SIMPLY … FROM THE GUT! (PART XII)

“Good bye, Arya.. I’m going to London” I reluctantly told my granddaughter not wanting to be away especially since she was moving to California in a couple of days. “Why, grandpa? Are you going to look at the Queen?” She retorted back in one breath and I chuckled marveling at her quick response. I was really excited to be at the opening week at Wimbledon, which I had been planning for the previous three months. On the way to the airport, I got a cryptic message from Air Canada “Due to crew constraints your?flight is cancelled “. As I was already close to the airport, I decided to try other options. However, I got little help at the counter and?came home disappointed. After several phone calls to the travel agent, I managed to reschedule my flight through Delta and changed my plan to be at Wimbledon during the second week and watch the Quarter Finals. I was lucky to get a third-row seat at the Center court to watch the match between Djokovic and Sinner and what a thriller it turned out to be. At the Royal Box just to my right were Prince William and Kate! It turned out that this was their first appearance at the tournament this year.?

?Watching a match just 10 feet away from the court is completely different to watching from the gallery and I could almost feel the emotions running in the minds of the two players. Djokovic?unusually was losing on all the long rallies and was too passive while Sinner who was broken in his first game went on to win two sets in a row. I murmured to the spectator in the adjacent seat “Looks like this is going to be a repeat of the US Open Finals when Djokovic lost to Medvedev”. Perhaps Djokovic heard me! He took a quick bathroom break and we could see a completely transformed man. After an early break in the third set, there was no looking back and slowly and steadily he crawled back into the match. It was fascinating to watch Kate’s reaction who was enthusiastically supporting Sinner initially but genuinely applauding Djokovic from the fourth set when he was playing some unbelievable shots. ?I managed to capture some of her emotions throughout the match and it was definitely an experience of a lifetime. After all, my grand- daughter was right- I did see the (future) queen!?