Post by lexpretend on Jun 28, 2013 2:17:17 GMT -5
I went to Wimbledon yesterday. Generally an uneventful show court day ie a good time to have a ground pass; if I'd been stuck on the outside courts while the carnage was happening yesterday it would've been awful. Increasingly ground passes are annoying though - I really hate the redesign of the grounds which has given us more outside show courts, because that just means there's an hour-long queue to get into many of them - which is a bit much to ask of people who've already queued all morning. Obviously the answer would be to pick a court and stay in it but the beauty of a ground pass always used to be how you could just casually wander around and peek into whatever took your fancy. I overheard a LOT of complaints about queueing, too. In general Wimbledon seems more rammed than ever, I'd be interested to know if they've upped their capacity - and this year it's been extra-popular as a sort of Olympics replacement I guess? Plus the Murray as Slam champion effect. In years past getting to the queue at 8am or even 8.30am would have been easily fine to get a ground pass, this year we were advised to get there before 7am - and a latecoming friend who got there at 7.30am didn't get in until about 1pm.
Started with Madison Keys vs Mona Barthel, which on paper was one of the most attractive R2 match-ups: a teenager who's as dead cert as you get for future Slam champion versus one of the most talented shotmakers on tour. IT WAS DREADFUL. Neither of them could get the ball over the net other than their big serves. Keys still has no idea how to move or stay low on grass. Barthel...I just don't know what the fuck she thinks she's doing on court or with her career except drifting around aimlessly and listlessly. So much talent being wasted with her. Absolutely no question of staying beyond the first set.
Attempted to get into Court 12 to see Date-Krumm...queues round the block. Attempted to get into get into Court 18 to see Tomic...queues round the block. Fuck a queue. Decided to get over to Court 10 where Pironkova was playing later, caught the last set of the Sandra Klemenschits/Romina Oprandi vs Catalina Castano/Katalin Marosi doubles. This was actually quite fun! I impressed (bored) all my friends by telling them Klemenschits' tragic back story (her comeback from the cancer that killed her twin sister and ex doubles partner). Oprandi's ridiculous shotmaking talent and lazy, über-casual attitude (her return stance = no pretence at bending her hips or knees, just stands there slouching with her racquet in one hand) was as entertaining IRL as it's been on TV all these years - sad to hear a shoulder injury will probably force her to retire (re-retire? IIRC she quit for a year or two as a teenager because she wanted to party). As for the other team, they were obviously the lessers in terms of both talent and likeability. Marois seemed like a decent sort and I liked her purple-red dyed hair. Castano giving her opponents the middle finger after watching a winner go past her was not impressive, though.
We had prime seats for my favourite match of the day - Tsvetana Pironkova vs Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova. I knew this would deliver and it did - definitely made up for Keys/Barthel earlier. (Funny, on paper Pironkova and BZS are by far the lesser players - but their match outstripped Keys/Barthel in every way.) Pironkova was in supreme Grass GOAT mode: forehand slices, that wicked flat backhand taken from below her hips, her smooth movement on the surface (no cow-on-ice slips here: Sharapova, watch and learn), her weird confidence that belies her lamentable record off grass for the past two years. She really is a transformed player on grass and it's a lot of fun to watch.
Unlike Pironkova's R1 opponent Pavlyuchenkova, who she pretty much slaughtered, BZS is no grass slouch - she's got a ton of variety and resourcefulness to call on herself. She's an underrated retriever, scrambling for every Pironkova shot she could; her dropshots were frequently beauties that just died on the grass and she showed a lot of moxie by serve-volleying at crucial points, including to save a bunch of SPs in the first set. And she came through with her antics, too: once she started with the stream of stroppy Czech it pretty much didn't let up. Peak BZS moments included sarcastically cheering towards some Bulgarian supporters who'd clapped for a Pironkova winner too early, banging her head against the backstop and a mighty racquet throw after losing the tight first set.
After this I went to meet some people in the press centre, from where I saw Vinci finishing Cepelova off (if I'd been keeping track of the score I'd have probably rushed over to this match, didn't expect it to be so close) and the start of Chardy vs Struff. Was shown this amazing room in the media centre with about 20 screens showing EVERY COURT - this is where I saw the tight third set between Dimitrov and Zemlja. IIRC Zemlja blew a couple of MPs with pretty basic errors. I like Dimitrov but I really hope Zemlja finishes him off tomorrow. After Black Wednesday I'm in favour of all the carnage possible from here on in, resulting in Date-Krumm/Dolonc and Dolgopolov/Paire finals. Anyway, after this it began to rain, and the rain radar indicated that it wouldn't stop, so we came home to watch the deathly dull Djokovic/Reynolds match from the comfort of the sofa.
