lawn tennis – Ian Louis Harris

A Day At Wimbledon, Quarter Final Tuesday, Mostly On Court One, 11 July 2023

To the umpire’s left hand – Marketa Vondrousova, to his right hand – Jessica Pegula

We’ve had several lucky years of late in the Wimbledon ballot, not least last year when we scored really good centre court tickets:

And Finally…We Visit Wimbledon Centre Court On A Finals Day, 7 July 2022

This year – nada. Oh well…

…but wait! An opportunity to snap up a pair of returns…Good ones?…Quarter-finals Tuesday on Court One? Yes please!

So there we were again.

The weather forecast was less than special but if you are on Court One you are guaranteed your main action of course.

As it turned out, it looked as thought the weather would hold through the morning, so we did our usual thing of setting off reasonably early to catch a bit of smaller court action before our main event.

First up, we fancied seeing some juniors tennis and chose Viktor Frydrych (of Great Britain) v Darwin Blanch (USA) on Court 12.

*17-year-old Frydrych top, 15-year-old Blanch below*

We saw Frydrych win the first set but I thought Blanch the more promising player given the age difference, plus the power and accuracy Blanch demonstrated at such a young age.

We moved on to Court 3 to catch the first set of a doubles match: Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski v Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson:

*Umpire Fergus Murphy explains the rules to all four of them*

*Koolhof serves as Skupski waits to pounce*

Koolhof and Skupski started slowly and looked a little out of sorts for the first 10 minutes or so, then quickly seemed to find their footing on a blowy day. Never let it be said that I don’t spot winners when I choose our morning of outer court viewing.

Then we needed to hot-foot it to Court One to be sure to catch the start of the quarter final action. Jessica Pegula v Marketa Vondrousova.

Do we look a little out of breath? We were there in time, just about. The nice lady with the pink cardigan behind us turned out to be even more of a tennis badger than us – she’s a self-confessed addict.

In truth, I wasn’t expecting this to be a great match because I thought that Vondrousova’s lack of form/experience on grass would be exploited by Pegula. What do I know?

In the end, it was actually a great match, with twists and turns and passages of great tennis.

After the rain/roof delay, Vondrousova took control and turned the match around. We were very impressed with her but still, frankly, did not expect her to win the tournament – I don’t suppose many people did. Still, well done her.

*Rishi Persad asked Marketa Vondrousova penetrating questions of the “how does it feel to reach the semi-finals at Wimbledon?” variety*. *“Crazy” was Marketa’s pleonastic response word.*

Next up, Jannik Sinner v Roman Safiullin. We were very excited to get a look at Sinner live, as we think he is a player with great potential. Again, I thought this match might be a one-sided affair as Safiullin has neither a track record on grass, nor going deep in slams. Again, this turned out to be a better match than we expected, with Sinner winning in four sets.

*Apparently Sinner’s Gucci bag caused a fashionista stir*

After that, rather than stick around for Invitation Doubles (or “Old Git Doubles” as I rather impolitely tend to call it), we took advantage of the improved weather and headed back to Court 3 where Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff were taking on Laura Siegemund and Vera Zvonareva in third round doubles action.

*Lovely views across Wimbledon from our seats there*

*Laura Siegemund top, Vera Zvonareva below*

This was also the perfect opportunity to finish our picnic before going home. We had enjoyed our prawn and mayonnaise sandwiches during the Ladies Quarter-Final, but hadn’t felt hungry for our pork and apple sauce ones until after the Men’s Quarter-Final.

Sandwiches duly finished and Court One crowd mostly dispersed, we took our leave of Wimbledon towards the end of that Ladies Doubles match and wended our way home, “super tired but super happy”, as the young folk say.

All the photos (there are 80+ in all) can be seen on Flickr by clicking here or below.

