"Extremely outdated & should not exist";"Painful experience" - Fans bemoan Wimbledon 'madness' as 10,000+ crowd queue up on Day 1 for annual tradition

The 2024 Wimbledon Championships kickstarted on Monday, with the top half of the men's singles draw and the bottom half of the women's singles draw in action on Day 1 of the Grass Major. Major stars like Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Emma Raducanu and Naomi Osaka were in action, drawing heavy crowds throughout the day.

The return of Wimbledon also meant the return of the annual 'queue' tradition at the tournament, where fans line up outside the grounds for a chance at buying limited show court tickets on the day of the event. Each person in the queue is allowed to buy only one, and the tickets are non-transferable. The queue begins early in the morning, with fans sometimes even camping on site overnight hoping to get a head start.

Last year, more than 12,000 fans queued up for a single day at Wimbledon at its peak. This time around, opening day witnessed more than 10,000 at least, as reported by fans at SW19.

It does appear, however, that the experience was not pleasant for most, as many fans took to social media to bemoan the experience. Some called it an outdated practice in the digital age, while others were confused by the limiting of tickets for families at the tournament.

"This is my annual tweet to complain that the Wimbledon queue is extremely outdated and should not exist," one fan said.

"Wimbledon having the two main courts starting at 1pm and 1:30pm is frankly kinda disgusting, just like that nasty ass queue system and the limiting of tickets per family for the whole tournament.... just trying to remain elitist and closed off for what reason????" another commented.

"4 hours and counting in your stupid queue. Such a painful and unenjoyable experience and you miss all of the tennis while waiting to watch the tennis. Please do better," one fan wrote.

For 2024, Wimbledon requested fans queuing up to download their official app, promising that it will make for a seamless experience with constant updates. However, that has not turned out to be the case, with many fans complaining that the app was slowing things down, as the machines on site were not scanning it properly due to a lack of signal.

"Queue update: they have closed the queue for this evening's play. This will be do to the large backlog in the queue who should have been in hours ago, but were held up by tech issues. Madness," one fan said.

"Payment is the hold up, machines not working then scanning stupid Wimbledon app with the crappiest signal ever," another clarified.

"Not the best experience so far at on The Queue. No information being given to anyone. No entertainment along the line. We’ve been moved to a holding place with no bathrooms, no food , no nothing and no information. We’d have been better off staying in the 1st field," one user wrote.

"The queue is very busy, possibly even busier than it was last year" - Wimbledon CEO Sally Bolton

Day One: The Championships - Wimbledon 2024

Speaking to Metro, Wimbledon CEO Sally Bolton admitted that the queue has been busier than it was last season, revealing that there are already fans queuing up for Day 2 of the tournament.

"The queue is very busy this morning. Possibly even busier than it was last year. Rather unsurprisingly, We’ve got quite a few people in the queue for tomorrow. So we’re managing both queues at the same time," Sally Bolton said.

As for why, Bolton believes that it might be due to the fact that this could be Andy Murray's final appearance at SW19. The Brit has said as much himself, but is yet to confirm whether he is fit enough to play his opener against Tomas Machac on Tuesday.

Regardless, Sally Bolton emphasized that Andy Murray has earned the right to make the decision when he wants, and that the tournament will do everything to make sure to accommodate any scheduling changes swiftly should the need arise.

"We’ve always got plenty of scheduling challenges. Andy has earned the right to make the decision when he retires," the Wimbledon CEO said.

"We will respect that. We’ve got to be agile in the way we deliver our plans but we are happy to do that. It’s very much for Andy to make this decision and to do it at a time that’s right for him," she added.