Wimbledon: From camping mats to Centre Court – how I queued for two days and watched Emma Raducanu and Cameron Norrie! | Tennis News
With thousands of sports fans queuing at the doors of Wimbledon every year, Sky Sports’ Alex Eaton had a unique experience of being the first in the queue. He shares his experience in line, sleeping in tents and watching incredible tennis …
Drawing a tent through Wimbledon High Street in heat at 30 degrees began not to look like the best idea.
But the decision was worth it at the end.
As we arrived at Wimbledon’s queue, we saw hundreds of tents aligned with sports fans waiting for the night to come so that they can enter the park the next day.
We arrived at 5 p.m. on Monday June 30 and received a queue card for the next morning which placed us in 590th position.
The plan was to camp for two nights with my friend Sam so that we could have the best chance of climbing on Center short.
Over the evening, we socialized with many tails, playing card games and exchanging Wimbledon memories. Suddenly, we heard applause followed by an incredible choir song.
The Musical Sing Space theater choir presented itself to cheer up thousands of people who had now joined the queue. It was very necessary after trying to put our tents in the hot heat.
The temperatures are so extreme that it has established records to be the hottest opening day in the history of Wimbledon and forget that my sun was something that I was going to regret.
After a difficult night, we were awakened by the volunteers telling us to form a new queue for the next day.
We extended our painful back and dragged our tents until the start of the line and to our surprise, no one in front of us had the same idea, and we were in the first place for the next day.
At this point, we knew that we were assured of going on a short center and creating many special memories.
The second day happened. We made ourselves more friends and hundreds of people came to us asking how we arrived at the front. Some called us “crazy”, others said that we were “dedicated”, but I think the right word would have been “smelly”.
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We went in search of a shower and found one that we could use in a gymnasium, a 10 -minute walk from the queue. It was so hot in the sun that we ended up using it twice. For the rest of the day, we were treated as celebrities like media societies around the world came and interviewed our history in which we did.
While the twilight settles down again, we had a big decision to make before calling it one night.
Cameron Norrie played Frances Tiafoe on the first courtyard, and it was the main game we wanted to see. So we abandoned our chance to sit on the central field to monitor their match.
However, we have produced a master’s plan to make sure that we are always able to climb on Center short.
“Hello, wake up,” volunteers said at 5 am on Tuesday.
Spectators protect themselves from the sun with umbrellas in Wimbledon’s queue
It was time to put away our tents and go to the field. Despite us to wake up at dawn every morning, the volunteers were incredibly helpful and very well organized, and we thanked them by leaving the queue.
After recovering our tickets on Court One, we rushed directly to the queue queue to join the list to get Center tickets to the day later.
It put us in another queue; However, this time, it was, fortunately, a virtual!
Once we have entered the field, we went around the short and visited many foods of food and drinks where many Pimm and strawberries have been devoured.
Spectators joining the queue on the first day of the Wimbledon 2025 championships
We met our new friends that we made ourselves in the queue, Lewis and Joe, and took seats and watched British No 2 Norrie Vaining Tiafoe in an exciting match of four sets.
Luck was on our side because immediately after this match, we obtained a notification saying that our Center tickets were ready to collect and that we only had to pay £ 15 for them.
This meant that we were able to look at the defending champion Carlos Alcaraz playing against a resilient oliver Tarvet. The Spaniard was too good for the young British. While I sat down and expected Emma Raducanu and Marketa Vondrousova Match to start, I noticed some famous faces in the royal box.
The male football manager of England Thomas Tuchel, the Golfer of England Tommy Fleetwood and many other stars! However, a particular celebrity attracted the attention of cameras the most.
Olivia Rodrigo was there, and I knew I had to try to take a photo to show my girlfriend.
Olivia Rodrigo and Louis Partridge in the royal box on the third day of the Wimbledon 2025 championships
I walked at the exit of the royal box in case seeing it, however, many more people had the same idea as me, and unfortunately, I failed to have a photo. I guess it was a Bad idea, right?
While waiting for Glastonbury’s headliner, I came across Antonee Robinson and I let him know that I was a Fulham fan and not to leave Craven Cottage.
After another fantastic match on the central field by watching the British N ° 1 Raducanu beat the 2023 champion, Vondrouaova, it was time to return to the campsite, to recover our tents, to return home and to catch up with many hours of lost sleep.
Each minute of queue was worth it at the end, because we spent an incredible day watching some of the best players in the world.
It was so good that I will be 100% next year and can even queue this year to watch the quarterfinals!
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