The fans who got lucky at Wimbledon
We can now definitely put a period to the 2019 Wimbledon chapter. What we leave behind is nothing bad: a new queen, the remake of an epic match with a somehow more mature spin, a trail of records, the outstanding rising of a young star, polemics about a slow grass that Rafael Nadal has apparently been hearing about for around fifteen years…
This year’s strawberries and cream perhaps taste sweeter to Simona Halep and Novak Djokovic -- champions in the singles category --, Juan-Sebastian Cabal and Roberto Farah -- winning pair in gentlemen’s doubles --, Barbora Strycova and Su Wei Hsieh -- best team in the ladies’ doubles --, and Latisha Chan and Ivan Dodig-- victors of the mixed doubles. Yet, somehow, there are people who might have appreciated the last fortnight even more than the greats who lifted a trophy. Fans from all over the world have followed every unfold of the competition, some glued to their screens, others directly from the wet grass around the All England Club.
Many of those spectators have remained prisoners of The Championships’ pitiless queue -- as long as it can be rewarding -- where they had to wait for hours, even days, for a chance to witness the finest grass-tennis in the world.
If the Hill was a good backup option to a big part of the crowd, rare fans who were doomed to stay out of the excitement have managed to cut themselves a path into the big stands inside Wimbledon’s casi-impenetrable walls.
On Friday 5, a tweet posted by a group of young men surprised the Internet community.
“[We are] 5 French who have come specially to Wimbledon to see our Frenchies and encourage them by lighting the atmosphere on the central (Tsonga & Pouille),” read the message posted by user @alesko_ . “Unfortunately, we are 1900th in the queue and we have almost 0 chances to access the Central… RETWEETS APPRECIATED.”
Another fan from the same group later commented, “Thank you for your retweets [over 300]!!! Meanwhile, we are waiting for help... (we are the only people without tents... we would do anything for our French!!!)”
As the platform’s users empathised with the young men’s lack of comfort, some summer magic -- or maybe just the Web’s algorithms -- propulsed their messages in the right direction. The day later, beIn Sports FR covered the the French’s story, and none less than Lucas Pouille offered them five places to come and cheer for him during his clash with Roger Federer.
The day after, Judy Murray shared a similar story on her social media. She posted a selfie of her with a young boy, and wrote, “Yesterday evening I met this very special little dude in Wimbledon village. He’s 6. And he had queued for 5 hours at Wimbledon and didn’t get in.” Thanks to Andy and Jamie’s mother, the child was helped out by the organization of The Championships. On Sunday, Mrs. Murray told her followers the end of the story, “Just to say a BIG thank you to Wimbledon for bringing this little dude in to watch practice today. He saw Novak + “lots of people I didn’t know.” He stepped onto Centre court + then came to play tennis in Wimbledon Park with me. What. A. Day.”
Little anecdotes like these are the ones which make big tournaments stand out even more.
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2XO6JyZ
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