Shift 3 – heading to court number 1

After a day away from the action it was back to Wimbledon for my third shift as a Games Maker. I arrived in plenty of time and got through security and check-in pretty quickly. At shift allocation I was assigned to an orange team – I was heading to court number 1 for the day.

Once the full team had arrived we received a handover update from the morning shift team leader then took our places at the gangways around the court. I was on gangway 34, so at one end of the court. There had been some rain delays earlier in the day but play was just about to resume.

On court there was a Men’s singles match in play – Jo Wilfried Tsonga V Milos Raonic. It was one set all and Tsonga was leading 2-1 in the third. Working the gangway was fairly straightforward. Most spectators had been there for a while so knew where their seats were and we had a pretty good section where the spectators generally understood the tennis etiquette of leaving or taking their seats only when the players changed ends.

We were not expecting the current match to turn into a marathon. Neither of the players could break serve – even the umpire sounded weary when the score reached something like 18 all in the final set. Eventually Tsonga broke Raonic’s serve and won the third set 25-23 – apparently the longest tennis match in Olympic history at 3 hours and 58 minutes.

The next match featured Heather Watson against Maria Kirilenko. The crowd on court number 1 had thinned a little by this time, no doubt exhausted by the Tsonga V Raonic match, but there were lots of union flags being waved. This match went pretty much to form, with Kirilenko winning in straight sets.

The remaining matches that had been scheduled for court number 1 had already been reallocated elsewhere so, after making sure our area was clear of spectators and there were no abandoned possessions amongst the seats, we headed over for our team debrief and then it was time to head home. A fabulous day.