Wimbledon diary: Petra Kvitova takes the mic and Alexandra Eala flies the flag
She then took her last chance to usurp the moderator of her final post-match Wimbledon press conference, taking control of the loudspeaker to introduce her own media access to the journalists by announcing: 'I'm Petra Kvitova, and this is my last press conference here.'
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Twenty-year-old Alexandra Eala made her Wimbledon Centre Court debut when facing reigning women's singles champion Barbora Krejcikova in the first round.
The Filipino ensured the flag was flown for her nation not only via her performance – a gallant loss having taken the first set – but also through a unique accessory provided by sponsors Nike.
Eala wore a hairband shaped into the form of the sampaguita, the national flower of the Philippines, in a box that was printed with the Filipino proverb 'kung may tinanim, may aanihin' – 'if you plant, you will harvest'.
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Australian actress Cate Blanchett, star of The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, was in attendance alongside compatriot Rebel Wilson, known for her roles in Pitch Perfect and Bridesmaids.
New Zealander Russell Crowe was also present in the Royal Box, with the star of Gladiator and Les Miserables joined by his fiancee and fellow actor Britney Theriot.
From the same industry was Sarah Lancashire, beloved for her roles in Happy Valley and The Last Tango in Halifax, whereas from the sporting world golfer Justin Rose was joined by his wife Kate.
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'Would I want to play three-out-of-five? No. I would rather the men play two-out-of-three. I don't think we all need to start playing three-out-of-five. I personally will not watch a full five-hour match. People can't even hold their attention long enough they say these days with phones. How are they holding their attention for five hours? ' – Jessica Pegula when asked if women would switch to a best-of-five format.
You're very welcome, it was nothing! I hope your mum is doing well. Send her a kiss from me and take good care of her! ❤️
— Carlos Alcaraz (@carlosalcaraz) July 1, 2025
Emma Raducanu's second-round clash with Marketa Vondrousova will be a real draw on day three as two former grand slam winners meet at a relatively early stage in the tournament.
Raducanu won the US Open aged just 18, prior to which she made her main-draw Wimbledon debut during the same season and defeated Vondrousova in a memorable match on her way to the third round.
Vondrousova, who would go on to win Wimbledon in 2023, comes into their tie in good grass form having taken the Berlin Open earlier this month and will be hoping to turn the tables on the British star.
Cloudy changing to light rain by late morning with a maximum temperature of 26C, according to the Met Office.
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The Guardian
11 minutes ago
- The Guardian
‘A young fella like me doesn't want to make traditional paintings': how Indigenous art swept the UK
Seemingly out of nowhere, Indigenous art is everywhere. We've gone decades – centuries, really – in this country with barely any exhibitions dedicated to the work of Indigenous artists, but recently, everything's changed. Galleries, museums and institutions across the UK are hosting shows by artists from communities in South America, Australia, the US and Europe at an unprecedented rate. Tate Modern in London is putting on its first-ever major solo show by a First Nation Australian artist in July, with a Sámi artist from Norway taking over the Turbine Hall in October. There are shows by Native American artists at Camden Art Centre in London and Edinburgh's Fruitmarket Gallery, while painters and weavers from the Amazon and Argentina are coming to Manchester's Whitworth and Bexhill-on-Sea's De La Warr Pavilion. This explosion in attention is at least partly thanks to the 2024 Venice Biennale. The most recent edition of the art world's ultimate taste-making event was a big, bold celebration of Indigenous art on a scale most western audiences had never encountered before. It was, quite appropriately and relatively humorously, called Foreigners Everywhere. The usual Jeff Koons-ian glitz, hazy figuration, hyper-academic conceptualism and postmodern abstraction of the contemporary art world was swapped for tapestries from South America, mythological drawings from northern Canada and swirling, mesmerising paintings from rural Australia. One Golden Lion, the Biennale's top prize, was awarded to Kamilaroi/Bigambul Australian artist Archie Moore, who created a dizzyingly celestial family tree, detailing 65,000 years of ancestry in chalk on black walls – a near endless journey through familial time and space. The other Golden Lion went to Mataaho Collective, a group of Māori women from New Zealand, for an installation of crisscrossing strands of fabric straps that cast interlocking shadows as you entered the main exhibition. Arguably the greatest accolades in art, both awarded to Indigenous artists. Which isn't to say that all of this attention and praise is a totally new phenomenon. 