Thousands of fans have begun to make their way to the Wimbledon gates after Love Island‘s Kem Cetinay opened the first checkpoint for day one of the championships – because why not?
The show’s 2017 champion, who returned to perform in this year’s Soccer Aid, began a short countdown with accompanying clapping before exclaiming, ‘Let’s go!’ and dashing through an arch in Wimbledon Park in an exuberant way.
He smiled at the cameras after presenting Pete, the official event steward who was there to assist him with the procedures of his job.
Although Kem’s name may not be the first that comes to mind when you think of the famed tennis tournament, the 27-year-old, who has transitioned into presenting following his reality TV success, was in attendance with radio station Capital.
So that makes a little more sense now.
The singer posted to his Instagram stories about his painfully early start to get there in time, recording his vehicle travel to Wimbledon in complete darkness and sharing to his Instagram stories with a timestamp of 3:56am – ouch!
He then showed off his presenting tent while explaining that he was there as part of the station’s collaboration with Vodafone.
‘Hosting duties today,’ Kem wrote alongside an emoji wearing sunglasses.
‘Speak to ya soon @romankemp,’ he added.
The host then tweeted a video from Capital where he explained: ‘I’m in the queue here at Wimbledon with Vodafone – we’re going to be starting the queue for 2023 Wimbledon. We’re having a nice time at the studio with my muck Roman.’
Wimbledon’s queue is a yearly staple for the event, with enthusiastic would-be visitors lining up in the hopes of snagging moderately priced day tickets to the All England Tennis Club’s grounds and courts.
Julia Barker, 47, was first in queue, with her green queue ticket stamped number one, followed by her husband Nicky, 54, and son Dan, 23.
The family, who have been in Ireland for over 20 years but are originally from Latvia, has been camping out since 7.30 a.m. on Saturday.
Dan told the PA news agency: ‘We didn’t expect to be first.’
He said they had hoped to secure tickets for Centre Court or Court One.
‘Then we realised there was nobody here,’ he added.
Despite warnings to bring rain coats and umbrellas in case of sporadic rains, there was sunshine and bright sky in south-west London on Monday morning.
On the opening day of the event, home supporters may root for six British players: Dan Evans, Jodie Burrage, Katie Swan, Jan Choinski, Harriet Dart, and Liam Broady.
On Monday, Novak Djokovic will play his opening match in his quest for his 24th Grand Slam singles championship and eighth Wimbledon victory, which would tie Roger Federer’s record.
Clare Balding will replace Sue Barker as the BBC’s face of Wimbledon this year, after the latter retired after 30 years of presenting national coverage from the All England Club this summer.
Former England cricketer Isa Guha will co-host the show and has praised Balding as a “great professional.”
The contest will take place from Monday, July 3 until Sunday, July 16.
Source My Celebrity Life.
