Monday, July 6, 2009

Tardy and cursory Wimbledon wrapup

Federer won.

Oh, you want more? I'm on borrowed time (literally - there are 10 minutes clicking away on my prepaid hotel Internet access) so I'll make this quick.

We attended the matches Thu-Fri-Sat, choosing to see two men's semis rather than the final, plus the women's semis and finals. It was a great experience all the way around. I've been lucky enough to attend the Australian Open and a number of U.S. Opens, but I'd never visited the hallowed grounds of the All England Club.

Like Sampras and Lendl, then, I now have three of the four Grand Slams. Of course, they won, I merely attended, but why split hairs? My parents, meanwhile, completed the career attendance Slam like that other married couple, Steffi and Andre, did by winning.

The tennis was generally good and the experience of attending it great. We were fortunate to attend. Not to be overlooked was the Wimbledon museum, an outstanding retrospective of the over a century of tennis history at the Big W. A highlight was the spectral hologram of John McEnroe narrating his personal tennis history at SW 19.

We saw the men's final in our hotel bar, which was nice as I was able to take a little nap in my room during the epic final. Pete Sampras said it best about Roger Federer: he's a stud. (Pete had a lot of other nice things to say but that one sums it up pretty well.) After Federer's historic coup, we caught the doubles final at Audley's Pub in Mayfair over a traditional pub dinner.

Last night I gave the neighborhood chaps a free (or should I say expensive) poker lesson at a local casino, then we took a day trip today to Cambridge. It was scenic and historic, much like Oxford, which I visited in '03. Loved them both.

Back to Chicago shortly. I used my digital camera so much that it completely died, and I didn't bring a charger along, so I'll post pictures in a few days. No time to edit this right now, so please forgive my incompleteness and typos. Cheerio!

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