A Short Break In Eastbourne, Mostly For The International Tennis Tournament, 25 to 28 June 2023

Camilla Giorgi practicing with Daddy

Having thoroughly enjoyed the relaxed, fun and friendly atmosphere at the Edgbaston Priory tennis tournament last year…

So-Called “Proper Tennis” At Edgbaston Priory, 17 June But Not 18 June 2022

…we decided to give Eastbourne International a try this year. That idea proved to be a resounding success. We loved the place and the tennis and everything about our short break.

We took an insane number of pictures for a three-night, two-day break. Here (and/or the picture link below) is the whole lot of them – just shy of 200:

If you prefer some words and a small sample of the pictures, don’t click, just read/skim on.

Sunday 25 June 2023 – Travel, Taking Root and Thai Grub

We booked an Airbnb house at the Sovereign Harbour end of town – beyond walking distance to the tennis but easy parking when at the house. The cricket & croquet club in Eastbourne runs an event parking arrangement for the tennis tournament that made a great deal of sense for us.

The house is lovely and that area quiet and well provisioned. We stocked up on picnic food at the main Waitrose in Eastbourne as we drove into town, thus we were set for our visits to the ground.

There is a selection of restaurants in the harbour. We chose the Thai one, which was a nice place with “Chinese-oriented Thai food” – i.e. mostly not too spicy and a lot of Chinese-influenced dishes mixed in with the traditional Thai curries.

In culinary terms, it reminded me a bit of Haozhan in Gerard Street and the late lamented Bangkok in Bute Street.

It was a very enjoyable way to start our break.

Monday 26 June 2023 – Eastbourne International Tennis Day One

I was on picnic duties and rose early to make a tempting spread. Hot smoked salmon bagels and chicken sandwiches were the centrepieces that day, if I remember correctly.

We had front row seats on Centre Court that day. We saw:

Tomas Martin Etcheverry v Jeffrey John Wolf;
Shuai Zhang v Harriet Dart,
Daria Kasatkina v Anhelina Kalinina,
Ryan Peniston v Marc-Andrea Huesler.

*We cheered for JJ Wolf, who played very well*

*Etcheverry seemed uncomfortable on grass*

We took a stroll after the first set and snapped Maria Camilla Osorio Serrano playing Shelby Rogers on an outer court. It is that sort of place.

Shuai Zhang v Harriet Dart (see above pictures) was probably the match of the day.

After that match, we took another stroll. Janie got a bit groupie-like when she spotted Taylor Fritz just strolling around Devonshire Park.

At least Janie didn’t ask him for a selfie – plenty of people did!

*Daria Kasatkina bested Anhelina Kalinina on the day. Try saying that after a few drinks – just as well we weren’t drinking*

Ryan Peniston came off second best against Marc Huegler.

We took a late afternoon stroll, where we saw Jelena Ostopenko playing doubles on an outer court.

It started to get a bit chilly, so we didn’t stay for the “bonus doubles match” on Centre Court. We’d had a great day of tennis.

We even got to see some cricket as we walked around the cricket ground to get our car.

Janie loved the sun terrace at the back of our little house. It was just a bit too chilly to mull our day over a glass of wine out there, so we mulled indoors instead.

Tuesday 27 June 2023 – Eastbourne International Tennis Day Two

A similar picnic for Day Two; I was still on picnic duty. I say “I”, but actually we have a prima-donna of a picnic chef named Igor who comes to make our picnics when it is my turn. He insists on absolute silence and no-one else coming near the kitchen while he is creating his masterpieces.

The central pieces for this one were smoked trout bagels plus ham and cheese sandwiches.

*Janie snapped the Eastbourne front on the way to the ground*

We were five rows back on Day Two – arguably a better vantage point unless you are especially keen to be on camera! The selfie on the Flickr link near the top of this piece is from those seats.

We saw:

Liam Broady v Jan Choinski;
Petra Martic v Katie Boulter;
Bernarda Pera v Coco Gauff;
Zhizhen Zhang v Lorenzo Sonego.

We had an early stroll around this day, where we saw, amongst other things, Camilla and her dad training (see headline picture).

