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Today I made my annual pilgrimage to The Championships at Wimbledon, this being my 32nd consecutive year of attending this festival of tennis.
I purchased a £20 ground admission ticket and plonked myself on Court 2 for the day. First on the tennis menu was a Gentleman's Senior Invitation Doubles match involving the immensely talented and very funny Mansour Bahrami, partnered this year by Patrick McEnroe. They were up against Rick Leach and Cedric Pioline. What followed was a highly entertaining and amusing match, with Bahrami showing off his full array of trick shots and all four showcasing their humour, as well as great tennis. Bahrami and McEnroe prevailed, winning 6-4,6-3.
Next up was an entertaining Ladies Doubles Quarterfinal between Julia George's and Karolina Pliskova, who I'd seen win Nottingham a few weeks ago, against the French pairing of Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic. After the former pair won a tight first set 11-9 in the tie break, they wrapped up the match winning the second set 6-3.
Next it was time for past pros to take to the court again as Michael Chang and Mark Philippoussis took on Wayne Ferreira and Sebastian Grosjean. Another highly entertaining and closely fought match saw the latter pair win 6-4,7-5.
Then it was another Ladies Doubles Quarterfinal, this time featuring three of the players who has earlier played in the Singles Semifinals. Therefore, after a brief pause to allow a suitable rest, the Williams sisters arrived on court to play Ekaterina Malaria and Elena Vesnina. This was a highly competitive match where the Williams sisters eventually triumphed in three sets, 7-6(1),4-6,6-2.
That marked the conclusion of the scheduled matches but as the evening was still young, we had a chance to enjoy a bonus Senior Doubles as Britain's Jeremy Bates and Chris Wilkinson took on Henri Leconte and Jeff Tarango. After another entertaining match, the Brits prevailed, winning 6-3,6-3.
And that was the end of a fantastically entertaining day at Wimbledon. 9 hours of great tennis for just £20 - what a bargain!
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