My last shot at a long-standing dream?

I checked out the tennis page on CNN Sports Illustrated the other day as I do often. And I was stunned by the piece of news at the top of the page:

"Agassi, Graf to rally first under Wimbledon roof"

My eyes widened and I immediately clicked on the click to read more about the article. Apparently, Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi will play an exhibition - dubbed "A Centre Court Celebration" - along with Tim Henman and Kim Clijsters in Wimbledon on May 17. Holy crap!

The event is being staged in order to test the playing conditions in Wimbledon Centre Court with the new roof and air management system. Wimbledon starts in end-June and I guess the organizers of this most celebrated of tennis tournaments want to gauge how things will be in Centre Court once the roof in place. That way, there won't be any surprises, and any problems with the playing conditions can be identified weeks before the tournament starts.

I have actually watched Steffi Graf play live once - an exhibition match against Kimiko Date in Tokyo, which was part of Graf's farewell tour in late 1999-early 2000. But I have always wanted to see her play in a Grand Slam event. Obviously, I didn't have the cash at the time Steffi was playing so I never got a chance to watch her compete. And this exhibition isn't exactly a Grand Slam event, but it will be played in the hallowed grounds of Wimbledon. Considering that Steffi is retired and no longer plays competitive tennis, this really is the next best thing.

What's more, she will be playing with her husband Andre Agassi as well as Henman and Kim Clijsters. I have actually supported and rooted for all these players at some point in my tennis fandom so it'll be great to get to see all of them share the same court (Wimbledon Centre Court!!) and play with/against each other.

Tickets will be sold at 10am UK time on March 12, and I will hope that I am lucky enough to get a ticket. If I do, I will figure out some way to fly to London. My pockets aren't exactly bursting at the seams with money and there is a global financial crisis right now so frivolous spending should be kept at a minimum, but this has been a dream of mine for such a long time now and another opportunity like this may never come again so it'll definitely be worth it.