Started with Madison Keys vs Mona Barthel, which on paper was one of the most attractive R2 match-ups: a teenager who's as dead cert as you get for future Slam champion versus one of the most talented shotmakers on tour. IT WAS DREADFUL. Neither of them could get the ball over the net other than their big serves. Keys still has no idea how to move or stay low on grass. Barthel...I just don't know what the fuck she thinks she's doing on court or with her career except drifting around aimlessly and listlessly. So much talent being wasted with her. Absolutely no question of staying beyond the first set.
Attempted to get into Court 12 to see Date-Krumm...queues round the block. Attempted to get into get into Court 18 to see Tomic...queues round the block. Fuck a queue. Decided to get over to Court 10 where Pironkova was playing later, caught the last set of the Sandra Klemenschits/Romina Oprandi vs Catalina Castano/Katalin Marosi doubles. This was actually quite fun! I impressed (bored) all my friends by telling them Klemenschits' tragic back story (her comeback from the cancer that killed her twin sister and ex doubles partner). Oprandi's ridiculous shotmaking talent and lazy, über-casual attitude (her return stance = no pretence at bending her hips or knees, just stands there slouching with her racquet in one hand) was as entertaining IRL as it's been on TV all these years - sad to hear a shoulder injury will probably force her to retire (re-retire? IIRC she quit for a year or two as a teenager because she wanted to party). As for the other team, they were obviously the lessers in terms of both talent and likeability. Marois seemed like a decent sort and I liked her purple-red dyed hair. Castano giving her opponents the middle finger after watching a winner go past her was not impressive, though.
We had prime seats for my favourite match of the day - Tsvetana Pironkova vs Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova. I knew this would deliver and it did - definitely made up for Keys/Barthel earlier. (Funny, on paper Pironkova and BZS are by far the lesser players - but their match outstripped Keys/Barthel in every way.) Pironkova was in supreme Grass GOAT mode: forehand slices, that wicked flat backhand taken from below her hips, her smooth movement on the surface (no cow-on-ice slips here: Sharapova, watch and learn), her weird confidence that belies her lamentable record off grass for the past two years. She really is a transformed player on grass and it's a lot of fun to watch.
Unlike Pironkova's R1 opponent Pavlyuchenkova, who she pretty much slaughtered, BZS is no grass slouch - she's got a ton of variety and resourcefulness to call on herself. She's an underrated retriever, scrambling for every Pironkova shot she could; her dropshots were frequently beauties that just died on the grass and she showed a lot of moxie by serve-volleying at crucial points, including to save a bunch of SPs in the first set. And she came through with her antics, too: once she started with the stream of stroppy Czech it pretty much didn't let up. Peak BZS moments included sarcastically cheering towards some Bulgarian supporters who'd clapped for a Pironkova winner too early, banging her head against the backstop and a mighty racquet throw after losing the tight first set.
After this I went to meet some people in the press centre, from where I saw Vinci finishing Cepelova off (if I'd been keeping track of the score I'd have probably rushed over to this match, didn't expect it to be so close) and the start of Chardy vs Struff. Was shown this amazing room in the media centre with about 20 screens showing EVERY COURT - this is where I saw the tight third set between Dimitrov and Zemlja. IIRC Zemlja blew a couple of MPs with pretty basic errors. I like Dimitrov but I really hope Zemlja finishes him off tomorrow. After Black Wednesday I'm in favour of all the carnage possible from here on in, resulting in Date-Krumm/Dolonc and Dolgopolov/Paire finals. Anyway, after this it began to rain, and the rain radar indicated that it wouldn't stop, so we came home to watch the deathly dull Djokovic/Reynolds match from the comfort of the sofa.
The queues were ridiculous this year though. On weekdays I've never waited for more than 3.5 hours. This year it was 5 hours on both Tuesday and Wednesday! UK seems to be crazy about tennis now. We skipped the Thursday due to tiredness. On Friday it rained in the morning so we only went at 1 pm. The gates were just filled up to capacity so we were only in by 2.45 pm. We got to see some nice tennis still.
I can't imagine that; I don't think people ever do that unless they're huge and cumbersome.