Julia Romanin

Tennis bucket list? Yup, another one checked off this summer—Wimbledon, July 9, 2023, or as the Brits say, “Middle Sunday.” Originally planned for Summer 2020, I was to be the “tagalong” with my son, daughter-in-law, and two teenage grandchildren for a week-long visit to London, England. As part of that trip, I would be able to check off another bucket list tennis championship. Due to COVID-19, the trip was delayed a few years, but now, hey, the kids graduated from high school and were old enough to drink (at least in London), so, even better!

While the two kids and my son were off doing other things, my 4.5 USTA-rated tennis-loving daughter-in-law and I spent the entire day and evening at the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club. On this warm, partially sunny day, we began with a doubles match on Court 18 (right by the infamous Hill), cheering for the doubles team of Taylor Townsend/Layla Fernandez. It is so exciting to watch professional doubles in person! Then we ambled to our Centre Court seats and stopped to watch some games on other courts as we passed. Once in the stadium, we watched a very intense five-set match between Andrey Rublev and Alexander Bublik, then followed with Iga Swiatek defeating Belinda Bencic, and, finally, the beginning of the match between Novak Djokovic and Hubert Hurkacz. Because the Tennis Club is situated in a residential Wimbledon neighborhood, there is an 11 p.m. curfew, so, unfortunately, we were unable to see Novak Djokovic defeat Hurkacz, but it was an exciting match until suspended.

We were only able to attend one day, so we went all out and bought stadium tickets. These tickets allowed us to watch matches on other courts throughout the grounds, so we did wander a bit and enjoyed seeing some of the newer talent on the circuit. If I were to do it again, I would definitely spend at least one more day (if not two) and buy a grounds pass to watch more doubles players.

Of course, we just had to try the traditional Wimbledon drink (Pimm’s Cups) and snack (strawberries with cream)! The Centre Court stadium has several restaurants attached to it, and we had delicious meals there in between matches. Oh, and they had these little bottles of champagne with cozies to keep them cool! It was a wonderful highlight to a great family trip!