With thousands of sports fans queuing at the gates of Wimbledon each year, Sky Sports’ Alex Eaton had a unique experience of being first in the queue. He shares his experience lining up, sleeping in tents, and watching incredible tennis…

Dragging a tent through Wimbledon High Street in 30-degree heat started not to seem like the best idea.

But the decision would be worth it in the end.

As we arrived at the Wimbledon queue, we saw hundreds of tents lined up with sports fans eagerly waiting for night to come so they could enter the grounds the next day.

We arrived at 5pm on Monday June 30 and were given a queue card for the next morning that placed us in the 590th position.

The plan was to camp for two nights with my friend Sam so we could have the best chance at getting onto Centre Court.

As the evening went on, we socialised with many queuers, playing card games and exchanging Wimbledon memories. Suddenly, we heard applause followed by an incredible choir singing.

The Sing Space Musical Theatre Choir had turned up to boost the morale of the thousands of people who had now joined the queue. It was very much needed after attempting to put up our tents in the scorching heat.

Temperatures so extreme that it set records for being the hottest opening day in Wimbledon history and forgetting my suncream was something I was going to regret.

After a rough night’s sleep, we were woken up by the volunteers telling us to form a new queue for the next day.

We stretched out our sore backs and dragged our tents to the start of the line and to our surprise, no one in front of us had the same idea, and we were in the prime spot for the next day.

At this point, we knew we were guaranteed to get on Centre Court and create many special memories.

The second day flew past. We made more friends, and hundreds of people came up to us asking how we got to the front. Some called us “crazy”, others said we were “dedicated”, but I think the right word would have been ‘smelly’.

We went on a hunt for a shower and found one we could use at a gym, a 10-minute walk from the queue. It was so hot in the sun that we ended up using it twice. For the rest of the day, we were treated like celebrities as media companies from around the world came and interviewed us about our story of how we did it.

As dusk settled in once more, we had one big decision to make before we called it a night.

Cameron Norrie was playing Frances Tiafoe on Court One, and this was the main game we wanted to see. So, we gave up our chance of sitting on Centre Court to watch their match.

However, we produced a masterplan to ensure we were still able to get onto Centre Court.

“Good morning, wake up,” the volunteers said at 5am on Tuesday.

It was time to put our tents away and go into the grounds. Despite waking us up at the crack of dawn each morning, the volunteers were incredibly helpful and very well-organised, and we thanked them as we left the queue.

After collecting our Court One tickets, we rushed straight to the resale queue to join the list to get Centre Court tickets later in the day.

This put us in another queue; however, this time it was, fortunately, a virtual one!

Once we got into the grounds, we walked around the courts and visited many of the food and drink stalls where plenty of Pimm’s and strawberries were devoured.

We met up with our new friends we made in the queue, Lewis and Joe, and took to our seats and watched British No 2 Norrie defeat Tiafoe in a thrilling four-set match.

Luck was on our side as immediately after that match we got a notification saying our Centre Court tickets were ready to collect and we only had to pay £15 for them.

This meant we got to watch the reigning champion Carlos Alcaraz play against a resilient Oliver Tarvet. The Spaniard was too good for the young Brit. As I sat and waited for Emma Raducanu and Marketa Vondrousova’s match to start, I noticed a few famous faces in the Royal Box.

England men’s football manager Thomas Tuchel, England golfer Tommy Fleetwood and many more stars! However, one celebrity in particular was drawing the most attention from the cameras.

Olivia Rodrigo was there, and I knew I had to try and get a picture to show my girlfriend.

I wandered down to the exit of the Royal Box on the off chance of seeing her, however, many more people had the same idea as me, and unfortunately, I did not manage to get a picture. I guess it was a bad idea, right?

While waiting for the Glastonbury headliner, I bumped into Antonee Robinson, and let him know I was a Fulham fan and not to leave Craven Cottage.

After another fantastic match on Centre Court watching British No.1 Raducanu beat 2023’s champion Vondrouaova it was time to head back to the campsite, collect our tents, ready to head home and catch up on many hours of lost sleep.

Every minute of queuing was well worth it in the end as we had an amazing day watching some of the best players in the world.

It was so good that I will 100 per cent be back next year and may even queue again this year to watch the quarter-finals!

Watch the ATP and WTA Tours, as well as the US Open in New York, live on Sky Sports in 2025 or stream with NOW and the Sky Sports app, giving Sky Sports customers access to over 50 per cent more live sport this year at no extra cost. Find out more here.