Were *Petra Martic* and *Katie Boulter going to play dressed like that?*

*Certainly not with Alex de Minaur and family looking on!*

*I sneaked a look at Mikael Ymer playing well on Court One*

*While Janie spotted Heather Watson on an outer court*

*Then back to Centre Court for some Coco (and Bernarda)*

The pick of the day’s matches was actually the one from which I expected the least. Zhizhen Zhang is a very promising player but had not really played before on grass, whereas Lorenzo Sonego has shown decent form on the surface.

That match proved to be a suitable finale to our trip.

We certainly aim to return to Eastbourne again. The people were friendly and the atmosphere at the tournament lacks the corporate glitz and heave-ho of the bigger, more prestigious tournaments. Our style, we felt.

Wednesday 28 June 2023 – Driving Home While Listening To The Lord’s Test

A testing drive, this was, listening to England bowl in cloudy conditions but without the necessary luck/penetration in the second Ashes test match. The next few days were to be Lord’s days for me, but this day was the one day this week where the only live sport was dodging the traffic and the bizarre manoeuvres of other motorists.

*Dumbo – tennis and cricket superstar – getting us there and back*

A Day At The Queen’s Club Watching Young Guns Play Lawners, 21 June 2023

My visits to The Queen’s Club aren’t all about playing real tennis and winning tournaments/trophies myself.

Finally…Unprecedented Success At Tennis, The Queen’s Club, 11 May & 27 May 2022

Gosh no.

Janie and I decided to spend a day watching the grass court tournament at Queen’s this year, as well as several days at other less high-falutin’ tournaments such as Eastbourne and Wimbledon (see subsequent Ogblogs for those).

Being Wednesday, we got to see four of the Round Of 16 matches. We saw:

Lorenzo Musetti beat Ben Shelton;
Cameron Norrie beat Jordan Thompson;
Holger Rune beat Ryan Peniston;
Sebastian Korda beat Frances Tiafoe.

Lots of players we like and/or wanted to see on that list, so we were very pleased with our schedule for the day.

We also strolled the campus a fair bit, although the place was very crowded compared with our previous visit to see lawners during the socially-distanced summer of 2021:

A Day Watching Lawn Tennis At The Queen’s Club, 15 June 2021

Returning to 2023, we took loads of photographs, more of players we weren’t going to see practicing on practice courts than pictures of our own matches.

Here’s a sample of them, ahead of a link which will allow you to skim the whole lot:

*Tim Henman, Annabel Croft & Catherine Whitaker*

*The view from our pews – not bad* – *Ben Shelton getting ready to serve*

*Daisy & Ged model a fridge for reasons known only to the Haider marketing team*

*Commentators on a balcony behind us. At one point Annabel came and sat right behind us*

We had a very enjoyable day, although I must say that the Queen’s tournament feels a bit more corporate, less fun & friendly, each time we go there now.

Here and below a link to all of our photos from that da y .

And Finally…We Visit Wimbledon Centre Court On A Finals Day, 7 July 2022

In the past decade, Janie and I have been incredibly lucky scoring good tickets for Wimbledon in the ballot. Many good days, including quarter finals days and semi finals days. But until now, we have never attended a finals day.

It seems to be my year in this “finals” respect. A few weeks ago I was able to report a first in the matter of me getting to a final playing tennis, albeit the real variety and albeit at Queen’s:

Finally…Unprecedented Success At Tennis, The Queen’s Club, 11 May & 27 May 2022

Much as the Queen’s tournament described above was a mixed doubles affair (in that case, mixed ability i.e. handicap doubles), I am talking about Wimbledon’s new idea to hold the Mixed Doubles Final on Ladies Semi-Final day.

In truth, it wasn’t until a couple of days before we went that it occurred to me that I had inadvertently scored a brace of tickets for a finals day. It was a nice surprise when we found out. It became even more of a pleasant surprise when we learnt that Neal Skupski & Desirae Krawczyk would be appearing in that final.

