Finally, the sun has got his hat on! Although whether it is as natty as Carlos Alcaraz’s bucket – as noted earlier in the week’s diary – is a moot point worthy of a Jelena Ostapenko-esque line-call challenge. The first stint of fine weather has seen British success, with Liam Broady scoring a big win over Casper Ruud (Henman Hill, Murray Mount, Norrie Knoll … Broady Bump?) and celebrating in emulation of Jack Grealish.
Tsitsidosa fall head over heels
In what was surely music to the ears of Netflix’s Break Point producers, top players Stefanos Tsitsipas and Paula Badosa recently announced that they are besotted with each other. And by “announced” I mean: have posted about it on social media on the hour, every hour. They already have a couple name (Tsitsidosa – which probably gets harder to pronounce after a few Pimm’s) and were spotted very much in lurve by your intrepid reporter in the players’ lounge. Other hot SW19 couples include home favourite Katie Boulter and her beau Alex de Minaur.
Child’s Play for Murray
After the furore around the official Wimbledon poster art which, rather creepily, has the retrograde aesthetic of Enid Blyton book covers, and which omitted some key names, a fan called Luca Allievi has taken it upon himself to create AI-generated childhood images of players. No, I don’t know why either. There’s one of Andy Murray which is terrifying, resembling Chucky much more than it does Sir Andy. At the time of writing Murray is shortly to take on one half of Tsitsidosa. And if Andy wins, Paula will be waiting in the car park.
Korda tempts fate
Poor Seb Korda. The American who, at Queen’s two weeks ago, surprised everyone with the chutzpah of announcing himself “definitely one of the favourites” at this year’s Wimby – despite the fact a long-term injury lay-off has seen him produce barely anything of note for a while – was knocked out in the first round by a player ranked 528th in the world. Awks. Korda is a nice dude, and certainly talented, so although the schadenfreude would be strong with others, there has been sympathy. Well, some. I heard two people in a queue for snacks cackling with laughter about it. And later on in the loos, a woman summed up her thoughts on the matter in a succinct couple of words: “So cringe.”
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Another mis-hit from Starmer
Keir Starmer continues his trend of making needless interventions and pandering to the culture war bores by describing the Just Stop Oil protesters who smuggled confetti in a puzzle box – a sort of ingenious Trojan jigsaw attack – as “arrogant”. Starmer last year took £740 in hospitality from the tournament, and will likely be back again this year, so perhaps he is just worried about getting his suit covered in orange powder or pastel-coloured paper stuck in that quiff of his; a look which, to me, has always had the energy of a non-league footballer. No news yet on what Badosa makes of our LOTO’s words, but if she’s not happy? Car park.