Wimbledon 2015, part 2 - the tour

I took one of the guided tours of the Wimbledon tennis grounds again this summer. I wanted to share this experience with my husband. I took this tour in 2013, so I have previously written about it in an earlier blog post. I will try to add some new details here.

Inside the main entrance to the grounds are the boards listing all of the matches from the previous tournament and the results. The tournament just finished a few weeks before we got there. Here are photos of the men's and women's matches on those boards.

Novak Djokovic v. Roger Federer in the final this year.

Serena Williams v. Garbine Muguruza in the final.

As the tournament recently finished, the grass had not been reseeded yet. The main courts were stripped of the grass from the tournament. Here is a "stripped" center court.

This is Henman Hill, named after Britain's big tennis hope Tim Henman, who never ended up winning a finals at Wimbledon. Here is where you stake out a spot on the lawn for a 25 GBP admission fee and watch matches from center court or court #1 on a huge video screen. If you are lucky you can get in the resale line (queue) at the top of the hill and purchase a ticket for a center court or court #1 match for 5 GBP. (Apparently tickets are sold for an entire day for a particular court. If someone who has a day ticket needs to leave before all the matches are done for the day, then they often turn in their ticket to the resale booth so a lucky person can buy it for 5 GBP.)

One other note on buying tickets for the tournament. Our guide said if you are a UK resident you can get in a queue for tickets for the tournament on the announced date of sales to the public. I imagine if you are not living in the UK you have to hope you can buy tickets once you get to the tournament. Online sales of tickets are not allowed for fear of scalping tickets.

This is infamous court #18 where the longest match in Wimbledon history was played a few years ago (Isner v. Mahut). It is a side court. Thus the seating configuration is different than the main courts.

Here are more side courts so you get the idea of the layout of the grounds.

The media/interview room where all players (both winners and losers) must speak to the press or they are fined.

The press room.

The obligatory strawberries and cream from the Wingfield cafe on the grounds. 

I highly recommend this 1 1/2 hour tour of Wimbledon. The guides are very knowledgeable. It is suggested that you reserve a tour time on line to assure a spot. You pay for the tour in the gift shop the day of.

Wimbledon is very close to central London. You take the District line tube to the Southfields stop. Then you walk 1/4 mile to the grounds. Our guide pointed out that you can see central London from the top of Henman Hill. See below.

Most players at the tournament prefer to stay in Wimbledon because it is convenient. Commuting from London would not be too much fun. If I were a player, I would choose to buy a house close to the grounds, such as #281 Third Green (my dream house in Wimbledon). If you care to help me out with that purchase, please let me know.