June - the queue, Number 1 Court tickets, Marat Safin, Pete Sampras, Martina Hingis, Arantxa Sanchez and Lina Krasnoroutskaya all in action.
Tuesday 26th June - Number 2 Court tickets, Jelena Dokic, Kim Clijsters, Wayne Ferreira, Amanda Coetzer and Barbara Schett in action.
Photo Gallery - Sampras, Venus and Richard Williams, Martina Hingis and many more.
Movies - see Marat Safin, Martina Hingis, Lina Krasnoroutskaya and Barbara Schett live.

Part 2:- Saturday 7th July, Sunday 8th July

Not content with having visited Wimbledon once this year, and due to the fact that we had tickets on Number 1 Court for Sundays play, we decided to make a weekend out of it as we trudged down to old London Town for the second time in as many weeks. The weather was in marked contrast to our previous visit (especially on Saturday) but nevertheless the two days turned out to be just as enjoyable. Whilst there was little in the way of tennis action on Saturday we did manage to get a glimpse of Mr William Clinton, and on Sunday we saw tennis players from the past such as McNamara and McNamee, and Jo Durie, players from the present in the form of Venus Williams and Kim Clijsters and players for the future such as Davina Safina (Marat Safin's sister), Ashley Harkleroad and Gisela Dulko. Follow the links below for reports on the days events and some more photos.

Saturday 7th July - Timothy Henman, The Rain, Bill Clinton and Beer!
Sunday 8th July - Venus Williams, McNamara & McNamee, Men's Doubles Final Action and Stars of the future.

Sunday 24th June

Travelling down by train, we caught the 9.50 from Stafford and with the order of play for the first day available much of the journey was spent working out who we were going to watch - if we were able to get into the grounds! The intention was to join the queue early enough so that we could get access to the outside courts which would give us the chance to see players such as Arantxa Sanchez, Magnus Larsson, Goran Ivanisevic and Michael Chang amongst others.

Arriving in The Smoke at 12.30 we spent an hour or so in Westminster where we got to see The Eye, The Thames and Tony's work place, before catching a train to Wandsworth holiday inn which was to be our home for the next few days. After dumping our stuff, and with the weather hot and sunny we made the 3½ mile trip into Wimbledon by foot to take a look at the arena and the queue.

At 3.30 we approached the venue and a queue had already began to form from the north towards Southfields, with about 300 tennis fanatics from all over the world setting up camp for the night. Another queue had formed from the South towards Wimbledon, with again a couple of hundred already setting up digs for the night. We decided that we would join the South bound queue, since we figured more people were likely to join the North bound queue as Southfields tube station was close by. With plenty of activity going on inside the grounds as the final touches were been carried out we did a tour of the grounds, before heading into Wimbledon Village to get some snapping. We decided to get a taxi at 5.00am the following morning, to ensure that we had every chance of getting into the grounds. After a couple of beers it was time for bed, as we had an early start in the morning.

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