Anyone for tennis? Sorry, but we’re off to watch the boys in red
SOME of the world’s great players may have been sweating it out on court in temperatures of 88F (31C), but tennis played second fiddle to football at Wimbledon yesterday.
As the number two seed Rafael Nadal battled Australian Alex De Minaur on Centre Court, hundreds of spectators poured out of the grounds of the All England Lawn Tennis Club.
Their destination? Wimbledon village, 15 minutes’ walk away, where England’s game against Sweden was being shown at pubs and restaurants.
Hundreds queued for pass-out wrist bands, allowing them re-entry to watch Kyle Edmund, the British number one, take on three-times Wimbledon winner Novak Djokovic.
Nick Luen, 23, a technical support officer, said: “Wimbledon is every year, but we’ve never seen England with a chance of reaching the semis of a World Cup in our lifetime. That had to come first.” His friend Amy Rolls, 24, an assistant psychologist, added: “We had to leave to watch the game. We couldn’t have missed it.”
Centre Court largely emptied after Nadal’s match, as even those with prized show court tickets could not resist the temptation to abandon the tennis and returning later. Monty Parker, 28, and his girlfriend Alex Mahon, 29, had Centre Court tickets but left to watch the England game. “There was no discussion. This is what we’re doing and that’s that,” said Ms Mahon.
On Henman Hill, dozens kept an eye on the England game with mobile phones and tablets, taking advantage of the club’s Wi-Fi, while the day’s tennis was shown on the giant screen in front of them.