The travels of Tim and Megan: Wimbledon

Fans,

The day after we returned from Croatia we went to Day 2 of Wimbledon at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in south west London. Doesn't that sound grand. We had applied for tickets in the ballot way back last year and ended up getting tickets for Court 1. We had an excellent line-up, probably better than that on Centre Court for that particular day. We saw Richard Gasquet, Maria Sharapova, Andy Roddick and Jelena Jankovic, who all won their matches comfortably.

It was a perfect day weather wise - hot and sunny. We arrived around lunch time and sat on "Henman Hill" and ate our packed lunch. The hill was bursting at the seams so we were lucky to find a spot. They have a massive big screen TV in front of the hill so people without Centre Court tickets can still watch what is happening. We also had some strawberries and champagne on the hill...very Wimbledon of us.

After lunch we wandered around the outside courts and saw a few big names in their opening round matches - including Mikhail Youzhny and Ivan Ljubicic. Through a stroke of luck, we happened to spot New Zealand's own Marina Erakovic on Court 18. We stood and watched most of her first set, where she came from 4-1 down to win the set in a tie-break. There were a lot of Kiwis in the crowd supporting her, which was nice. Erakovic eventually lost narrowly in the 3rd round, a fine effort indeed, and she pockets over £28,000 for the tournament.

Then we settled into our seats on Court 1 to watch our line up. Sharapova had caused a bit of a stir with her outfit...again. She wore shorts rather than a skirt and a tuxedo style sleeveless shirt. She also arrived on court wearing a tuxedo style jacket. While not entirely convincing, she disposed of her opponent easily enough.

Andy Roddick's match was very entertaining. He won in straight sets but it certainly wasn't easy. A guy we had never heard of before called Schwank, pushed him hard and the pair had some incredible rallies. It really was good viewing.

Jelena Jankovic looked a lot more assured in her match and cruised to a win. She is Tim's pick for the women's title this year.

We also caught up with Kristen Gunnell and Neena Ullal (from our Russell McVeagh days) - Neena had just got off a flight from New Zealand and wound up at Wimbledon on her first day in the UK! For anyone heading to the All England Lawn Tennis Club in the second week, make sure you try the roast pork sandwiches with hot apple sauce...they are O for awesome.