Wild mix of celebs in Wimbledon royal box blows minds: ‘For the ages'
The world's premier tennis tournament is perhaps the only place on earth you're likely to see Olympic diving legend Tom Daley, pop star Olivia Rodrigo, football managers Thomas Tuchel and Roy Hodgson, WWE icon John Cena and music royalty Dave Grohl all sitting alongside one another - in a royal box that was described as 'one for the ages'.
We're sure they managed to make small chat but tennis fans around the globe were all asking the same thing - what does this lot have in common?
The answer of course, is a love of tennis - and there were dished up more drama as the early carnage in this year's edition continued to deliver.
Four of top five women's seeds gone
Jasmine Paolini was the latest victim of Wimbledon's spate of giant-killings as last year's runner-up suffered a shock second-round exit against Russian world number 62 Kamilla Rakhimova on Wednesday.
Just 12 months after her run to the All England Club final, Paolini followed a host of highly-ranked seeds out of the grass-court Grand Slam.
The Italian fourth seed, beaten by Barbora Krejcikova in the 2024 Wimbledon title match, slumped to a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 loss in two hours and 18 minutes on Court Three.
After reaching the French Open and Wimbledon finals last year, Paolini has failed to make the quarter-finals in each of her last four Grand Slam appearances, although she won the Roland Garros doubles crown with partner Sara Errani in June.
The 29-year-old's defeat against Rakhimova means four of the top five seeds in the women's singles have been eliminated just three days into the event.
Second seed Coco Gauff, third seed Jessica Pegula and fifth seed Zheng Qinwen were beaten in the first round.
World number one Aryna Sabalenka is the last of the top five seeds remaining after her win against Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic in the second round on Wednesday.
'Honestly, it is sad to see so many upsets in the tournament in both draws,' Sabalenka said. 'But I know if I'm focused, if I'm fighting, I know I'm going to have my chance in each match. I hope it is no upsets anymore in this tournament, if you know what I mean!'
Alcaraz avoids another headache
Carlos Alcaraz spoiled Oliver Tarvet's Wimbledon adventure as the defending champion moved into the third round with a 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 win over the British amateur.
A record-breaking number of seeds crashed out at the All England Club in the first round and Alcaraz was lucky not to join them after a five-set test of his own against Fabio Fognini.
But he needed only two hours and 17 minutes to subdue world number 733 Tarvet, who produced flashes of his emerging talent to delight the partisan crowd.
Alcaraz has won his past 20 matches since losing to Holger Rune in the Barcelona final in April, a blistering streak that has brought him titles at the Rome Masters, the French Open and Queen's Club.
The 22-year-old Spaniard, who fought back from two sets down to beat Jannik Sinner on clay in an epic final at Roland Garros last month, has won 31 of his 34 Tour-level matches on grass.
His last defeat at Wimbledon came against Sinner in the fourth round in 2022. Having vanquished Novak Djokovic in the past two Wimbledon finals, Alcaraz is looking to join an elite group of Wimbledon icons.
The world number two hopes to become the fifth man in the Open Era to win at least three consecutive Wimbledon titles after seven-time champion Djokovic, Bjorn Borg, Roger Federer and Pete Sampras.
In stark contrast to Alcaraz's fame and fortune, the unheralded Tarvet is just starting his tennis career and cannot even collect all of his Wimbledon prize money.
As a student of the University of San Diego, the 21-year-old has to maintain amateur status and will have to give up most of his earnings.
While Alcaraz is a five-time Grand Slam champion, Tarvet was playing just his second major main draw match after coming through three qualifiers and beating Leandro Riedi in the opening round.
