I have been very fortunate to be able to attend Wimbledon several times over the years, most recently for the women’s final on Saturday. Wimbledon, as an experience, is both quintessentially English and somewhat un-English at the same time. The Queue and Henman Hill/Murray Mount are both very English, extremely polite and a little bit crazy (WHY would you choose to sit uncomfortably on a hill to watch a big TV? As the Daily Mail is fond of telling us, most of us have big TVs at home). Wimbledon as an Experience (TM), however, is a Hollywood/Disney version of itself, complete with ludicrously expensive food and drink, celebrities everywhere and not many places to sit when it rains (as it inevitably will).

The experience is very different early in the tournament, compared to later on. Early in the tournament, there are matches taking place on virtually every court, most of which have unreserved seating. As the outside courts often have more interesting and more competitive matches, many of the people with Centre Court and Court No. 1 tickets will choose to spend at least some of their time on the outer courts. It is very crowded and can be enjoyable, although I find it a bit frustrating.

Later in the tournament, however, it is much calmer. Relatively few people will queue up in order to sit on the hill or to see the outside courts, and many of the people with Centre Court tickets are on corporate tickets with private dining facilities. This means that the remainder of the shopping and dining facilities are much less crowded, and you don’t have to queue quite so long for your strawberries and cream. In addition, I noticed the presence of beer this year, which I never had before. My partner tells me that it is part of Stella Artois’ upbranding marketing campaign, in which it is attempting to remake its image from that of a beer best suited to binge-drinking and domestic violence.

I am prevaricating and should say something about the tennis. I was there, of course, to cheer on Eugenie Bouchard, Canada’s first Grand Slam finalist. She has had an amazing year thus far, reaching the semifinals at the Australian and French Open tournaments and blazing through the draw here. She did not play poorly in the final, but Petra Kvitova was utterly dominant and played beautifully, her serves powerful and her play confident and efficient. I am sure Bouchard will return again, considering her young age (20) and her immense talent.

We did not stay long after that match, but I understand that the women’s and men’s doubles matches were both very good. I do think it something of a shame that singles and doubles are now so specialised, as I used to enjoy watching yesteryears’ singles stars play doubles. I have particular affection for Venus and Serena Williams on this point, as I have enjoyed watching them play doubles together several times at Wimbledon.

Wimbledon is a wonderful tennis tournament to experience. I have also visited the US Open, which is, of course, a great tournament in its own right (much bigger, bolder, louder…more American). But I do recommend making the trek to SW19, if you are ever in London during the Wimbledon fortnight.