Jan at Queen's

In desperate need of some live tennis, I decided to go to Queen’s on Tuesday. It was the only day I was free this week, and although the forecast wasn’t great, it definitely promised some dry periods. I knew that they’d brought forward the start of play to try and catch up on matches, and I didn’t have a ticket, so I reckoned I must get there in good time – even though I only planned to get a ground pass. Gates opened at 10am, and I got there just after 9.30. I needn’t have worried – I was 4th in the queue!!

It was still raining steadily as we made our way in at 10am. My first stop was for a coffee and somewhere dry to sit. On my way I spotted my first “famous face” - Leon Smith. Eventually the rain eased off and I headed off to the unreserved seating on Court 2, where the first scheduled match was Jamie Baker vs Oli Golding. The covers duly came off and the court was prepared. I passed the time doing some crosswords!

Play must have begun somewhere between 12.30 and 1pm. I’d never seen either player “live”, so I was looking forward to seeing how they would match up. The first set was quite competitive – as far as I recall there were no break points, and Jamie came through to win the tiebreak. Oli’s serve rather deserted him during the second set – too many double faults. He went a couple of breaks down and got very frustrated. To his credit he did fight back and retrieve one of the breaks, but Jamie’s experience showed and he won the set and the match. Great to have a British winner (even if one was guaranteed!)

From where I was sitting I could see the big screen on Centre Court – it was really promising when James Ward won the first set against Anderson, but unfortunately he couldn’t repeat his run of the previous year.

I decided to stay put for the next match, which was Ryan Sweeting vs Dmitri Tursanov. The difference between this and the first match was huge in terms of weight and strength of shot. Sweeting won in 2 sets.

At this point I decided I needed to try and get the circulation going in my feet again, so I left the court and wandered over to the practice courts. I spotted Colin and Ross, so made my way to their court – to be passed by Tsonga as he was just finishing his practice. I watched Flemchins for a bit, and also saw the Bryan Bros, Nestor and Mirnyi, and Jamie Murray and Jamie Delgado briefly in the distance.

Time for another hot drink, and I headed back to Court 2. It was packed – Querry was playing – so I went to Court 9 and sat in the front row to watch Malisse vs a chap called Ungur, from Romania. James Keothavong was the umpire. More very heavy hitting; Malisse came through in 2 sets.

As this match finished, so did the Querry match on Court 2. Lots of people left, so I decided to go back there and watch Dancevic vs Dodig. The first set was very one-sided, and the explanation came at the end of the set when Dancevic had to retire due to an injury.

The final match was between Ito and an Italian called Lorenzi. Ito won the first set, but Lorenzi hit back and won the second, no doubt encouraged by the very vocal support for “Paolo”! I had already decided that it was time to leave at the end of the second set, whatever happened in the match – and as I left I heard that the match was being suspended due to bad light. It was 8.50pm.

I’m so glad I ignored the rain in the morning – I had a great day. I have to say that I was extremely glad of the umpteen layers of clothes I was wearing (could probably have done with even more at times) and my woolly gloves which were on for most of the day!

I'm now off to look at my photos to see if I've got any worth posting! - and then I have to remember how to do it!!

some photos from Jamie and Oli's match
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one more!
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Glad you made it and had a good time, it must have been very cold! Nice photos too :)

Colin and Ross
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and some more
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Bryan bros
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Jamie M
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court 9
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You seemed to have had a very good day despite the chilly and damp conditions. Thanks for the detailed and interesting blog and the excellent pics.:thanks::thumbup:

Great stuff - thanks for sharing and for the photos Jan.

Thanks Jan! :clap: :clap: Glad you had a great day :big grin:

Fabulous blog and pix! Thank you! Glad you had a nice day.

Thanks for a lovely blog and pics :)