ALL POWER TO PEOPLE’S FUNDAY
Crowds flock to create carnival mood
EVEN the correspondent from one of our most august broadsheets dispensed with his tie for the first time during Wimbledon fortnight. This was oik’s day, riff-raff’s turn at the tennis.
Well, that made you sit up and take notice. But, of course, it wasn’t really like that. Not remotely.
Even on People’s Sunday, the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club’s concession to the demos, there is a decent class of folk. These are the people who graced London 2012, the greatest street carnival of all time.
This was only the fourth time the middle Sunday had been commandeered for play in 130 editions.
‘We hope you enjoy the special atmosphere,’ declared the lady over the PA proudly. By now a few of the crowd had already poured themselves a livener — champagne being the favoured tipple.
Other first-timers took selfies, smiling at the fact they were in SW19 at all. ‘There’s Centre Court!’ ‘Look, Serena’s just walked by!’
Weather forced the rearrangement, just as it had in 1991, 1997 and 2004. That first time they queued along Church Road and around the block for at least a mile-and-a-half. And when they came to Centre Court it was a jumping hive of madness.
What a cast list it was that day on Centre Court: starring Jimmy Connors and Gaby Sabatini. The next two occasions were Tim Henman classics. Raucous. Dramatic. Well, yesterday's order of play was less obviously dazzling. Yet the gates opened at 8.45 am and the public's packed into Centre Court early. They had paid £70 for unreserved tickets and went to bag the best seats. These plum positions are usually occupied by tennis club members. guests and those who struck lucky in the ballot. Yesterday there was no wandering in. squeezing in a bit of tennis between the Pimm's First up was a ladies matoh between C000 Vandeweghe. an extrovert Amerioan, and Roberta Vinci, the Italian who ended Serena William's hopes of the calendar Grand Slam in last year's US Open. C000 put on a good show as befit-ted a self-styled 'total Californian girl' whose grandmother was Miss America in 1952. Coco overpowered her opponent 6-3. 6-4. Next up was Serena herself against German Annika Beok. They were on and off in less than an hour. victory to Serena. Then Tomas Berdych's four-set win over Alexan-der Zverev. This was a crowd of the internet age. Tickets — 10.000 of them for Centre Court, 8,000 for Court No 1 at £40 each and 4.000 grounds passes at £20— sold out in less than half an hour online on Saturday. No queuing was allowed, taking away a certain old egalitarian fairness. This time you needed a computer. Some unfortunates got to the gates at dawn, unaware of the online format. Back to bed. folks. Henman is the clenched-fist sym-bol of People's Sunday. His first, in 1997. brought him victory against Dutchman Paul Haarhuis. 14-12 in the final set. Seven years later he beat Morocco's Hioham Arazi in four. borne by the crowd. Yesterday, he was busy with pun-dirty on the BBC and as a member of Wimbledon's organizing commit-tee. 'My two matches here were the best atmosphere I ever experienced,' he said. So if Tim is so keen on People's Sunday, will it be introduced every year? 'This isn't possible.' he said. 'The courts couldn't take being used if some matches had not been delayed. Most years they need a rest by the end of the sixth day.' The Wimbledon staff were half happy. forded to work on a scheduled day off but on double pay. Everyone else was entirely content. Sue Barker even started a Mexican Wave.