Shift 4 – time for some action on centre…

Back to Wimbledon for my fourth Games Maker shift. Another smooth pass through security and check-in – things have settled now and are pretty slick. At shift allocation I was assigned to a blue team – that meant Centre Court!

Our team gathered and waited for the morning shift team leader to arrive and give us the handover update, then we headed to the court and took up our positions at the gangway. Today I was to work gangway 112 – so close to the court I almost had my nose on the grass! As well as spectators the gangway was used by TV camermen and press photographers but was another fairly straightforward gangway to work during the day.

We arrived during the second match on court – Lleyton Hewitt V Novak Djokovic. At 4 all in the first set it looked like everything was going with serve. Then Hewitt broke Djokovic and served out the set, 1-0 to Hewitt… could he really beat Djokovic? There were a lot of Australians in the crowd who gave Hewitt huge amounts of support. The second set was tense, all went with serve until Djokovic broke to lead 5-3. Hewitt broke back to square things at 5 all then Djokovic broke again to take the second set 7-5. It seemed that Djokovic moved up a gear in the third set as he took it fairly quickly 6-1.

Next up was a much anticipated match – Marcos Baghdatis V Andy Murray. The union flags came out but it was good to see a few Cyprus flags being waved as well. This was the first time I had seen Murray play live, so I was pretty excited too. In the first set Baghdatis won the first 2 games then Murray won the next 3 – this was looking to be a close match. Baghdatis broke again to lead 4-3 then continued to hold his serve to take the first set 6-4. Were we going to see an upset..? Murray seemed to settle himself more in the second set and after the first couple of games continually broke Baghdatis to take the set 6-1. Murray broke Baghdatis again in the first game of the third and final set and held his serve to take the set 6-4 and win the match. British sighs of relief all round.

I covered for a colleague on her break at this point, so enjoyed the view from the other side of the court for around half an hour – and took the opportunity to take a photo between matches.

A view of Centre Court between matches

Now it was time for the ladies, a third round match between Daniela Hantuchova and Caroline Wozniacki. After a couple of early breaks in the first set things went with serve until Wozniacki broke again to lead 5-3 and then took the set 6-4. There had been a bit of a scare early in the first set when Wozniacki went crashing into the chairs by the umpire and had to apply some ice to her leg, but she was clearly not suffering from an injury. Wozniacki was another who then stepped up a gear and took the second set fairly easily 6-2.

That was the final scheduled match on court, but there were still matches taking place on the outdoor courts which needed to finish. No one was sure if any of those matches would need to be completed on centre court, so, just in case, the roof was closed and we sat around and waited for an update. Finally word came through that the match between David Ferrer and Kei Nishikori was heading our way from court number 2.

Not much policing of the crowd was needed at this point. Anyone could come into centre court to see the end of the Ferrer V Nishikori match, all we had to do was to keep the two rows of seats allocated to press photographers clear. The officials and players arrived, the score was 5-4 to Nishikori in the third set with games going with serve. Were we in for a late night thriller? Sadly no – for the first time in the third set Nishikori broke Ferrer’s serve to take the match 6-4 in the third. All that waiting and effort for half a dozen points! It was a thrill to be on court with the roof closed though and by the time we left the venue there were no queues for the shuttle buses so I took a leisurely ride towards home for a change.