Austin's Carol Welder at Wimbledon

This month, Austin Fit Magazine was fortunate to have a feature on Carol Welder (you can read the article here).  Welder is the current vice president of the United States Tennis Association (UTSA) and is involved in numerous other local and national tennis organizations.  Welder recently returned from this year's Wimbledon Tennis Championships, and here, in her words, is a review of that trip:

This was my second trip to Wimbledon and the first trip for my grandson, Harrison. He lives in Seattle and has two younger brothers. He and one of his brothers have gone to the US Open several times and are big tennis fans. Because of the weather in Seattle, they primarily play team sports but we do like to play tennis when we are together. 

My highlight came on July 4, 2012. As vice president of the USTA, I received an invitation to sit in the Royal Box on Center Court. What a special treat to also have in the box that day the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (William and Kate) as well as past champions and players Andre Agassi, Stefanie Graf, Rod Laver, Pam Shriver, Jonas Bjorkman, Mark Phillippousis, Todd Martin, and Peter Fleming. We went to the matches four days and saw the men's and women's singles semi finals and the women's singles finals, along with other great doubles and junior matches. I think my favorite match was the men's semi final between Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer. It was a high quality match and Roger had to play at a very high level to beat the #1 player in the world. It was nice that several American players did so well – Serena Williams winning the Women's Singles and Doubles (along with sister Venus), Mike Bryan and Lisa Raymond winning the Mixed Doubles, and Taylor Townsend winning the Girls Doubles.  

The traditions of Wimbledon are unmatched. We had high tea in the afternoon and, of course, had strawberries and cream. Wimbledon is not easy to get to having to maneuver the traffic from London or people can take the tube. We had access to a car service, so it was very nice to sit back and let someone else drive. 

Each morning we did an activity in London before going to the tennis. We took a river cruise down the Thames, visited the Buckingham Palace Mews (where they keep the horses and carriages), toured the underground Churchill War Rooms, and rode on the London Eye. I think we got to see the city from several points of view.