'Australian First Nations' art has been receiving international attention for decades and is no longer considered just a niche market or as specialised art,' says Kelli Cole, a Warumungu and Luritja curator who's organising Tate Modern's big summer celebration of the art of the late Emily Kam Kngwarray. Aboriginal art and its distinctive dot painting-style first started making waves in the wider art world in the 1970s, and has steadily grown in popularity – and acceptance – ever since. Kngwarray's huge, seemingly abstract paintings and textiles (also currently on display in a smaller exhibition at Pace Gallery in London) have all the hallmarks of what audiences associate with Aboriginal art: dots and lines in bright whites, earthy ochres and sun-drenched yellows, intersecting and weaving together to create dreamy, hallucinatory visions of wide open terrain and ancestral lands, or what Aboriginal people call 'Country'. For a lot of viewers, part of the appeal of Aboriginal art is the superficial similarities to western abstraction, but the work has deeper meaning. 'The dot painting style is a sophisticated visual language derived from Country. It's a practice informed by generations of deep knowledge, designed to communicate vital information,' says Cole. 'For First Nations people, Country is not just land; it's a living entity, encompassing spiritual, social and geographical origins, inextricably linked to identity and responsibility. Artists like Kngwarray visually articulate this profound connection, inviting global audiences to understand art not as detached objects, but as expressions of custodianship, belonging and a continuous reciprocal relationship with ancestral lands.' Younger Indigenous Australian artists, however, have moved away from the more traditional approach of painters such as Kngwarray. 'I have a lot of respect for the old people – their strong culture, their knowledge and their art – but a young fella like me doesn't want to make traditional paintings,' says Vincent Namatjira, a Western Aranda artist whose satirical, political approach to portraiture has seen him receive both praise (he was the first Indigenous winner of the Archibald prize for Australian portraiture) and a hefty amount of controversy. He comes from a long line of artists – his great-grandfather was the hugely influential watercolourist Albert Namatjira – and uses his joyful, colourful portraits to lampoon the wealthy and powerful, taking aim at British royalty, Captain Cook and Australian billionaires (one of whom, mining magnate Gina Rinehart, tried to have his 'unflattering' portrait of her removed from an exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia last year and 'permanently disposed of'). Namatjira also uses his work to celebrate important figures in his community. 'For me, portraying these Indigenous heroes is about equal recognition. I want to make sure that Indigenous leaders are properly recognised and acknowledged. My three daughters are all growing up now and I want them, and other Aboriginal kids, to be able to see these strong examples of Indigenous leadership, to feel proud and empowered.' His political approach is one that resonates with a lot of Indigenous North American artists. Jaune Quick-to-See-Smith – a citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in Montana who died earlier this year – currently has a show at Stephen Friedman Gallery in London, and an exhibition due to open at Fruitmarket in Edinburgh in November. Her work combined pop appropriation, mixed-media modernism and Indigenous culture 'to remind viewers that Native Americans are still alive'. Duane Linklater, an Omaskêko Ininiwak artist from Ontario, Canada, with a show opening at Camden Art Centre this month, makes minimal installations intended to 'create space for Indigenous presence in every moment'. Art, for many Indigenous people, is a tool of resistance, and a way of affirming their existence. Claudia Alarcón is an Indigenous artist from the La Puntana community of Wichí people in northern Argentina, where she leads a collective called Silät, bringing together 100 female weavers to create colourful tapestries filled with references to animals and nature. There are footprints, eyes, trees, all arranged into stunning, abstract geometric compositions. Their work is on show at Cecilia Brunson Projects in London and the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill. 'We chose the name Silät because it is a word in our language which can be translated as 'message' or 'announcement',' she says. 