Last Monday my Dad managed to secure some plum centre court seats for day 1 of Wimbledon 2015.
Tradition/protocol/habit dictates that the previous year’s champion kicks off the centre court action on the first day, so it was that we got to see Novak Djokovic launch his defence with a win against grass court specialist Philipp Kohlschreiber.
Next up came Maria Sharapova vs Brit Johanna Konta. Sharapova backed up her reputation and outclassed her opponent. To be fair, the match looked a done deal as early as the coin toss – her sheer size must be so daunting for ‘Masha’s’ opponents.
Our final scheduled match was French Open champion and all-round scraggly fella Stan Wawrinka against a poor sap who had the mis-fortune of being drawn against him in round one. His was the most emphatic performance of the day – 130mph serves, massive groundstrokes. A much better watch than the more defensive-minded Djokovic. We also won in 3 sets.
Following the conclusion of his win, we received the news that they were to provide us with a bonus match featuring American up-and-comer Sloane Stephens. She duly won easily in two sets.
So, four matches, all straight sets wins for the favourites without even a whiff of an upset. Even though the tennis was slightly lacking in drama, my Dad and I had a terrific day out!
