Remembering 2012 in Wimbledon

May 9, 2019 Comments Off

Our journey around the Capital Ring reaches Wimbledon on Sunday 12th May. Jack Yeomanson looks at Wimbledon during London 2012

Remember 2012? A year that London might never see the likes of again as long as most of us are around, it was the year when, as Sebastian Coe said so immortally in August that the words “Made in Britain were a sure sign of quality”.

The events of that year started early in 2012 with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee which included the famous concert and river pageant in the rain that never seemed to cease. Then, at the end of July came the most extraordinary two weeks of sport that London has seen in many a long year.

Your writer admits to being a bit of a sports nut at the best of times and like many would happily sit and watch most things be they live or on TV. It’s also rare as a sports fan that you get a chance to be within inches of your heroes and idols, something I was lucky enough to manage this twice in two days during July 2012 with events taking place in two of the places that we visit on our capital ring walk.

On the first full day of those games the men’s cycling road race took place with Britain boasting one of the overwhelming favourites for Gold in Mark Cavendish. Your correspondent spent the day sitting on Putney Bridge, but it was events in Richmond Park that really set things awry as the Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara crashed out, despite being arguably the strongest rider in the race at that stage. Your writer’s picture shows quite how close you can get to sports people at races, and for free as well!

Then came the Sunday and the tennis at Wimbledon. Earlier that summer, the next great British hope Andy Murray had been the first British man to reach a Wimbledon final in the Open Era before falling in four sets to Switzerland’s Roger Federer and famously crying during his interview after the final (a special prize to anyone who remembers who the Brit who did win a Wimbledon Title that year – you’ll find out if you come on the walk).

A few weeks later and Murray and co. were back. On that Sunday Murray was due to play Switzerland’s other main male player, Stanislas Wawrinka with other games on that day including Julia Goerges v Agnieska Radwanska (ironically the other losing Wimbledon finalist that year – Radwanska having lost to Serena Williams); Shaher Peer v Maria Sharapova and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga v Thomaz Bellucci.

One of the main positives with far fewer matches than one would normally find at Wimbledon was the opportunity to see players practicing on the outside court and getting closer than ever. Being a Swiss player was taking part it was a real privilege to see Roger Federer knock up as a practice partner (the photo shows just how close you could get).

Ultimately Roger’s presence couldn’t inspire Wawrinka to victory and your writer likes to think that his own attendance helped provide Andy with that little extra to go on and eventually claim the Olympic Gold (beating Federer in the Final).

Over the past six years there’s been many changes at Wimbledon, and we’ll try to explain not just the history of this fascinating place, but also look towards what’s due to come over the next few years.