WIMBLEDON – Federer and crew ready for Andy Murray – with an assist from pal Ivan Ljubicic.
At Wimbledon, there are always a lot of “first-timers”, Brits who’ve watched Wimbledon their whole lives but never were lucky enough to get into the AELTC – until that particular day. You can see some of them if you’re around the gate when you walk in at Gate 1, the first gate you hit when you walk from the Southfields tube station.
They “cross the threshold”, so to speak, look up – because from that gate, the major courts are way up the hill – and there’s just a, “Whoa”, an exhale that happens as if the gates to Oz just opened.
On Friday, the first-Fed sighting was in full force for one guy sitting right behind me with his girlfriend (and yes, the Stella was already going). As Federer arrived at Court 14 and walked on, resplendent in white, bandanna firmly in place.
Right at that instant, I heard this behind me: “Oooohhhhh…… SHIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTT”
First time he’d ever seen his idol in the flesh. Dude was cool, though, No slobbering, no over-Iphonephoto-ing. He just sat there are stared at him in disbelief.
It was neat – although, yes, we did get on him for the “Oh …… SHIIIITTTTTTTT” moment. 🙂
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