Have you ever wondered what it would be like to catch a bus at 2am, travel more than 100 miles, only to find out that hundreds of other people had a similar idea?

Or how about hopping on a flight from India just for the opportunity to catch a final glimpse of an ageing athlete in person?

Well for the thousands of people who packed Wimbledon Park this week, those stories are just the beginning.

With the annual tennis Championships having started on Monday, the park was packed with people from all over the country.

Yannick Mayer and Betty Ansari commenced their journey in the early hours of Monday morning, coming all the way from Bristol.

"I mean it’s better than staying here overnight," Betty said.

"And we just thought we would sleep on the coach."

You would have been hard pressed to find a duo more committed to the tournament than Elizabeth Astridge and Dawn Page.

The life-long friends not only came from Maidstone, Kent, but also packed a fair bit of experience with them.

Dawn said: "We’ve been doing this for decades.

"We’ve actually come to Wimbledon since 1960; I have at least and in that time we’ve come together and separately."

Adding to that, Elizabeth said: "You see, we come from a village where the lord of the manor, who was a member of the LTA, used to get tickets.

"He obviously wanted the court tickets and as teenagers we used to get the ground tickets so we’ve always come because we had tickets.

"In those days if there weren’t enough tickets, you just popped off and got a couple more.

"So we’ve seen it change hugely over the years."

In terms of distance travelled for Monday morning's queuers, Raghavendra Pai and his wife Gowri might have taken the cake, coming all the way from India.

"We reached here Sunday morning and kept our luggage at my brother’s house and we began camping on Sunday evening," he said.

"You come here, have a couple of beers and some sleep and you feel fine."

But what was the reason for the lengthy journey?

"Roger Federer, one name, one more reason to come."

For one group who lived just down the road, the early wake up wasn't so bad.

And as Joshua Goshez put it, all they needed were "the tunes and the mojitos."

While for another group, it was more of a family reunion.

Sandy Culling said: "We got here at 5.30am and we drove from Norfolk on Sunday but stayed with my daughter Zofia who lives in Wimbledon."

And when asked what she was most looking forward to she added: "You know I really don’t care, because I quite like the underdogs."