Centre Court
Yesterday, on the fifth day of the Wimbledon Championships 2007, I got to see Centre Court in reality for the first time.
Centre Court is truly magnificent, nothing like I could have imagined. I'd never really noticed on TV before but the court itself (including the space around it) is larger than other courts and the seating towers up around the court. With only two people battling it out below it feels like a gladiator's arena. The sound from high up at first sounds distant and quiet, but after a short while feels close and intimate. I was high up but was surprised at how well I could see the tennis.
I got a resale ticket in the evening and so didn't get to see a whole match on Centre Court, but another one of my dreams came true to see almost a full set of Federer in action. All I can say is that his play is incredible. He defused Safin's power with ease and his own attacking play was a joy to behold. His forehand was brilliant, as was his delightful top spin backhand not to mention his serve which was a lot faster than I'd thought. In short everything was brilliant!
Before entering Centre Court I saw many other matches and players around Wimbledon on the outer courts. I was privileged to witness both the men's number one in the world and the women's number one: Henin Hardenne blew her opponent, E. Vesnina off Court 2 with impressive style depsite a rain delay mid-way through the match. Her backhand is just unbelievable!
In other matches I saw T. Haas Vs. D. Tursunov, Daniela Hantuchova Vs. K. Srebotnik. Lubicic was also in action playing doubles and I watched Marcos Baghdatis doing drills on the practice courts. Expect a new photo gallery to follow!
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