'For us, it is a message of presence. It is a manifestation, like a whisper, of the strength of our knowledge. Our weavings are a proclamation that we continue to defend our memory, our territory, united. Indigenous existence is constantly under threat. We are walking a new path, telling new stories, but all of this is part of the long-standing defence of our culture, which is always present. Always.' Defence is important, because Indigenous lands are under critical threat from exploitative commercial parties, and also more widely from climate change. Santiago Yahuarcani – a leader of the Aimeni clan of the Uitoto in Peru whose exhibition at the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester opens this month – addresses that threat head-on in his work, with gorgeous, chaotic canvases that paint nature in a constant, violent battle with man, lamenting the brutal destruction of the Amazon, and calling desperately for change. It's an approach shared by Norwegian Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara, whose previous work has seen her place a pile of bloodstained, bullet-pierced reindeer skulls outside the Norwegian parliament. She will be taking on the Turbine Hall commission at Tate Modern in October. 'I fear the path we're currently walking globally, as a human species, is failing,' she says. 'The understanding that nature sustains life is fading from human consciousness. I'm trying to puncture the reality that we've been sold. I believe that Indigenous philosophy can offer collective strategies to protect life for the future; to rethink and re-understand our place within a larger system.' Lumping such an incredibly diverse array of artists into one big, sweeping 'Indigenous art' bracket is obviously problematic. But there are themes that connect these communities, and to an extent their art, around the world. 'I see myself as part of something larger. I know there are other groups, with other languages, who are my brothers and sisters, with whom we share a history of struggle, and also of pain,' says Alarcón. 'What matters most is to keep fighting for our rights and our memories, which are also the rights of our territory.' Whether in Norway, Peru, Canada or Australia, Indigenous artists are united not just by a shared connection to the land and its custodianship, but by having survived centuries of colonial subjugation, capitalist exploitation and ongoing climate annihilation. Proof of their endurance will be written across the walls of galleries across the UK this year, in powerful, political and often incredibly beautiful art.
Times
17 minutes ago
- Times
Gambling firms under pressure to ban users trolling tennis stars
A British tennis player has demanded betting companies take tougher action against users found to be social media trolls as she revealed gamblers pile on the abuse if they lose money on her match. Jodie Burrage said she could not face looking at her phone after losing her first-round Wimbledon match on Tuesday. 'It's tough and today I'm trying not to look at my phone,' she said after losing to Caty McNally, 23, in straight sets. 'It's not easy to deal with, but I do think there could be more being done. 'I think there should be way more accountability if you have an account on any platform. I think it's very simple to have someone's ID connected to their account and that would, I think, quickly stop what people write and make them more accountable.'
Leader Live
26 minutes ago
- Leader Live
Wimbledon ‘looks like bad Photoshop', says ex-top judge as AI replaces humans
Pauline Eyre, 58, from Finchley in north London, officiated at 16 Wimbledons between 1988 and 2003, serving on Centre and Court One during finals and high-profile matches including Goran Ivanisevic vs Andre Agassi and Serena vs Venus Williams. She told the PA news agency she initially supported the idea of AI line-calling – but changed her mind after watching it in action this week. 'When I first heard about it, I wasn't that bothered – I thought it might improve standards,' she said. 'But as I've been watching the matches, I've changed my mind completely. I think it's a terrible shame.' 'It looks like bad Photoshop – like they've removed an essential part of the furniture,' she said. 'Line judges are part of how Wimbledon looks.' She pointed to Jelena Ostapenko's match against Sonay Kartal on Monday, saying: 'Ostapenko turned around after being foot-faulted – whipped round to have a go – and there was nobody there. ' With the crowd noise on big courts, she said the absence of visual confirmation from a person adds to player confusion. 'Players are standing there saying: 'Was that in? Was that out?' You don't get the immediate reaction – the fist pump – because they don't know.' Ms Eyre added: 'The sadness for me is that sport should be about people. 'The best sportspeople are the ones who overcome adversity – pigeons, crowd noise, pressure. 'Line judges were bloody good at what they did. 'They're there for no other reason than to escort players on and off the court. 'They were always dressed like butlers and that's basically what they are now. 'So many of my friends have told me they are watching the tournament this week and just feel a deep sadness.' She said many of her former colleagues feel unacknowledged: 'I don't think Wimbledon fought hard for them. 'They were such a massive part of the tournament – and it doesn't feel like they were valued.' Despite the criticism, she said the tennis remains high quality: 'The sport is still wonderful. 'I've got used to them not being there – but I'm not happy about it.'