- with AFP
Originally published as Wild mix of celebs in Wimbledon royal box blows minds: 'For the ages'
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The 29-year-old was still struggling afterwards, bending over with hands on knees before the tears started flowing at the back of the court as she faced the last two games of her reign. "I was actually feeling worse and worse," said Krejcikova, the 17th seed who'll now crash out of the top 70 in the WTA rankings. "It's very sad for me and very unfortunate." Eleventh seed and 2022 champion Rybakina, unusually error-prone, had earlier suffered a rain-delayed 7-6 (8-6) 6-3 defeat to the ever improving 22-year-old Dane, Clara Tauson. Not since Serena Williams won the crown for the seventh and final time in 2016 has a former champion triumphed in the women's event. So this year's winner will be the ninth different victor in nine years, the longest such sequence in the Championships' venerable history. Since Williams last triumphed, the winners have been Garbine Muguruza (2017), Angelique Kerber (2018), Simona Halep (2019), Ash Barty (2021), Rybakina (2022), Marketa Vondrousova (2023) and then Krejcikova. Tauson's reward for the best win of her career is a last-16 meeting with Swiatek, who's looking increasingly impressive on grass with her latest 6-2 6-3 victory over Danielle Collins. Andreeva will meet 10th seed Navarro after she eased past American world No.55 Hailey Baptiste 6-1 6-3 victory under the No.1 Court roof. The 18-year-old is now the highest seed left in the women's draw after Sabalenka. Australian Daria Kasatkina's conqueror Liudmila Samsonova launched one serve at 128mph in her 6-2 6-3 victory, just fractionally short of the Wimbledon women's record of 129mph, set by Venus Williams in 2008. She'll next meet Spain's Jessica Bouzas Maneiro who beat Ukraine's Dayana Yastremska, the conqueror of Coco Gauff, 6-1 2-6 6-3. Belinda Bencic came from a break down in the third set against Elisabetta Cocciaretto to win the second-longest women's match of this year's Wimbledon, progressing 6-4 3-6 7-6 [10-7] in two hours and 58 minutes. Former Olympic champion Bencic will play Russian 18th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova - a straight-sets victor against Zeynep Sonmez - in round four. The name of a new women's Wimbledon champion will be inscribed on the Venus Rosewater Dish for the eighth successive tournament after defending champion Barbora Krejcikova and 2022 winner Elena Rybakina both crashed out. The last two Wimbledon champs standing in the women's draw got eliminated in the third round on Saturday, with the draw opening up even more kindly for the top seed Aryna Sabalenka, five-time grand slam winner Iga Swiatek and teen sensation Mirra Andreeva. Krejcikova's reign ended sadly for the Czech ace as she had to have her blood pressure taken on court during a medical timeout, feeling dizzy and ill in the deciding set of her 2-6 6-3 6-4 defeat against 10th seed Emma Navarro. The 29-year-old was still struggling afterwards, bending over with hands on knees before the tears started flowing at the back of the court as she faced the last two games of her reign. "I was actually feeling worse and worse," said Krejcikova, the 17th seed who'll now crash out of the top 70 in the WTA rankings. "It's very sad for me and very unfortunate." Eleventh seed and 2022 champion Rybakina, unusually error-prone, had earlier suffered a rain-delayed 7-6 (8-6) 6-3 defeat to the ever improving 22-year-old Dane, Clara Tauson. Not since Serena Williams won the crown for the seventh and final time in 2016 has a former champion triumphed in the women's event. So this year's winner will be the ninth different victor in nine years, the longest such sequence in the Championships' venerable history. Since Williams last triumphed, the winners have been Garbine Muguruza (2017), Angelique Kerber (2018), Simona Halep (2019), Ash Barty (2021), Rybakina (2022), Marketa Vondrousova (2023) and then Krejcikova. Tauson's reward for the best win of her career is a last-16 meeting with Swiatek, who's looking increasingly impressive on grass with her latest 6-2 6-3 victory over Danielle Collins. Andreeva will meet 10th seed Navarro after she eased past American world No.55 Hailey Baptiste 6-1 6-3 victory under the No.1 Court roof. The 18-year-old is now the highest seed left in the women's draw after Sabalenka. Australian Daria Kasatkina's conqueror Liudmila Samsonova launched one serve at 128mph in her 6-2 6-3 victory, just fractionally short of the Wimbledon women's record of 129mph, set by Venus Williams in 2008. 