Stars return to Royal Box as Wimbledon welcomes back the sunshine
Among the guests in the Royal Box were adventurer Bear Grylls, broadcaster Sir Chris Bryant and actor Rory Kinnear.
Former Dragons' Den star Deborah Meaden and comedian Clive Anderson were also spotted taking in the action on Centre Court.
Musician-turned-environmentalist Feargal Sharkey was seated alongside Dutch tennis legend Betty Stove, who turned 80 in April and famously reached three Wimbledon finals in 1977.
They were joined by a host of sporting figures including former England rugby coach Sir Clive Woodward, Olympic sprinter Donna Fraser, and incoming Lawn Tennis Association chairman William Jackson. Prince Michael of Kent led the royal contingent.
The stars were there to see Novak Djokovic face off against British Dan Evans on Centre Court, before Iga Swiatek takes on American qualifier Caty McNally.
Top seed Jannik Sinner took on Aleksandar Vukic of Australia on No 1 Court, followed by Mirra Andreeva's match against Italy's Lucia Bronzetti.
Later in the day, Maria Sakkari is scheduled to play 2022 champion Elena Rybakina, and British hope Jack Draper will face former US Open winner Marin Cilic.
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North Wales Chronicle
24 minutes ago
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Lions' props roam the team hotel like ‘migrating bison'
The Lions have taken six of the front rows to Australia and while they are competing hard for the four available places in the Test series that begins in Brisbane on July 19, they have still formed a tight bond off the field. 'We actually have a prop group that none of our other team members are allowed on. They don't know about it, but our secret is out now,' Schoeman said. Proud to be part of this pride. 🦁@lionsofficial — Pierre Schoeman (Schoe) (@pierraSCHOEMIES) June 15, 2025 'We are like bison, migrating together. We have a secret meeting every night. Finlay Bealham started it and now all the props have bought in. 'We stick together and have a tea after every training session and we get to meet each other's families and ask deep questions. But it's just for props in whatever hotel we live in.' Within the prop contingent those that fill the number one jersey have gravitated towards each other, with Schoeman striking up a close relationship with fellow 'gladiators' Ellis Genge and Andrew Porter. 'Looseheads all around the world are very similar. They are quite weird and unique people. Something isn't right,' the South African-born Scotland prop said. 'We always say that playing rugby you must have a screw loose, but playing rugby as a loosehead prop…We like going to dark places – physically, mentally, spiritually. 'We're different but similar. We are almost like a gladiator when all the gladiators come together. (Scrum coach) John Fogarty has the key for the cage to unlock the gladiators. 'We all associate with being loosehead props in the professional era with different backgrounds. Lions @LooseHeadz 🦁🦁#Lions2025 — British & Irish Lions (@lionsofficial) July 2, 2025 'It's just nice knowing each other and we are learning from each other as well. You have to get along. You have to make it work. At this moment it is like a small mini unit and the engine has to go. 'It is the healthiest competition I've seen in my career. You learn from each other and you really use your super strengths. If someone else is better, you learn from them. 'You can clearly see we are all driving towards the same collective. Whatever your job is on the sailing yard, you have to do that otherwise you won't get to the destination.' Schoeman starts Saturday's clash with New South Wales Waratahs in Sydney as the Lions continue a hectic schedule of four matches in 11 days leading into the first Test against the Wallabies. 'You have to be resilient, but as a Lion you put a smile on your face and there are no excuses. You have to deliver. Fans, travel, media, friends…anything goes,' he said.
