When I was younger, most of the boys of my age were fascinated with football or basketball. I was not. Instead, I was obsessed with tennis, not a very popular sport in Greece at that time.
With time, this small obsession faded away, to the point that my wooden tennis racquet, the one I got as a Christmas present, got its permanent place to our storage area.
It wasn’t until after I had moved to London that I was reminded of my youth obsession. There, at approximately the end of June, Londoner and visitors fanatically descend to the SW19 area to watch tennis. What would seemingly be a small tennis tournament in a suburb of a big city, here in London it has transformed to the best tennis championship in the world – rivalling even the Olympic Games tennis event. The Lawn Tennis Championships, commonly referred to as Wimbledon, take place for two weeks during summer.
The first two years I lived in London, I was quite busy and did not get the chance to visit. It was only last year that I seized the opportunity to hop in a district line train after work to join the long queue at Wimbledon and finally gain entry to the grounds of the championship.
Most of the ground courts at Wimbledon were positioned next to each other. I had never before experienced what it feels like to watch a tennis games within a small distance from the players. It just reminded me what it felt like casually playing tennis in Greece.
Can’t wait to get to Wimbledon this year.
Lambda.
[all pictures were from Wimbledon 2008 © AELTC]
Lambda Phage 