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Krejcikova's reign ended sadly for the Czech ace as she had to have her blood pressure taken on court during a medical timeout, feeling dizzy and ill in the deciding set of her 2-6 6-3 6-4 defeat against 10th seed Emma Navarro. The 29-year-old was still struggling afterwards, bending over with hands on knees before the tears started flowing at the back of the court as she faced the last two games of her reign. "I was actually feeling worse and worse," said Krejcikova, the 17th seed who'll now crash out of the top 70 in the WTA rankings. "It's very sad for me and very unfortunate." Eleventh seed and 2022 champion Rybakina, unusually error-prone, had earlier suffered a rain-delayed 7-6 (8-6) 6-3 defeat to the ever improving 22-year-old Dane, Clara Tauson. Not since Serena Williams won the crown for the seventh and final time in 2016 has a former champion triumphed in the women's event. So this year's winner will be the ninth different victor in nine years, the longest such sequence in the Championships' venerable history. Since Williams last triumphed, the winners have been Garbine Muguruza (2017), Angelique Kerber (2018), Simona Halep (2019), Ash Barty (2021), Rybakina (2022), Marketa Vondrousova (2023) and then Krejcikova. Tauson's reward for the best win of her career is a last-16 meeting with Swiatek, who's looking increasingly impressive on grass with her latest 6-2 6-3 victory over Danielle Collins. Andreeva will meet 10th seed Navarro after she eased past American world No.55 Hailey Baptiste 6-1 6-3 victory under the No.1 Court roof. The 18-year-old is now the highest seed left in the women's draw after Sabalenka. Australian Daria Kasatkina's conqueror Liudmila Samsonova launched one serve at 128mph in her 6-2 6-3 victory, just fractionally short of the Wimbledon women's record of 129mph, set by Venus Williams in 2008. She'll next meet Spain's Jessica Bouzas Maneiro who beat Ukraine's Dayana Yastremska, the conqueror of Coco Gauff, 6-1 2-6 6-3. Belinda Bencic came from a break down in the third set against Elisabetta Cocciaretto to win the second-longest women's match of this year's Wimbledon, progressing 6-4 3-6 7-6 [10-7] in two hours and 58 minutes. Former Olympic champion Bencic will play Russian 18th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova - a straight-sets victor against Zeynep Sonmez - in round four.
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The grass was different. "But I enjoyed it so much watching Roger play. I never played against him in an official match. But in the other way, how they played, it was amazing. "About the games lost, this is whatever. I'm not looking at these kind of records. I know that everything can change very quickly from one round to the other." The world No.1 is yet to have his serve broken, has faced just eight break points and has spent only five hours and 23 minutes on court so far, which is six minutes less than his French Open final defeat by Carlos Alcaraz last month. However, the players he has faced to date are ranked 95, 93 and 52 with little experience at the All England Club. He now meets a Wimbledon veteran, former semi-finalist and 19th seed Grigor Dimitrov. It is, though, 11 years since the Bulgarian reached the last four and he has not made a quarter-final here since. Dimitrov has retired from matches through injury at the last three grand slams but looks fit enough now and reached the fourth round with a 6-3 6-4 7-6 (7-0) win over Austria's Sebastian Ofner. The Italian renaissance continued with 22nd-seed Flavio Cobolli dispatching Czech 15th seed Jakub Mensik 6-2 6-4 6-2, and he'll next face Croatia's 36-year-old former finalist Marin Cilic, who continued his own revival after multiple knee surgeries with a 6-3 3-6 6-2 6-4 victory over Spain's Jaume Munar. A third Italian man in the last-16 will be Lorenzo Sonego, who finally prevailed in the longest epic of the championships