Wimbledon fans camp out for the best seats as thousands join queue

Tennis fans camped out overnight to score a spot in the famous Queue ahead of the first day of Wimbledon.

More than 6,200 people were waiting in line for on-the-day tickets this morning, with some having turned up on Saturday.

Among them was Julia Barker, who was first in the queue with husband Nicky, 54, and their son Dan, 23.

The Latvian family, who have lived in Ireland for over 20 years, arrived at 7.30am on Saturday.

Dan said: ‘We didn’t expect to be first. Then we realised there was nobody here.’

Love Island 2017 winner Kem Cetinay opened the gate at 7.18am after a short countdown and yelled ‘Let’s go’ before running through the checkpoint.

Wimbledon sells a bulk of its tickets through a ballot system but many people brave the daily queue to enter the world’s oldest tennis tournament.

It remains one of the few major sporting events where you can pick up premium tickets – including for Centre Court – on the day of play.

There are two types of ticket available – Show Court and Grounds Pass. They are sold on a best available, one per person queueing basis and are non-transferable.

Show Court tickets are for Centre Court, No.1 Court and No.2 Court, while Grounds Pass tickets give you access to all courts including No.3 Court, Court 12 and Court 18, as well as The Hill, where action is shown from Centre and No. 1 Courts.

You can find out more about queueing for on-the-day tickets with our guide here.

Among the stars hoping to claim the trophy this year is seven-time winner Novak Djokovic. If successful he’ll equal Roger Federer’s record.

Two-time Wimbledon champion Andy Murray also joins the competition, after winning Surbiton and the Nottingham Open in recent weeks.

Rafael Nadal and Emma Raducanu are both missing the event due to injury.

We’ve put together the full schedule and this year’s seedings here.

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