Tickets For Wimbledon

Q: I am travelling to London and would love to attend the Wimbledon championships. How would I go about trying to get tickets or am I too late? I don't mind queuing, even for the night. - James Marais.

A: There are always tickets available each day at Wimbledon. About 500 tickets are available for the centre court (except for the last four days), and courts 1 and 2. These are sold at the turnstiles every morning strictly based on queue positions. Another 6000 ground admission tickets are also available each day. These tickets permit entry to court 2 standing enclosure and the unreserved seating and standing areas for courts 3-19. In the early rounds, you can see some of the top players in action on the outside courts. The queuing system at Wimbledon is pretty organised. There is a single queue, which starts in Wimbledon Car Park No 10. To ensure you get a seat for one of the show courts (centre, one and two) you will probably need to queue overnight, but you can usually come early in the morning to get a ground admission ticket. Overnight queuers are woken up by stewards at 6am and sleeping bags and camping equipment can be deposited in a left luggage facility before entering the grounds. At 7.30 those at the front of the queue will be given armbands for tickets to the show courts corresponding with the number of tickets on sale, so you will know then whether you are lucky or not. The turnstiles open at 9.30am, but most facilities in the grounds are only available from 10.30am. During the day ground admission tickets are sold on the basis of "one in, one out", so you have a chance to experience the atmosphere if you arrive in the early evening when some people may be leaving. Prices range from 5-20 pounds for ground admission tickets, depending on the day, and 29-75 pounds for the show courts. For further information, go to the www.wimbledon.org website.(31 May 2009)