after five hours and four minutes, defeating American Brandon Nakashima 6-7 (5-7) 7-6 (12-10) 7-6 (7-2) 3-6 7-6 (12-10). He'll play another American in the last-16 in the shape of big-serving left-hander Ben Shelton, who beat lucky loser Marton Fucsovics 6-3 7-6 (7-4) 6-2. Jannik Sinner has maintained his ruthless progress towards a first Wimbledon final, consigning Pedro Martinez to the same merciless fate that Luca Nardi and Australian Aleksandar Vukic suffered in the opening two rounds. Sinner beat the Spaniard 6-2 6-3 6-1 in Saturday's third round, bringing to just 17 the number of games he has conceded in three matches during which he hasn't conceded a set. That is the smoothest start to a Wimbledon men's singles in the Open era, eclipsing Roger Federer, the sainted darling of Centre Court, who had lost 19 games at this stage in 2004. Jan Kodes, a semi-finalist in 1972, also lost 17 games, but the Czech also lost a set, and was one-set all in the opening round against Pato Rodriguez. Sinner, who has barely broken sweat, even during the heatwave start to the championships, said of Federer: "I watched matches of him and the classics, the all-time classics. "The tennis was a little bit different in a way of more serve and volleys back in the days. The grass was different. "But I enjoyed it so much watching Roger play. I never played against him in an official match. But in the other way, how they played, it was amazing. "About the games lost, this is whatever. I'm not looking at these kind of records. I know that everything can change very quickly from one round to the other." The world No.1 is yet to have his serve broken, has faced just eight break points and has spent only five hours and 23 minutes on court so far, which is six minutes less than his French Open final defeat by Carlos Alcaraz last month. However, the players he has faced to date are ranked 95, 93 and 52 with little experience at the All England Club. He now meets a Wimbledon veteran, former semi-finalist and 19th seed Grigor Dimitrov. It is, though, 11 years since the Bulgarian reached the last four and he has not made a quarter-final here since. Dimitrov has retired from matches through injury at the last three grand slams but looks fit enough now and reached the fourth round with a 6-3 6-4 7-6 (7-0) win over Austria's Sebastian Ofner. The Italian renaissance continued with 22nd-seed Flavio Cobolli dispatching Czech 15th seed Jakub Mensik 6-2 6-4 6-2, and he'll next face Croatia's 36-year-old former finalist Marin Cilic, who continued his own revival after multiple knee surgeries with a 6-3 3-6 6-2 6-4 victory over Spain's Jaume Munar. A third Italian man in the last-16 will be Lorenzo Sonego, who finally prevailed in the longest epic of the championships after five hours and four minutes, defeating American Brandon Nakashima 6-7 (5-7) 7-6 (12-10) 7-6 (7-2) 3-6 7-6 (12-10). He'll play another American in the last-16 in the shape of big-serving left-hander Ben Shelton, who beat lucky loser Marton Fucsovics 6-3 7-6 (7-4) 6-2. Jannik Sinner has maintained his ruthless progress towards a first Wimbledon final, consigning Pedro Martinez to the same merciless fate that Luca Nardi and Australian Aleksandar Vukic suffered in the opening two rounds. Sinner beat the Spaniard 6-2 6-3 6-1 in Saturday's third round, bringing to just 17 the number of games he has conceded in three matches during which he hasn't conceded a set. That is the smoothest start to a Wimbledon men's singles in the Open era, eclipsing Roger Federer, the sainted darling of Centre Court, who had lost 19 games at this stage in 2004. Jan Kodes, a semi-finalist in 1972, also lost 17 games, but the Czech also lost a set, and was one-set all in the opening round against Pato Rodriguez. Sinner, who has barely broken sweat, even during the heatwave start to the championships, said of Federer: "I watched matches of him and the classics, the all-time classics. "The tennis was a little bit different in a way of more serve and volleys back in the days. The grass was different. "But I enjoyed it so much watching Roger play. I never played against him in an official match. But in the other way, how they played, it was amazing. "About the games lost, this is whatever. I'm not looking at these kind of