Strawberry fields forever

DESPITE poor attendances during week one of the All England Championships, Wimbledon’s PR machine was in full swing last week offering up a variety of numbers to show how the event had created new viewing records.

A total of 25.5m people watched on BBC television as British No.1 Cameron Norrie reached his first Grand Slam semi-final, losing to the eventual champion Novak Djokovic.

And US audiences reported strong numbers through ESPN, with the Ladies’ Singles Final averaging 1.2m viewers. The Mens’ Singles Final averaged 2.2m viewers.

Over the 14 days 515,164 people attended the tournament.

Wimbledon also added a just over a million social media followers during the event.

Merchandise sales were also reported to be good, with more than 50,000 towels and over 20,000 tennis balls sold.

In total 460,670 items of merchandise were sold.

And 50 tonnes of strawberries were consumed – at £2.50 a portion!

For the first time, Wimbledon took an a new experience of the event overseas – to New York.

6,000 fans visited the last three days of The Championships in Brooklyn Bridge Park.

And on Middle Sunday 1,300 refugees from Ukraine, Syria and Afghanistan who have settled locally, were invited to attend.

BLAST FROM THE PAST

Rafa Nadal’s first appearance at Wimbledon in 2003.

WIMBLEDON STATS

• Across The Championships, in all events including the Qualifying Competition, 142,448 points were contested, during 23,148 games, with 927 matches played.
• The 100th ace served on Centre Court this Championships was by Andy Murray in his match against John Isner.
• John Isner hit his 13,729th ace during Wimbledon against Jannik Sinner, breaking the all-time ATP record for career aces and seizing the record from Croatian Ivo Karlovic.
• There were 22 left-handers competing in the Gentlemen’s Singles this year – the most left-handers to compete in the Gentlemen’s Singles at Wimbledon since 1997 when there were 26.
• Liam Broady lost 11 games in a row against Diego Schwartzman and yet still managed to win the match – this has only ever happened twice since IBM records began.
• Elena Rybakina served 53 aces at this year’s Championships – the most of all competitors in the Ladies’ Singles.
• The longest rally in the Gentlemen’s Singles was 40 shots long, in the second round, between Tommy Paul and Adrian Mannarino. This ranks joint third for the longest rallies in Gentlemen’s Singles at Wimbledon since IBM records began.

THE Russian Tennis Federation was quick to claim Elena Rybakina as “our product” on her run to the women’s title at Wimbledon.

They then praised her training program in the country after she won the Venus Rosewater Dish as Wimbledon champion while representing Kazakhstan.

“It’s the Russian school, after all. She played here with us for a long time, and then in Kazakhstan,” Russian Tennis Federation president Shamil Tarpishchev told sports website Championat after Rybakina beat Ons Jabeur 3-6, 6-2, 6-2.

The 23-year-old Rybakina was born in Moscow and played in the Russian system until 2018, when financial issues led to her switch.

There’s been no official reaction from the Kremlin on Rybakina’s Wimbledon success, but some commentators have claimed her victory as a Russian achievement and a symbolic snub to the All England Club’s ban on players representing Russia and Belarus.

OUR WTF MOMENT…

What was young British royal Prince George upset about the men’s singles final at Wimbledon last Sunday?

According to London’s Sky News, he said: It’s too hot,” to dad, Prince William.

William replied: “Oh you’re hot, are you? It’s very warm today. It’ll be fine.”

Mum, the Duchess of Cambridge, then comforted her son, telling him how lucky they were to have been offered seats in the shade, as temperatures rewched 28 degrees.

DAYS after Rybakina won the ladies singles final, Wimbledon officials are considering a ban on Russian and Belarusian players for next year’s tournament.

Newly-crowned Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina dismissed Russian claims that she was its “product” as she received a hero’s welcome in Kazakhstan, which she represented at the tennis tournament.

Russia appeared to claim her Grand Slam success when Russian tennis chief Shamil Tarpischev described Elena Rybakina as “our product” but she hit back saying she wasn’t.

Rybakina was born and raised in Moscow and her family still live there.

With the British government heavily involved in the decision, the All England Club will not make a decision until early next year

YOU can’t keep her out of the news – Serena Williams is officially on the player entry list for the National Bank Open in Toronto next month.

After posing in Athens last week with her family on a European holiday, Williams looks like using the Toronto event as a warm-up for the US Open. She currently has protected ranking, allowing her to enter the tournament.

Williams, 40, has previously won the Toronto tournament three times, making the final in 2019.

RUSSIAN Aslan Karatsev has claimed he was unaware of match-fixing allegations made against him recently, as German TV ZDF reported that Karatsev and Nikoloz Basilashvili were under investigation for possible match-fixing.

Belarusian coach Yegor Yatsyk, who has worked with both Karatsev and Basilashvili, was reported as the key person of interest in the ZDF report.

“I haven’t heard anything about it. I don’t know what you are talking about,” Karatsev told Russian publication Metaratings.

NICK Kyrgios is set to make millions from a fly-on-the-wall Netflix documentary about his Wimbledon run.

The Aussie is understood to have signed a lucrative deal with the streaming giant before the tournament.

And to the delight of Netflix, the documentary will focus on the final when he was beaten by Novak Djokovic.

The Netflix crew even followed Kyrgios to his post-match party at London nightclub Wyld, where he apparently drowned his sorrows with friends, girlfriend Costeen Hatzi and his sister Halimah.

AND FINALLY…

Congratulations to former World No.1 Maria Sharapova, who announced the birth of her first child on Friday, a son, Theodore. 

“The most beautiful, challenging, and rewarding gift our little family could ask for,” Sharapova posted, along with a photo with Theodore and her fiancé, Alexander Gilkes.

She also posted the Roman numerals “VII•I•MMXXII,” marking Theodore’s date of birth as July 1.