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SMB Tennis thread

Anyone been to Wimbledon before? Any tips regarding getting there? Any other tips on what to do, not do?
Is it worth booking food beforehand or is it perfectly ok to choose somewhere on the day without having to queue too long?
Thank you.
 

peachbum said:
Anyone been to Wimbledon before? Any tips regarding getting there? Any other tips on what to do, not do?
Is it worth booking food beforehand or is it perfectly ok to choose somewhere on the day without having to queue too long?
Thank you.
Click to expand...

I went last year. We were coming from Hackney and we ended up getting off at Earlsfield station and had a nice walk across, although if you could incorporate Southfields, then that would be nearer. We also just stopped at a small Tesco on the way for some sarnies and drinks, which I'm sure we took in with us and we grabbed a meal outside the grounds when play had finished.

I'm not sure what tickets you have, we had Court 1 tickets where the matches started at 1pm, but you can get in to the grounds as soon as they open at 10.30am and you can go to any court apart from Centre Court and Court 2 (as they are individually ticketed). Courts 3, 12 and 18 are show courts (available to ground passes) with a fair few seats, so if there was an early match on the day on those three courts that you fancied, I'd definitely try and get a seat. There were plenty of seats on Court 18 for a match we wanted to see, but ended up going for a wander and when we came back, it was absolutely packed, so we ended up going up near the balcony to watch, which was fine, but I'd rather have had a seat. Play traditionally used to start at 11.30am on the outside courts, but it has changed to 11am this year.

I'd try and get there as near to 10.30 as possible when it is much quieter (and especially the Pimms queues) as by 1ish it does massively fill up and you can be waiting in the drinks cue for a while. The programme was pretty cool as well. It cost £10 but it was A4 and had about 100 pages, so I would recommend that - a nice souvenir to take home as well.

A bit jealous that I'm not going. I applied again, but didn't get tickets and didn't fancy queuing with just going last year - I might next year if I don't get tickets again. I do however have a week off next week, so will be watching it pretty much non stop from Monday to Saturday :cool:.

Enjoy.
 
The Bridge Lad said:
I went last year. We were coming from Hackney and we ended up getting off at Earlsfield station and had a nice walk across, although if you could incorporate Southfields, then that would be nearer. We also just stopped at a small Tesco on the way for some sarnies and drinks, which I'm sure we took in with us and we grabbed a meal outside the grounds when play had finished.

I'm not sure what tickets you have, we had Court 1 tickets where the matches started at 1pm, but you can get in to the grounds as soon as they open at 10.30am and you can go to any court apart from Centre Court and Court 2 (as they are individually ticketed). Courts 3, 12 and 18 are show courts (available to ground passes) with a fair few seats, so if there was an early match on the day on those three courts that you fancied, I'd definitely try and get a seat. There were plenty of seats on Court 18 for a match we wanted to see, but ended up going for a wander and when we came back, it was absolutely packed, so we ended up going up near the balcony to watch, which was fine, but I'd rather have had a seat. Play traditionally used to start at 11.30am on the outside courts, but it has changed to 11am this year.

I'd try and get there as near to 10.30 as possible when it is much quieter (and especially the Pimms queues) as by 1ish it does massively fill up and you can be waiting in the drinks cue for a while. The programme was pretty cool as well. It cost £10 but it was A4 and had about 100 pages, so I would recommend that - a nice souvenir to take home as well.

A bit jealous that I'm not going. I applied again, but didn't get tickets and didn't fancy queuing with just going last year - I might next year if I don't get tickets again. I do however have a week off next week, so will be watching it pretty much non stop from Monday to Saturday :cool:.

Enjoy.
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Thank you. Court 1 here too. I think I can have the programme sent home so don't have to carry about.
 
peachbum said:
Thank you. Court 1 here too. I think I can have the programme sent home so don't have to carry about.
Click to expand...

New roof this year of course if the worst comes to the worst.

You'll probably know all this anyway, but order of play usually doesn't comes out until after 6pm the night before. You'll have 3 matches and it'll either be 2 men's and a women's, or the other way round, and a lot will depend on the Centre Court schedule as it's normally 2:1 on one of those courts and 1:2 on the other for equality, so it'll depend on which big names are involved on the day. You can also watch matches on the outside courts when the C1 matches are on if you preferred.

What day are you going?
 
The Bridge Lad said:
New roof this year of course if the worst comes to the worst.

