Words by Kiran Gupta

Wimbledon is probably the most prestigious tennis event in the world. However, unlike most major sporting events, there are nearly NO tickets available online. In fact, you can’t even buy them for exorbitant prices on resale. In fact, the easiest way to guarantee yourself a membership to the club and a ticket to the event is by winning the tournament! For tourists heading to London potentially even as a stopover, this uncertainty can pose a great problem. Imagine flying all the way to the other side of the world, only to find at the last hurdle that you can’t make it in to the hallowed grounds.

This was the dilemma that confronted me earlier in the year. Five years ago, I managed to get a ticket for centre court, which, thanks to constant rain delays, meant I bore witness to a 19-year-old Nick Kyrgios breaking onto the scene with an astonishing victory over Rafael Nadal. The dream of seeing the great grass-court icon Roger Federer play at Wimbledon motivated me to find a way to get to the Championships this year. Buying tickets late made things even more complicated. So how on Earth did I manage to see Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon this year? Fortunately, there are some ways to make getting those Wimbledon tickets slightly easier.

Federer at Wimbledon... all I could ask for

1. Register in the overseas ballot

This is probably the easiest way to get Wimbledon tickets. You simply need to go to the Wimbledon website and fill out their forms and you will be notified in January-March if you have been successful in obtaining a pair of tickets to one day of The Championships. Unfortunately, as this is the most popular method, success is not guaranteed, and you don’t get to pick the day or the court so it might not be worth flying all the way for one day of potentially mediocre tennis. That said, if you get finals tickets, book those flights ASAP!!

2. Buy your tickets from Ticketmaster

The morning before each match day, 500 tickets for centre court and no. 3 court are released. These will sell out in seconds though, so I would say don’t bother even trying. I tried and was never successful.

3. Buy a travel package/ debenture seat

There is always the option to go through a hospitality company or purchase a debenture seat from a typically wealthy businessman who can afford to rent a centre court seat for 5 years at the cost of $105,000 (yes, that’s correct). Unsurprisingly, these tickets are outrageously expensive, often retailing for $10,000 a day. So, maybe not…

Seeing Nadal is great but is it worth $10,000?

4. Join the LTA ballot

If you are organised enough, the LTA (Lawn Tennis Association) holds a special ballot for their members. It costs 30 pounds to join but there is a much better chance of success than with the general ballot. If you are organised, this is a fantastic way to get tickets.

5. Buy your tickets in the LTA resale

The LTA also hosts a resale of all the returned ballot tickets. This is how I got my tickets. I was alerted to this method via Twitter and promptly paid the 30-pound fee to sign up. I was warned the tickets would sell out in seconds and to be prepared for the website to crash. So, with credit card in hand and computers at the ready, I made the virtual dash for court 1 tickets for the days I was there. I was successful for two of the three days as one of the computers crashed but I was ecstatic. I had found a way to see Wimbledon that was relatively pain-free.

6. Wait in the Queue

The only other way to get tickets is to wait in the infamous public queue. People will often camp for two or more days to get a centre court ticket, which I, quite frankly, was not prepared to do. For the one day I couldn’t get tickets, I decided to brave The Queue. That meant arriving at Wimbledon at approximately 5am to endure the 6 hour-plus queue, just to get a ground pass (a ticket that doesn’t let you into the main courts). I eventually got in just after 11am (when play started) and still managed to see some fantastic doubles tennis on the outside courts (which I love but can generally be watched for a fraction of the price with little to no crowd anywhere else in the world.)

Yep, I arrived before the sun was up and I was 4419 in the line.

Had to get a photo to prove I'd braved The Queue!

Unless you queue for a ridiculous amount of time, you will only get a ground pass. However, you can still see some magic with this. As I was walking through the grounds, I headed by an outside court at just the right time to be able to see Roger Federer heading to the practice court. So, yep, I got to watch Roger Federer practice standing literally a few feet away just on a ground pass. Overall, was queuing an experience? Yes. Would I do it again? Probably will stick to the LTA resale if I ever go back.

Oh and Rafa was there too (flanked by security!!)

7. Buy a resale ticket at the ground

If you can get into the grounds via a ground pass, there is also a resale queue where spectators who have finished watching tennis for the day put their tickets into. It is only 10 pounds to buy a resale ticket and it is often a good chance to watch the last match on a show court for an insanely cheap price. I managed to get onto court 2 to see Dominic Thiem lose to Sam Querrey in a very close match through this method.

So that’s a few tips from me. I hope they were helpful. Hopefully, you’ll be at The Championships next year.

How to get tickets for Wimbledon

Words by Kiran Gupta