O2O2
  • Latest
  • Basketball
  • Football
  • Baseball
  • Soccer
  • Golf
  • Hockey
  • Tennis

Subscribe to Updates

Get the latest creative news from O2 about Sports.

What's Hot

Bronny James, Son of LeBron James, Is Stable After Cardiac Arrest

25 July 2023

The president of Norway’s federation, a rare woman of influence in soccer, is speaking up.

25 July 2023

A Continental Competition, All in One Neighborhood

25 July 2023
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Our Shop
O2O2
Facebook Twitter Instagram
  • Latest

    Bronny James, Son of LeBron James, Is Stable After Cardiac Arrest

    25 July 2023

    A Continental Competition, All in One Neighborhood

    25 July 2023

    Women’s World Cup: New Zealand Takes Aim at Another First

    25 July 2023

    Kylian Mbappé Is Target of Record Offer From Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal

    24 July 2023

    Women’s World Cup Scores and Schedule

    24 July 2023
  • Basketball

    Review: ‘Flex’ Hits the Right Rhythms on the Court and Off

    22 July 2023

    Why Basketball Is So Popular Off Broadway

    18 July 2023

    Aliyah Boston of the Indiana Fever Has Officially Arrived

    17 July 2023

    Inside the NBA’s Version of Comic-Con

    15 July 2023

    Nikki McCray-Penson, Basketball Star and Coach, Dies at 51

    9 July 2023
  • Football

    Aaron Rodgers Is Now a Jet (and Becoming a New Yorker, Too)

    24 July 2023

    With Aaron Rodgers, Jets Enter Era of Expectation

    21 July 2023

    N.F.L. Fines Snyder $60 Million for Sexual Harassment and Withholding Revenue

    21 July 2023

    Saquon Barkley and Giants Cannot Agree to Long-Term Deal

    18 July 2023

    C.R. Roberts, Scoring Sensation in Milestone Game, Dies at 87

    17 July 2023
  • Baseball

    Fred McGriff and Scott Rolen Are Inducted Into Baseball Hall of Fame

    24 July 2023

    Hall of Fame: Fred McGriff and Scott Rolen Are Connected in Their Contrast

    21 July 2023

    Corbin Carroll and Elly De La Cruz to Face off in Cincinnati-Arizona Series

    20 July 2023

    Randy Bass and Alex Ramirez are Inducted Into Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame

    20 July 2023

    Carl Erskine Shares Insights on Musial, Aaron and Mays

    17 July 2023
  • Soccer

    The president of Norway’s federation, a rare woman of influence in soccer, is speaking up.

    25 July 2023

    New Zealand wants to build on ‘Fern Fever.’ Norway needs a comeback.

    25 July 2023

    Norway’s Lise Klaveness Is Calling Out FIFA From the Inside

    24 July 2023

    England has been strong but shaky going into this tournament.

    23 July 2023

    Women’s World Cup: Sweden, the Netherlands and France Make Their Entrances

    23 July 2023
  • Golf

    Brian Harman Romps to British Open Victory at Royal Liverpool

    24 July 2023

    Why Hasn’t The British Open Ever Been Played in Wales?

    23 July 2023

    Jon Rahm Roars Up The British Open Leaderboard To Contend On Sunday

    22 July 2023

    Harman Charges to British Open Lead as McIlroy Seeks Elusive Magic

    21 July 2023

    Names Old and New Top British Open Leaderboard

    20 July 2023
  • Hockey

    The Mind is Willing, So the Body Doesn’t Have Much Choice

    24 July 2023

    Vegas Golden Knights Beat Florida Panthers To Win Stanley Cup

    14 June 2023

    South Florida’s Heat and Panthers Chase N.B.A. And N.H.L. Titles

    9 June 2023

    The Hockey Championship the U.S. Men Just Can’t Seem to Win

    29 May 2023

    The Miami Heat Might Blow a 3-0 Series Lead

    29 May 2023
  • Tennis

    ‘Break Point’ Just Might Be the Best Way to Watch Tennis

    19 July 2023

    At Wimbledon, Is It Time for Hawk-Eye Live to Replace the Line Judges?

    18 July 2023

    Jessica Pegula Draws Inspiration From Her Mother’s Healing. It’s Mutual.