You'll probably know all this anyway, but order of play usually doesn't comes out until after 6pm the night before. You'll have 3 matches and it'll either be 2 men's and a women's, or the other way round, and a lot will depend on the Centre Court schedule as it's normally 2:1 on one of those courts and 1:2 on the other for equality, so it'll depend on which big names are involved on the day. You can also watch matches on the outside courts when the C1 matches are on if you preferred.

What day are you going?
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No I didn't know. We are going Monday of second week, so thinking maybe quarter finals or round before?
 
peachbum said:
No I didn't know. We are going Monday of second week, so thinking maybe quarter finals or round before?
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That's seriously the best day of the tournament. Manic or Magic Monday. It's the last 16 for everyone (men and women). All the other slams would have 4 men's and 4 women's last 16 matches on the Sunday and then the other 4 and 4 on the Monday, before the QFs start on Tuesday, but as Wimbledon has the Middle Sunday off, every last 16 player on both sides is involved that day, so you have 16 matches (8M 8W) to fit in, meaning that if Roger, Rafa and Novak are all still involved, you will be guaranteed to see one of them on C1. Depending on the opponent, I'd say it's more likely it will be Novak as Wimbledon do seem to generally favour the other 2. Probably does mean you will get 2 women's matches, which might be a shame (I actually prefer women's tennis), but they'll be the biggest names left in the competition and you could go to another court if you preferred.

I'd have preferred there to be play on the Sunday as it's a shame when most are off, they don't get to see any tennis that day, and there's normally so many good matches crammed in on the Monday that you can't watch them all (on TV) where you could if they were spread over the two days, but as it is, it's probably the best individual day of tennis on the whole calendar.

This was last years order of play for the Monday for reference:

Centre Court
Federer v Mannarino
S Williams v Rodina
Vesely v Nadal

Court 1
Kerber v Bencic
Monfils v Anderson
Khachanov v Djokovic

Court 2
Pliskova v Bertens
Nishikori v Gulbis
Del Potro v Simon

Court 3
Ostapenko v Sasnovich
Goerges v Vekic
Isner v Tsitsipas

Court 12
Giorgi v Makarova
McDonald v Raonic

Court 18
Hsieh v Cibulkova
Van Uytvanck v Kasatkina

They actually had a 2:1 men:women ratio on both of the main courts and it would be Djokovic that you have got to see. But it's so packed the likes of Ostapenko, the French Open champion the year before, was on an outside court which you could go and see, as well as Tsitsipas, who while wasn't as big as he is now, as he's currently ranked about 6 or 7, he was regarded as a massive prospect then, so there's talent all over the park. Raonic, a Wimbledon finalist in 2016, on Court 12.
 
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peachbum said:
Anyone been to Wimbledon before? Any tips regarding getting there? Any other tips on what to do, not do?
Is it worth booking food beforehand or is it perfectly ok to choose somewhere on the day without having to queue too long?
Thank you.
Click to expand...


I had Centre tickets last year, on the day England played Colombia at the WC, so decided to leave in good time for the match and missed the Halep game which was last on. We just gave our tickets to a man and his young daughter which they were delighted with but if you wanted to keep your ticket as a souvenir you should hand them in to the resale booth and they will print a copy for you. Of course you may well stay until the very end, but if you did have to leave early for whatever reason I always think it’s good to give others the opportunity.

There are plenty of food options and all pretty good quality, but as you’d expect, quite pricey. (Not as eye wateringly as the US Open though)

Another tip for getting there, Wimbledon main station on the train may be a quicker option from central London. Right outside they run a special black cab service where they just fill up each cab with the first 5 people and charge £10, so £2 a head. Money well spent if it’s raining, and especially if it’s very hot.
 
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The women's qualifying draw was out earlier. 8 Brits involved, 7 in by WC and the other just sneaked in once main draw WCs were removed, so on paper, they shouldn't really do much. That said, while I don't think any will qualify, I think a few could get first round wins tomorrow.

16 year old Emma Raducanu, our best prospect by far on either side IMO, plays a former Aussie Open Jr champ and top junior in Liang, but she has struggled a bit on the pro tour, so I think Emma has a real chance there. The only problem is she has been studying for her GSCEs, so hasn't played a grass match (or a match of any kind since April), so will be a bit short on match practice. Her match will be one of 4 matches on the BBC red button / online tomorrow, so worth watching if you can.