Leader Live
24 minutes ago
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Lions' props roam the team hotel like ‘migrating bison'
The Lions have taken six of the front rows to Australia and while they are competing hard for the four available places in the Test series that begins in Brisbane on July 19, they have still formed a tight bond off the field. 'We actually have a prop group that none of our other team members are allowed on. They don't know about it, but our secret is out now,' Schoeman said. Proud to be part of this pride. 🦁@lionsofficial — Pierre Schoeman (Schoe) (@pierraSCHOEMIES) June 15, 2025 'We are like bison, migrating together. We have a secret meeting every night. Finlay Bealham started it and now all the props have bought in. 'We stick together and have a tea after every training session and we get to meet each other's families and ask deep questions. But it's just for props in whatever hotel we live in.' Within the prop contingent those that fill the number one jersey have gravitated towards each other, with Schoeman striking up a close relationship with fellow 'gladiators' Ellis Genge and Andrew Porter. 'Looseheads all around the world are very similar. They are quite weird and unique people. Something isn't right,' the South African-born Scotland prop said. 'We always say that playing rugby you must have a screw loose, but playing rugby as a loosehead prop…We like going to dark places – physically, mentally, spiritually. 'We're different but similar. We are almost like a gladiator when all the gladiators come together. (Scrum coach) John Fogarty has the key for the cage to unlock the gladiators. 'We all associate with being loosehead props in the professional era with different backgrounds. Lions @LooseHeadz 🦁🦁#Lions2025 — British & Irish Lions (@lionsofficial) July 2, 2025 'It's just nice knowing each other and we are learning from each other as well. You have to get along. You have to make it work. At this moment it is like a small mini unit and the engine has to go. 'It is the healthiest competition I've seen in my career. You learn from each other and you really use your super strengths. If someone else is better, you learn from them. 'You can clearly see we are all driving towards the same collective. Whatever your job is on the sailing yard, you have to do that otherwise you won't get to the destination.' Schoeman starts Saturday's clash with New South Wales Waratahs in Sydney as the Lions continue a hectic schedule of four matches in 11 days leading into the first Test against the Wallabies. 'You have to be resilient, but as a Lion you put a smile on your face and there are no excuses. You have to deliver. Fans, travel, media, friends…anything goes,' he said.
The Guardian
25 minutes ago
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Ice towels and thermal stress techniques: how players deal with heat at Wimbledon
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He says the risks to players are increasingly well-understood and being responded to, but that a focus on short-term cooling measures does not provide the greatest protection to their health and performance. 'Short-term measures are about looking to alleviate some of the thermal stress,' he says. 'You're guzzling something cold, you're putting ice on you briefly during a match, but these measures have very limited power to change the body temperature for a high-performance athlete during intense competition. Instead we're stimulating what we call psychophysiological responses, we're actually tricking the brain into thinking that we're cooler.' For the body to more fully adapt to unusual heat, Taylor says a fuller process of acclimatisation [natural heat exposure] or acclimation artificial heat exposure] is required. 'When we can't access a naturally hot environment to perform acclimatisation, we rely upon acclimation', he says. 'Acclimation is an artificial process, where you simulate a hot environment – you'll have seen athletes training in a hot box for example. The gold standard here is to expose athletes to these conditions 10 to 15 times to give them the best protection prior to a competition. The challenge with elite athletes is we just don't have the luxury of those 15 consecutive exposures because they're so busy competing, training, travelling, doing press, suffering from illness, injury, all of these types of things.' Taylor says that adding acclimation to a regular training regime would not be harmful and could in fact offer improvements in performance. 'We're getting some pretty good evidence now that being heat acclimated or acclimatised can increase haemoglobin mass, which is one of the many determinants of endurance performance,' he says. But tennis stars at this time of year are often already engaged in another kind of acclimatisation, to the unique grass court surfaces of Wimbledon. They also travel the world between varying climates and, clearly, elite athletes are highly motivated and push themselves very hard, often ignoring heat-related symptoms. There are clear challenges for making elite sport less exposed to the risks of extreme heat, but the sense is growing that they cannot be avoided for ever. 'The number of heatwaves, including their severity, intensity and duration are increasing', says Taylor. 'Players across all sports, including tennis, will be playing more competitions in extremes of heat. It's inevitable. '
