10SBALLS HAS THE TEAM IN PLACE – WIMBLEDON 2016 HAD AN AWESOME OPENING DAY BY FRANCISCO RESENDIZ

Written by: Resendiz on 27th June 2016

10SBALLS HAS THE TEAM IN PLACE - WIMBLEDON 2016 HAD AN AWESOME OPENING DAY BY FRANCISCO RESENDIZ |

Wimbledon Day 1

The District tube line was just to jam-packed at 11 am so instead we took an UBER to the AELTC for the first day of Wimbledon.

Before looking at the schedule we made our way to Aorangi Park (the official practice courts). Big names were out there practicing; Berdych, Pospisil, Fognini and so many others – its nice to see them practicing on the grass not wearing all white.

The fans were all standing behind the ropes waiting for the players to finish and head back through the tunnel towards the member’s enclosure, you here the fans scream, “Genie, Vasek, Tomas can we take a selfie!”

Now we head out to the match courts, grab a bottle of Evian ( the official Wimbledon water) and sunglasess – it was a very sunny day. Many of the 10sBalls_com close friends were on the schedule for us to support. We managed to see three -“Flip” Kirsten Flipkens , Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Ruben Bemelmans, all were playing on the group of courts 4-11

Kirsten Flipkens vs Nicole Gibbs 6/3, 6/1

Kirsten was playing her beautiful grass court game. Not serving too hard but making Gibbs run all over the court. Kirsten made tennis look effortless. If she made an error like returning a serve, wide or long – she didn’t let it bother her, she just shrugged it off. The crowd loved her return slice. She had tons of Belgian support! After every point the Belgian flags came out.

@kirstenflipkens wins her first match at #2016 #wimbledon #tennis #belgium @wimbledon – Photo by @10sBalls_com via Instagram.

Lucie Safarova vs Bethanie Mattek Sands 6/7, 7/6, 7/5

We sat with Bethanie’s husband and the rest of the team. Everyone was tense, these two girls are doubles partners but they played each other very well. Neither gave away any points. They served very hard played the points very smart. It seemed after the first set that Bethanie was headed for the win. But Lucie made a comeback winning, point by point. The linesmen made 4 bad calls, maybe if the calls were corrected the match would’ve gone to Bethanie…. From all the courts they seemed to attract the biggest audience.

Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the US returns to Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic during their first round game at the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 27 June 2016 EPA/ANDY RAIN

Thomaz Bellucci vs Ruben Bemelmans

This was a five set match. Both guys were equally matched – they pushed each other to serve hard. In Bellucci’s corner his team was pumped and yelling after every point. Bemalmans’ friends and family were very quiet and tense – his mom and girlfriend were very superstitious not to move much, not to cheer much and try to look calm. Yet, Bellucci just kept returning everything and made Bemelmans move from one side of the court to the other – mostly aiming for the corners.

Ruben Bemelmans of Belguim returns to Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil during thier first round match at the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 27 June 2016 EPA/ANDY RAIN

The tennis matches today were long. We were so busy supporting our friends that we had forgotten to eat. All we had by this point was Evian and Mentos. So we thought it was appropriate to get some “strawberries and cream” and a Coke. When we get to the que for the strawberries and cream we encounter the bad news that they had ran out. We passed on the Coke due to all the Mentos we had – not sure if you’ve seen what happens when you mix Mentos and soda…

Topics: 10sballs, AELTC, Atp, BETHANIE Mattek-Sands, Francisco Resendiz, Grass tennis, Kirsten Flipkens, Lucie Safarova, Nicole Gibbs, Ruben Bemelmans, Sports, Tennis News, The Championships, Thomaz Bellucci, Wimbledon 2016, Wta