WIMBLEDON — I’m standing outside Court 12 when a couple approach me. They’ve spotted the lanyard and want some assistance.
It isn’t the first and won’t be the last time I’ve been mistaken for a Wimbledon staff member, but having covered these championships since 2018 I am fortunate to know the lay of the land by now.
They are curious about how to actually get a seat on Court 12, and they don’t like my answer.
“So you’re saying after the queue, there’s another queue?” Vojtech Cepek, who is here with partner Katerina on her birthday, says with a look of resignation. “It’s crazy.”
Vojtech and Katerina Cepek came to Wimbledon to watch their fellow Czechs in action (Photo: Michael Hincks)Vojtech and Katerina are here from the Czech Republic. They joined the Wimbledon queue at 4am and were in the grounds by 12.30pm. Now they want to watch their fellow Czechs in each of the three Court 12 matches.
“Maybe now we’ve spoken to you, you can help us?” Vojtech adds hopefully. I would if I could, is my reply.
This is a mere snapshot of the Wimbledon experience for supporters, who can be divided into two: those who know that more queuing awaits, and those who don’t.
Patience is not a virtue but necessary, and I was handily approached by Vojtech and Katerina while counting the actual number of queues around Wimbledon.
There is the Wimbledon queue, of course, but in my hour spent circling the grounds both inside and out, I counted 92 queues in total – including 30 at various food and drink vendors, 10 to get onto outside courts, and nine at the perimeter gates.
There is a queue to view the practice courts. A queue for ticket resales. A queue to buy used tennis balls. A queue for the museum. Five queues to buy programmes or radios. Four queues at information desks. Three queues to refill water.
There are staff holding signs saying “Queue starts here”, while the Southern Village has signs to differentiate which queue you should join. Mac and cheese here please, pizza over there.
Fans can be forced to wait a while to purchase food and drink at stalls dotted around the grounds (Photo: Michael Hincks)The number of queues is ever-fluctuating, and my count of 92 would have risen had I later included every entrance to Centre Court and No 1 Court, where fans wait to return to their seats while games are being played.
Roughly 43,000 supporters have attended these championships each day so far, similar numbers to last year, but it remains a shock to the system for those who have not visited for a while.
And as some supporters head for one Wimbledon shop entrance, they are audibly taken aback by the line stretching outside – one of the five queues for shops by my count. There Marianne Blake tells me she has been coming for years, and of course the queues only make the experience “worse” before noting “it’s fine, really”.
A very British response, likewise on the steps by Henman Hill. “Oh, bloody hell, it is busier than normal. I’m not sure we’re going to find a spot,” one woman behind me says, with patches of grass already at a premium just before 1pm.
It is middle Saturday, it is worth noting, a work-free day for many and the best opportunity to catch tennis on a weekend given the men’s and women’s singles are still in the third round, and the doubles and juniors are also under way.
Before 1pm, those with Centre and No 1 tickets can also roam the grounds freely, and the crowds do notably dwindle by mid-afternoon once matches are under way on the show courts.
Nevertheless, busy. It is a major sporting event of course and there will always be queues, but here the grounds feel overcrowded. The actual Wimbledon queue meanwhile has only risen in popularity in recent years, largely down to social media. The “TikTok boom” as one fan, Emily from Dorset, described it when discussing her tips to beat the queue.
On Saturday, the queue was more than 9,000 strong by 5am, and had some harking for the good old days. On X Emma Hoyes said “can’t believe how much it’s changed and how crazy the queue is now,” when sharing her queue card from 2018, when she was 1,727th in the queue just before 5am.
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James Gray: Serena Williams disrespected Wimbledon and paid the price Comment: The BBC is trying to prove Andy Murray wrong – and failingThe ViewFromTheQ account on X shares a flurry of fans in disbelief. Some had even started camping on Thursday for access to the grounds on Sunday, likely to secure tickets to watch Novak Djokovic and Aryna Sabalenka vs Naomi Osaka, and there is little to suggest the queue will drop in popularity in the years to come.
The solution to an overcrowded Wimbledon is obvious, and thankfully, in the pipeline. The expansion, which will add 38 new tennis courts and an 8,000-seat stadium, is the subject of protests but has been given planning permission.
The site should triple in size by the early 2030s. By the day in 2026 it is clear how badly that extra space is needed.
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