Apparently yes I did make it three in a row for Wimbledon this year! Akh came through once again and was successful in the Wimbledon ballot. He even went one step better and won Centre Court tickets! AND as we later found out we couldn’t have been too much closer to the action without getting on court ourselves being about only 4 rows back! Brilliant work for him. However, unlike my previous two visits to Wimbledon the weather was misbehaving something awful and as it turns out for the nearly 8-9 hours we were there we must have seen only about 2-3 hours of tennis! That didn’t stop Wimbledon being packed out though!

More photos here.

The line up on Centre Court promised to be brilliant:

– Amelie Mauresmo v. Nicole Vaidisova
– Andy Roddick v. Paul-Henri Mathieu
– Venus Williams v. Maria Sharapova

We did get to see the entire match between Mauresmo and Vaidisova with Vaidisova upsetting the defending champion in three sets but played over about four hours and through at least three rain interruptions. I’m sure as annoying as it was for spectators it was probably not doing wonders for the players’ concentration and it seemed of the two players Mauresmo was the one paying for it.

We also saw the start of the Roddick/Mathieu match at the beginning of which we were given the disappointing news that the Williams/Sharapova match was being transferred to Court 3. As much as I was enjoying the power of the men’s game the Williams/Sharapova match sounded a much more interesting prospect so partway through the first set I dragged Akh over to Court 3. Luckily for us Court 3 was unreserved seating so we had this opportunity though unluckily for us by the time we got there the court was packed to the seams meaning the prospect of lining up for a very long time without any guarantee that we would get in. Then the rain came and the thunder and the lightening. Not good news. Though this did send a number of spectactors scuttling allowing us to find some seats it meant that for the rest of the evening the rain came and went and after only playing 3 points the two ladies were told that play wouldn’t go ahead and that their match would be re-scheduled for another day.

Mauresmo and Vaidisova walking on to Centre Court	Mauresmo Close Up	Akh’s view point
Vaidisova	Cliff Richard	A novel approach to stop the rain
Akh’s favourite shot	Vaidisova’s delight	Heaving Wimbledon store
The boys	Roddick	Mathieu

Despite all this chaos caused by the rain I still enjoyed myself at Wimbledon and maybe it will be four in a row for next year with hopefully a bit more sun …