records. I know that everything can change very quickly from one round to the other." The world No.1 is yet to have his serve broken, has faced just eight break points and has spent only five hours and 23 minutes on court so far, which is six minutes less than his French Open final defeat by Carlos Alcaraz last month. However, the players he has faced to date are ranked 95, 93 and 52 with little experience at the All England Club. He now meets a Wimbledon veteran, former semi-finalist and 19th seed Grigor Dimitrov. It is, though, 11 years since the Bulgarian reached the last four and he has not made a quarter-final here since. Dimitrov has retired from matches through injury at the last three grand slams but looks fit enough now and reached the fourth round with a 6-3 6-4 7-6 (7-0) win over Austria's Sebastian Ofner. The Italian renaissance continued with 22nd-seed Flavio Cobolli dispatching Czech 15th seed Jakub Mensik 6-2 6-4 6-2, and he'll next face Croatia's 36-year-old former finalist Marin Cilic, who continued his own revival after multiple knee surgeries with a 6-3 3-6 6-2 6-4 victory over Spain's Jaume Munar. A third Italian man in the last-16 will be Lorenzo Sonego, who finally prevailed in the longest epic of the championships after five hours and four minutes, defeating American Brandon Nakashima 6-7 (5-7) 7-6 (12-10) 7-6 (7-2) 3-6 7-6 (12-10). He'll play another American in the last-16 in the shape of big-serving left-hander Ben Shelton, who beat lucky loser Marton Fucsovics 6-3 7-6 (7-4) 6-2. Jannik Sinner has maintained his ruthless progress towards a first Wimbledon final, consigning Pedro Martinez to the same merciless fate that Luca Nardi and Australian Aleksandar Vukic suffered in the opening two rounds. Sinner beat the Spaniard 6-2 6-3 6-1 in Saturday's third round, bringing to just 17 the number of games he has conceded in three matches during which he hasn't conceded a set. That is the smoothest start to a Wimbledon men's singles in the Open era, eclipsing Roger Federer, the sainted darling of Centre Court, who had lost 19 games at this stage in 2004. Jan Kodes, a semi-finalist in 1972, also lost 17 games, but the Czech also lost a set, and was one-set all in the opening round against Pato Rodriguez. Sinner, who has barely broken sweat, even during the heatwave start to the championships, said of Federer: "I watched matches of him and the classics, the all-time classics. "The tennis was a little bit different in a way of more serve and volleys back in the days. The grass was different. "But I enjoyed it so much watching Roger play. I never played against him in an official match. But in the other way, how they played, it was amazing. "About the games lost, this is whatever. I'm not looking at these kind of records. I know that everything can change very quickly from one round to the other." The world No.1 is yet to have his serve broken, has faced just eight break points and has spent only five hours and 23 minutes on court so far, which is six minutes less than his French Open final defeat by Carlos Alcaraz last month. However, the players he has faced to date are ranked 95, 93 and 52 with little experience at the All England Club. He now meets a Wimbledon veteran, former semi-finalist and 19th seed Grigor Dimitrov. It is, though, 11 years since the Bulgarian reached the last four and he has not made a quarter-final here since. Dimitrov has retired from matches through injury at the last three grand slams but looks fit enough now and reached the fourth round with a 6-3 6-4 7-6 (7-0) win over Austria's Sebastian Ofner. The Italian renaissance continued with 22nd-seed Flavio Cobolli dispatching Czech 15th seed Jakub Mensik 6-2 6-4 6-2, and he'll next face Croatia's 36-year-old former finalist Marin Cilic, who continued his own revival after multiple knee surgeries with a 6-3 3-6 6-2 6-4 victory over Spain's Jaume Munar. A third Italian man in the last-16 will be Lorenzo Sonego, who finally prevailed in the longest epic of the championships after five hours and four minutes, defeating American Brandon Nakashima 6-7 (5-7) 7-6 (12-10) 7-6 (7-2) 3-6 7-6 (12-10). He'll play another American in the last-16 in the shape of big-serving left-hander Ben Shelton, who beat lucky loser Marton Fucsovics 6-3 7-6 (7-4) 6-2.