These are the 4 matches on Court 11 that will be streamed from 11am:

Blinkova v Hives
Lisicki v Babos
Raducanu v Liang
Bolsova v Gauff

Quite a good mix there. Lisicki needs no introduction, although she has struggled massively with injury and form this year. 21 year old Bolsova made the 4th round of the French Open (via qualifying) 3 weeks ago and is therefore now inside the top 100, but that was after the cut off, so she is the top seed in qualfying, and her opponent Gauff is a 15 year old American qualifying WC, who is tipped for great things and has already done a bit of damage on the pro tour.
 
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Good win for Dan Evans who's just made the Eastbourne QF and will play either Edmund or Norrie next, who are currently on court, meaning a GB player will make the SF. Konta had a poor loss in her Eastbourne match and a real chance missed the way the draw had opened up.

Liam Broady through to the Wimbledon final Q round, and veteran Sam Murray is the last remaining women, and she is currently a set and break up in her Q2 match.
 
Murray won (heard that before...), so there will be a British man and women in the final qualifying round, and hopefully at least one of them can make the main draw.

scotch said:
Hoping Nadal ends up in djokovics half of the draw...
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I was going to ask. As a neutral, not as a specific Fed fan, what are your thoughts on that seeding system, as there's obviously been a fair bit discussion about it when it was announced Nadal would be #3.
 
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The Bridge Lad said:
Murray won (heard that before...), so there will be a British man and women in the final qualifying round, and hopefully at least one of them can make the main draw.



I was going to ask. As a neutral, not as a specific Fed fan, what are your thoughts on that seeding system, as there's obviously been a fair bit discussion about it when it was announced Nadal would be #3.
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Grass is such a different surface that don't see any issue with individual ranking on form as there's only 3 grass tournaments that a player can play in any one year.
It's harsh on Nadal in that he got semi final at Wimbledon last year but that was his only grass tournament, Federer has qf at wimbledon, halle winner and runner up, Stuttgart winner plus if there was the gap that Djokovic has in points between Nadal to Federer Nadal would still be 2nd seed
Id have no issue if the French did the same with clay tournament results factored in.
Australia and us open are fine with the standard rankings as majority of tournaments are on these type of surfaces.
 
scotch said:
Grass is such a different surface that don't see any issue with individual ranking on form as there's only 3 grass tournaments that a player can play in any one year.
It's harsh on Nadal in that he got semi final at Wimbledon last year but that was his only grass tournament, Federer has qf at wimbledon, halle winner and runner up, Stuttgart winner plus if there was the gap that Djokovic has in points between Nadal to Federer Nadal would still be 2nd seed
Id have no issue if the French did the same with clay tournament results factored in.
Australia and us open are fine with the standard rankings as majority of tournaments are on these type of surfaces.
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It is an interesting topic and those are fair points and it's obviously been around for years so not out of the blue, but there have been a few journalists criticising it. At least there is a formula attached to it, and it's not just randomly 'hey big John (Isner), you had a canny tournament last year, do you want to be 4th seed marra?'

There won't be much / any difference if it is still 2 vs 3 in the semi final, but it will be very interesting if it is potentially Nadal vs Novak in the semi final. Looking forward to finding out on Friday morning.
 
The Bridge Lad said:
It is an interesting topic and those are fair points and it's obviously been around for years so not out of the blue, but there have been a few journalists criticising it. At least there is a formula attached to it, and it's not just randomly 'hey big John (Isner), you had a canny tournament last year, do you want to be 4th seed marra?'

There won't be much / any difference if it is still 2 vs 3 in the semi final, but it will be very interesting if it is potentially Nadal vs Novak in the semi final. Looking forward to finding out on Friday morning.
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Whoever doesn't get nadal, gets a rusty Anderson based on seeding....for the tournament it's better Nadal is in Djokovic half as at Federer age he needs the easier semi to save energy for a potential blockbuster final. If Novak gets Anderson in the semis then might as well start carving his name into the trophy now :neutral:
 
Qualifying has now finished.

Men:
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A few familiar names in the men's - Vesely, Bemelmans and former jr champ Rubin. Liam Broady crashed out at the final hurdle.

Women:
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15 year old American WC Coco Gauff qualified for her first ever grand slam, as did her 17 year old compatriot Caty McNally. Like L Broady, Sam Murray lost in the final round, as did another WC and former finalist Sabine Lisicki. There is at least one Lucky Loser spot opening up in the women's, but that won't affect Murray or Lisicki.

The main draw is tomorrow at 10am.
 
Managed to get on Kerber @ 13's at the start of this week after her first match. Just waiting to see if her foot was fine but she looks good. Already shortening quite a bit after she beat Halep today.

Barty's odds are mad, 7/2 in some places. Far too short.
 
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