But let us start from the beginning of a truly magical day.

We like to get to Wimbledon reasonably early on such a day to see some smaller court stuff before the grand event. On this occasion we managed to get to the Wimbledon campus about 11:45, giving us nearly two hours to take a look around.

First up we wanted to see, on Court 12, the infeasibly named Kilian Feldbausch of Switzerland against the equally infeasibly named Mili Poljicak of Croatia.

Goran Ivanišević also wanted a look at the Croatian lad

We’d missed the first set, which the Swiss lad had won convincingly, but Mili turned it all around in sets two and three, looking very convincing indeed. News update: Mili went on to win the entire Boys tournament.

Mili Poljicak: crazy name, crazy guy – remember where you heard the name first.

Here is a listing of all the games we saw (and the ones we didn’t) that day, if you want to know the scores.

Next, we wandered across to No. 2 Court to take a look at a young American named Liv Hovde against a German girl named Ella Seidel.

Liv Hovde played really well to win her first set and indeed (it turns out) went on to win not only the match but the entire Girls tournament.

It transpired that we were sitting very close to Liv’s coach, whom Liv was ignoring throughout the set, so we tried to engage him in some motivational pleasantries as we departed, but he did not seem to be an especially communicative chap. Alejandro Garcia Cenzano he’s called, which, together with my new-found Rossiter family connection, made me think of this corny commercial – click here.

Remember where you heard the name first…Liv Hovde I mean.

Next, we popped in to No. 3 Court to see a few minutes of Czech girl Linda Klimovikova against promising Brit Jasmine Conway.

No. 3 Court has a tasty view of Members & Centre

We saw Jasmine win the first set, by which time we needed to get across to Centre Court for the start of the semi-finals. A steward asked us why we were leaving so soon. We explained. He said…

thank you for slumming it for a while with us here on No. 3 Court,

…which I thought was pretty funny.

On the way to Centre Court we ran into Mats Wilander, Àlex Corretja & Barbara Schett; Daisy was keen to snap them.

First up, Ons Jabeur against Tatjana Maria. Those two are incredibly close friends, by all accounts, which made their embrace and the interview with the victorious Ons after the match especially moving.

Snacking on nuts and fruit only gets you so far at this stage of the day – it was “out with the trout” time:

Elena Rybakina, surprisingly (to us) blew away Simona Halep. Meanwhile, Matthew Ebden, one of the Mixed Doubles finalists, had only just finished his Gentlemen’s Doubles five-set-epic semi-final on No. 1 Court, so while he got some well-deserved rest, the authorities laid on some Invitation Mixed Doubles to keep the crowd entertained.

Todd Woodbridge & Cara Black verses the evergreen Mansour Bahrami and Conchita Martinez. Some people love this exhibition stuff. I tire of it quite quickly and in any case needed to move my legs and butt, so I decided to go for a stroll after a short while.

On my stroll, I watched the end of an Under 14’s girls match between young Brit Isabelle Britton and young Algerian Maria Badache.

It did not go well for Maria. Isabelle looks very promising.

Then on to Court 8 to see the end of Arabella Loftus (GB) against Marianne Angel of Mexico.

By the time I got back to Centre Court, the Old Git Doubles was also close to the handshake moment and we started to feel the buzz for the Mixed Doubles Final.

Neal Skupski, Desirae Krawczyk, Matthew Ebden & Samantha Stosur warming up

Those enormous strawberries all had to go.

Soon enough came the winning moment – Skupski & Krawczyk were to be the champions.

It was a long day – over all too quickly. Daisy snapped the headline picture and the one below as we left in the late evening sunshine, which sort-of sums up the Wimbledon vibe.

Fifty Years Of Tennis, Starting At Woodfield Grove Tennis Club, 30 March 1974

At Boston Manor Tennis Club in 2016

On 30 March 1974 I played tennis “properly” for the first time. How do I know?

