Angelic Paranoia

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Wimbledon Fortnight
Sunday 6th July 2008 10:05 pm

Well, wow. That was the best part of five hours spent on the edge of my seat. Or seven hours including rain breaks. I don't think I've ever seen anything as exciting as the Mens Singles Final, including all tennis and everything else (yes, including last night's Doctor Who - in the latter you always knew the good guys would win in the end).

I remember back in 2001 the Mens Final was played on the third Monday, so I taped it and then got annoyed at Mum for telling me when it was finished because then I'd know who would win. She told me I wouldn't and it was true. (That was the Ivanisevic/Rafter final btw). This one there was never a point when you could say who was going to win.

What made this fortnight so great is that you could say the same of the Womens Final too. Usually Williams sisters Wimbledon finals have been a bit lacklustre with neither of them wanting to win, but they really were fighting, just as Richard Williams said!

Other highlights of the fortnight included switching over to 301 to see the last three games of the Mixed Doubles final that they didn't start until 8.30pm and it was just so dark out there that they didn't even bother to sit down at the change of ends, just had a quick drink.

Then there was Nadal slipping and landing on his right knee, then getting up and limping. At the time he was leading and I thought it would be all over, but although he asked for the trainer, he asked for him at the change of ends and didn't have an injury time out.

The other amazing injury was Zimonijc, who put Murray out of the doubles on Monday. Thursday night he slipped, landed on his wrist and was clearly in pain and called for the trainer. The trainer just wrapped it up with tape and then he went back out to play one point before they went off due to dark. It turned out he'd broken his wrist! Fortunately, it was his left and he was right handed with a single handed backhand, so he carried on and went on to win in the final.

If anyone had told me I'd be watching the Girls Singles Final on Saturday instead of the Mens Doubles I'd have laughed. But we had a girl in it and they were talking about her as the next big thing. Although our last girls champion was Anabelle Croft, twenty four years ago, and the only reason I've heard of her is because she commentates on Radio 5.

Talking of Brits, the star of the championships was Chris Eaton, who probably can't be explained to non-Brits. But he's ranked 661 in the world, was lucky/got a wildcard depending on who you believe, into qualifiying. He won all three of his matches and got in the main draw. Then proceeded to win his first round match in straight sets against someone ranked 114. He lost his next one, but was on Court 1 and won over the whole country. So that could be two Brits to look out for in a few years (just not yet).

Of, course, the main highlight has to be the second Monday when I went to Wimbledon with my sister and Tanaqui. There are photos, mostly of the backs of people, but I've never rated my photography skills particularly highly. A new thing for me - we queued. Not for long, though, and we got in in time to eat lunch opposite the officials office and by a scoreboard showing us the scores on every court in turn.

After that we camped out on Court 3 to watch a Ladies match that was really boring, but the reward was seeing Jamie Murray playing in the Mens Doubles. Except that he lost and I was very confused because he'd had his hair cut off. Afterwards we tried for a place on Henman Hill (it'll always be called that as far as I'm concerned) to watch Andy Murray and discovered that at the back of the hill, past the river, where the cameras generally look down on Henman Hill, there are some stands. So we spent three and a bit sets sat there and left at the end of the fourth to get trains. That was a fantastic match, except that we seemed to be a Murray jinx because he only started losing when we turned up and played better when we read the program. And Jamie Murray won his Mixed Doubles match because we weren't watching it.

At the beginning of the fortnight, when I was so ill that all I wanted to do was for it to be dark so I could sleep again, I wasn't convinced that it would be any good. The trouble was I'd seen some great semi-finals and finals of the Stella Artois and before that the French Open final, which was less good to see Nadal thrash Federer. But it's been well worth it, as usual.

The lowest point was Friday when someone I actually did need to speak to because I wasn't convinced they were doing something I'd asked them to, phoned me at matchpoint in Nadal's semi-final. Although I had the radio in one ear and the phone in the other it was very hard to concentrate on both, so I missed the end of the match. And I'd missed quite a lot because it was such a busy day.

In summary, that was a fantastic fortnight. Roll on the Olympics! And the Davis Cup, for which I have tickets for the doubles.


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