    17 July 2023

    Elina Svitolina Of Ukraine One Match Away From Wimbledon Final

    17 July 2023

    Elina Svitolina Aims for a Wimbledon Singles Final Against Jabeur or Sabalenka

    17 July 2023
O2O2
Home»Tennis»The Tennis ‘Pilgrimage’ to the Wimbledon Queue

The Tennis ‘Pilgrimage’ to the Wimbledon Queue

o2@inaim.comBy o2@inaim.com6 July 2023No Comments6 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Reddit Telegram Email
06wimbledon-queue-top01-gzpk-facebookJumbo.jpg
Share
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email

Tom O’Neal and Roz McArdle lined up at Wimbledon’s famous ticket line with barely any hope of getting into the venue. At 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, stewards said there were 4,000 people in front of them and it was “very unlikely” that they would make it inside.

But they and hundreds of others are tenaciously nudging along the meander line, clinging to the faintest glimmer of hope that they might see at least one match at the tennis citadel.

“Maybe you could try it,” McArdle said. “We left work around 4pm and got here around 5pm. If I didn’t make it in time, I might be back on Friday.”

They were doing what people have been doing for over a century. Join the line that weaves through the adjacent golf course to the box office, where each person can purchase a ticket. One-day tickets to the world’s most famous tennis tournament, some of which have queues for over 24 hours.

“It’s totally worth it,” said Shreyas Dharmadhikari, a lawyer in Jabalpur, central India. “It’s a pilgrimage for the love of tennis, the love of Wimbledon.”

With a capacity of approximately 42,000 people, Wimbledon has been selling tickets for months in advance through an open voting system, with some tickets sold through tennis clubs, people living near the All England Club and other selected means. assign. It’s one of the hardest tickets to come by in the sport, but the tournament offers thousands of tickets to the public every day if they don’t mind waiting hours.

This queue is one of the longest old-fashioned box office queues in the world, the sports equivalent of the infamous Studio 54 queue, but much older.

On Wednesday, Dharmadhikali brought her son Arjun, who was wearing a sticker handed out by the stewards that said “lined up in the rain”. They were handed cards numbered 11,466 and 11,477, waited five and a half hours to get in, watched some games and ate strawberries and cream and were overjoyed.

But on Monday, despite a disastrous opening day, some people waited nearly twice as long for the line in intermittent rain. Tournament organizers blamed increased security over the threat of climate change protests for the delay, which caused the line to slow down significantly.

The threat came true Wednesday when two protesters ran onto Court 18 and knocked over a box of orange confetti. The protesters were quickly removed and the game resumed, but only after another rain delay in the tournament plagued by the protesters. After weeks of little rain in London, it rained intermittently during his first three days of the tournament, wreaking havoc on the schedule and in soggy queues.

But even in the absence of special circumstances, lines can be long (sometimes over a mile), tedious, adventurous, wet, fun and quintessentially British establishments.

Two schoolboys, Simon, 10, and his brother Stefano, 8, watch 21-year-old Italian Yannick Sinner beat his favorite player Diego Schwartzman (Argentina) in straight sets. I waited for Wednesday while quietly reading the manga in anticipation. on Court 1.

“I’ve been waiting for maybe two hours,” Simon said.

About an hour later, a steward told a group in the middle of the line that the ticket manager had informed them that there were 1,600 people ahead of them and that only 250 more tickets were available. Gasps of disbelief and disappointment were heard from the group, but no one left immediately.

“How you receive this information is entirely up to you,” the steward said, doing everything but ordering everyone home.

It wasn’t easy for Daniel Payten and her husband, David Payten, who flew in from Sydney, Australia with their three children. They never considered the possibility of being kicked out of the daily line by doing what hundreds of people do every day. They camped overnight in tents.

The tent area, where spectators spend the night to ensure a good spot to line up the next day, is the most festive area of ​​the procession. People are playing soccer, cards, cricket, reading, and drinking cocktails. On Wednesday afternoon, the sun came out and the young men in line voluntarily took off their shirts to soak up the sun.

“It’s kind of like a carnival,” said one steward, who asked not to be named because he wasn’t allowed to speak to reporters.

The Paytens arrived at 3:30 pm and were met by several tents in the neighborhood, one of whom had a dog. They chatted, ate and drank as they prepared for a cricket match on the flat grass later that night. Daniel’s brother, Chris Carsley, who lives in London, arrived early and set up three tents (only two people are given tickets per tent). His daughter, Eliza Kersley, lives a 15-minute walk from the same mystical place her relatives traveled her 10,000 miles to visit.

She stopped by only to see relatives. Because neither she nor her father had plans to attend camp and the next day’s game.

“If I had stayed overnight, I would have been too drunk to go inside,” joked Chris Carsley.

But with only about 200 people ahead of their group, the Australian cousins ​​were virtually guaranteed entry to Thursday’s game.

“It’s well worth it,” said David Payten. “It’s an adventure.”

One of our visitors from Japan, who will be staying for the better part of two weeks during the Games, brought a solar-powered portable washing machine.

Maria Balhechet, a professional violinist from Dorset in the south of England, and her son Felix Bailey, a tennis player, arrived at 12:30 pm Wednesday for Thursday’s match. They were given card number 101. This means that he is only 100 in front of them. Balhechet attended camp last year with her other son and earned a third-row ticket to an epic match between eventual men’s singles finalists Nick Kyrgios and Stefanos Tsitsipas. Her whole experience, though, was exhausting. Moisture invaded the tent and she couldn’t sleep at all, she vowed never to do it again.

But she was there on Wednesday.

“It’s like giving birth,” she said. “You might go through it and say, ‘I’ll never do it again,’ but of course you’d want to.”

They were getting ready to wake up at 6am on Thursday (after standing in line for almost 18 hours). Campers are given 30 minutes to dismantle their tents and store them in storage each day, then line up and wait another 4 hours for the gates to open. After watching tennis, some people return to the park to pick up their tents and line up again. Therefore, you will need a washing machine.

Among those still hoping to attend on Wednesday was a group of teenage tennis players at the Time to Play Tennis Academy in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital. According to coach Doug Robinson, the group hoped to fly from Harare to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, then to London, where they would watch Wimbledon live and then play across England.

By late Wednesday afternoon, they were still well behind the line. The children were sitting on the ground chatting, and Robinson took stock of the situation.

“It doesn’t look very good from here,” he said. “But this is Wimbledon, we have to take our chances.”

Pilgrimage Queue Tennis Wimbledon
Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
o2@inaim.com
  • Website

Related Posts

‘Break Point’ Just Might Be the Best Way to Watch Tennis

19 July 2023

At Wimbledon, Is It Time for Hawk-Eye Live to Replace the Line Judges?

18 July 2023

Jessica Pegula Draws Inspiration From Her Mother’s Healing. It’s Mutual.

17 July 2023

Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

Don't Miss

Bronny James, Son of LeBron James, Is Stable After Cardiac Arrest

Latest 25 July 2023

NBA star LeBron James’ son, LeBron James Jr., was rushed to the hospital for intensive…

The president of Norway’s federation, a rare woman of influence in soccer, is speaking up.

25 July 2023

A Continental Competition, All in One Neighborhood

25 July 2023

New Zealand wants to build on ‘Fern Fever.’ Norway needs a comeback.

25 July 2023
Stay In Touch
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Vimeo
Our Picks

Yogi Berra on the Field: The Case for Baseball Greatness

8 May 2023

Yoga Keeps Kevon Looney of the Golden State Warriors Grounded

10 May 2023

Yankees Wait for Aaron Judge Injury News After Dodgers Series Win

5 June 2023

Yankees Game Postponed Because of Smoke From Wildfires

7 June 2023

Subscribe to Updates

Get the latest creative news from O2 about Sports.

About Us
About Us

Welcome to o2.cc, your ultimate destination for the latest world sports news and updates! We are dedicated to bringing you the most up-to-date information on all your favorite sports, including football, basketball, tennis, cricket, and more.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest YouTube WhatsApp
Our Picks

Bronny James, Son of LeBron James, Is Stable After Cardiac Arrest

25 July 2023

The president of Norway’s federation, a rare woman of influence in soccer, is speaking up.

25 July 2023

A Continental Competition, All in One Neighborhood

25 July 2023
New Comments
    © 2023 O2. All Rights Reserved
    • About us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise With Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Disclaimer

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

    We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

    You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in .

    O2
    Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

    Strictly Necessary Cookies

    Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

    If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.