Katie and I got back to Thames Ditton just before midnight, footweary, our clothes drenched in sweat, barely able to keep our eyes open. But we sat at the kitchen table and recounted to each other some of what we had just experienced together.

Let me give a little backstory. This past year hasn’t been the easiest for us. We’ve faced some challenges. But something that has helped us through has been tennis – Katie playing it and all of us following it. So, going to Wimbledon on the opening day was always on the cards (I had been once before, on my own, 25 years ago). Going the second day wasn’t, and it came as an added bonus. When we sat at the kitchen table last night, Katie did the calculations and realised that it had been 43 hours since we’d woken up and this adventure had begun.

The Queue was an event all by itself, the stewards and staff polite and friendly beyond belief, and everyone there chatting, sharing tips, looking after each other’s stuff whenever anyone needed to leave The Queue to go to the loo or get a coffee. The organisation was seamless. On Tuesday morning, after we’d packed away the tent and were in the next stage of queuing, I was interviewed by BBC TV. I’ve been trying to find the interview online, but so far, no luck.

When Katie found out that she was going to get to see Jannik Sinner’s opening match yesterday, she burst out crying. When I walked her to the entrance to Court 1 and saw her up the steps to her seat, I burst out crying. Sinner is her number one hero bar none. Seeing him on Monday at practice was enough to make her year. There are no words to describe how she felt seeing him play an entire match. I sat out on The Hill and watched the first set on the big screen, squealing with delight the one or two times I spotted Katie in the crowd, just a few rows up from the baseline. Then I got the chance to join her and that was that. Turned out she’d cried during most of the first set, overcome with emotion. We clung to each other for the rest of the match, and I probably spent more time looking at her than looking at the court.

After that, we dashed between Court 1 and Court 2: Jannik Sinner followed by Taylor Fritz followed by Iga Swiatek followed by Ben Shelton followed by Jack Draper followed by Coco Gauff and then out onto The Hill to watch the end of the Novak Djokovic match which was on Centre Court. Finally, we dragged our weary bodies back to The Queue once more to collect our tent and overnight stuff from left luggage, and then plodded down to the train station for the second to last train home.

Ok, so now you’re probably thinking – gosh, how much money did Martina spend on all of that. Are you ready for it? £220!! Two days of tennis – for three people on day 1 and two people on day two, to see the greatest tennis players in the world right now, for a grand total of £220. Wimbledon remains one of the few major international sporting events that is financially accessible. We brought our own food (which, for Day 2, I bought at Tesco for £21), which meant that, not only were we not spending crazy money on food in the grounds, but we weren’t in long queues for that food. It was tennis all the way.

The staff inside the grounds were no less friendly and smiling than the staff in The Queue. Everyone had time for a chat. We spoke to stewards and hospitality staff and the members of the British Armed Forces who man the entrances to the courts. Everyone was lovely.

Two days of utter joy, of dreams coming true, and of more tennis that we could possibly have dreamed off. Today, the soles of my feet are sore from walking and the palms of my hands from clapping. Katie is on a wave of disbelief that she got to see so many of her sporting heros. And what are we going to do for the rest of day? Curl up in front of the TV and watch Day 3 of Wimbledon.