Diary says so. Allow me to transliterate the relevant cypher:

Saturday 30 March 1974 – joined tennis club. Learnt forhand [sic] and backhand. Shoped [sic] in p.m.

Apologies for the dreadful spelling of “forehand” and “shopped” in there – no wonder I had just come 27th in class that term, the second term of my secondary schooling.

The tennis club I joined was Woodfield Grove Tennis Club – still there.

This image by Benjamin Chan, “borrowed” from this site – click here

In 1974, the three courts you can see in the background – now described as “cushioned acrylic” which sounds well posh, were clay and were strictly adults only. We children had not been allowed in at all until most of us had reached the age of eleven – Fiona Levinson I think sneaked in with us before she had reached that age. Children were only allowed to play on the single court visible in the foreground. Now macadam, in those days it was a rather uneven concrete that might have had, at one time, a macadam component to it. Beginners and children only, I expect in those days, but good enough for us.

I seem to recall that the brains behind the operation was a rather formidable lady named Mrs Mussey, who I think lived in our street, Woodfield Avenue, just around the corner from Woodfield Grove.

I have a feeling that, unless you showed real talent and/or had parents who were willing and able to stump up some significant membership fees, the deal for children was a few starter lessons and then “be off with you”.

But that was Ok, my career in tennis was launched. Who wanted rather snooty clay courts that you weren’t allowed to use, when for a few pence you could play on municipal grass on Tooting Bec Common in the summer holidays. At school there were courts available too, although fives and cricket were more my thing than tennis at school.

As my diaries from the 1970s and 1980s attest – and countless more Ogblog pieces will reveal as I roll them out – tennis played a significant role in my childhood and my student days. Here are a couple of examples from the student years.

Anyone…And In Spring 1983 At Keele That Was Pretty Much Anyone…For Tennis?

Plenty of Tennis Between My Law Finals And My Economics Finals, Keele, 24 to 26 May 1984

Even more significantly, Janie and I played tennis (albeit sloppy, post-party tennis) the day we met at Kim & Micky’s party, in August 1992, and have played regularly in the decades since:

An Evening With Janie & Kim & Micky & Tennis, 4 September 1992

Janie and I started out in Lammas Park, but since around the turn of the century, Janie and I have played at Boston Manor Tennis Club, which has three courts in Boston Manor Park. Less formal than Woodfield Grove but just the ticket for us.

Janie and I rarely play lawn (modern) tennis anywhere else, except when we are on holiday, but I have played the odd game in more rarified surroundings…

Lawn Tennis At Queen’s, In Which I Inadvertently Deployed Gamesmanship Masterfully, Yet Still Lost, 24 June 1999

At Boston Manor, we have had the occasional really splendid works outing…

Z/Yen Tennis Evening At Boston Manor, 1 July 2010

…and it is only a slight exaggeration to describe one of my exploits as an international fixture:

International Tennis At Boston Manor Park: Victor, Heinrich, Jacques & Me, 11 March 2011

Get Real

I have also formed a deep enthusiasm for real tennis since 2016, which I mostly play at Lord’s but, like most realists, I am an addict who will play that game whenever the opportunity arises. here’s an example or two, including some video evidence as well as photographs:

How I Lost My Virginity Three Times In Less Than A Week, Yet Didn’t Lose A Match, 10, 14 & 15 October 2019

The MCC Tennis Weekend 2024: The Secret Diary Of Ian Harris Aged 61 and 5/12ths, 26 to 28 January 2024

But, for me, the tennis hobby all started on 30 March 1974, when I learnt forehand and backhand at Woodfield Grove Tennis Club – thanks Woodfield Grove.

Share this:

Sunday 25 June 2023 – Travel, Taking Root and Thai Grub

Monday 26 June 2023 – Eastbourne International Tennis Day One

Tuesday 27 June 2023 – Eastbourne International Tennis Day Two

Wednesday 28 June 2023 – Driving Home While Listening To The Lord’s Test

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Get Real

Share this: