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    The Royal Box: Who’s in Wimbledon’s Most Exclusive Seats?

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    The event’s most coveted seats are available only through invitation, reserved for celebrities and dignitaries. Here’s a look at who’s sitting in them.For tennis fans, Wimbledon is an annual highlight, one of the best opportunities to watch premier athletes compete in the sport. For celebrity watchers in Britain, it’s akin to the Super Bowl.The Grand Slam tournament at the All England Club in southwest London draws some of the globe’s biggest names in business, politics and entertainment. The most illustrious attendees are given the best seats in the house — the Royal Box.Entry to the oak-lined section at the south end of Centre Court is by invitation only and is reserved for guests from the royal family, tennis stars, and “individuals of distinction and others who in various ways contribute to the betterment of our lives and society,” according to Robert McNicol, the historian for the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, which hosts the event. The box, which seats around 80 people, comes with rules, however, including a strict dress code. “Smart” attire is required, with a suit and tie for men and an “afternoon dress” or “elegant trouser suit” for women. Women are asked not to wear hats, as they can block the view for other guests.The coveted seats also come with an elaborate lunch. The menu this week included poached native Cornish lobster tail and spiced lamb cannon, sourced from a herd of Herdwick sheep originally owned by Beatrix Potter, the author of “The Tale of Peter Rabbit.”Here’s a look at some of the celebrities and dignitaries who have graced the Royal Box this week:Toby Melville/ReutersCate Blanchett, who played Queen Elizabeth I in the 1998 period drama “Elizabeth,” attended with her mother, June, on Tuesday.Isabel Infantes/ReutersOlivia Rodrigo, fresh from headlining the Glastonbury music festival, stopped by on Wednesday with her boyfriend, the English actor Louis Partridge.Toby Melville/ReutersThe Australian actor Russell Crowe, who recently signed on for a reboot of the film “Highlander,” about an immortal Scottish warrior, made an appearance Tuesday.Hannah Peters/Getty ImagesMr. Crowe’s fellow Australian, the actor Rebel Wilson, also scored a seat on Tuesday.Clive Brunskill/Getty ImagesDave Grohl — the Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters frontman — attended with his wife, Jordyn Blum, on Wednesday, months after he announced that he had a child outside his marriage.Kirsty Wigglesworth/Associated PressThe Indian actress Priyanka Chopra and her husband, the singer Nick Jonas, found their seats Wednesday.Isabel Infantes/ReutersThe actor and professional wrestler John Cena and his wife, Shay Shariatzadeh, were in the box Wednesday.Alastair Grant/Associated PressMembers of the royal family also attended on Monday, including Princess Beatrice of York and Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, in her first appearance in the box in more than 20 years, according to the British news media.Stephanie Lecocq/ReutersA number of British athletes were also spotted this week, including the recently knighted David Beckham. More

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      Wimbledon: In 1975, Arthur Ashe Made His Point

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      He won Wimbledon over the favored Jimmy Connors, who was not only suing the ATP, but also Ashe himself.Two nights before he played one of the most important tennis matches of his life, Arthur Ashe had dinner with three of his best friends.It was in London in 1975, and Ashe was scheduled to play Jimmy Connors, the defending champion and world No. 1, in the Wimbledon final on Saturday. Ashe chose the Playboy Club, where the foursome could sit undisturbed at a table in the back.That Thursday night, Ashe, Donald Dell, his attorney and manager, Charlie Pasarell and Freddie McNair, both players and friends of Ashe, exchanged pleasantries and then got down to business. They devised a game plan to disrupt Connors, shake up his rhythm and allow Ashe to control points rather than be controlled by an opponent nearly 10 years his junior. It was all antithetical to the big serving, groundstroke-pounding, sometimes reckless style Ashe was accustomed to playing.“We told him, ‘Arthur, this is what you need to do,’” Pasarell, now 81, who first met Ashe at the Orange Bowl junior championships when the two were teenagers, said by phone this month.“First, he would serve out wide to Jimmy’s two-handed backhand to pull him off the court. Then he would step in, hit a short ball with little pace to Jimmy’s forehand. Giving dinks and junk to Jimmy would give him fits. All that worked especially well on grass where the ball would skid.”The next morning, Dell, who was staying at the same hotel as Ashe, grabbed an envelope from the front desk and wrote on the back the three key points they had discussed the night before, including Ashe’s liberal use of the lob whenever Connors would crowd the net. He left the note in Ashe’s hotel mailbox.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Wimbledon: The Advantages of Attacking the Net in Tennis

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      Analysts said it was a strategy that few employ, but that it could improve players’ games if they mastered the shot.Tennis is dominated by rallies from the baselines as players with supercharged groundstrokes try to overwhelm their opponents by blasting shots that are fast, deep and heavy with topspin, occasionally throwing in a drop shot to throw them off balance.As a result, players attack the net less frequently than they did in the past.“The ball is being struck so hard with so much topspin it gets below the net really quickly, which makes it hard to volley,” the ESPN analyst Patrick McEnroe said.But players who take advantage of short balls from their opponents to fight their way forward can seize control, winning points more quickly than those who stay at the baseline.Ask top tennis analysts to name the elite volleyers in the sport and there’s little debate on who’s best: Carlos Alcaraz — the recent winner of the French Open and defending two-time Wimbledon champion — is the unanimous choice.McEnroe said that Alcaraz “has the best combination of speed, explosiveness and soft hands.”Alcaraz’s footwork and agility also enable him to get back quickly and annihilate lobs, Pam Shriver, also an ESPN analyst, said. “His movement going backwards is incredible.”That ability to go backward well means he can move closer to the net, Martina Navratilova, a Tennis Channel analyst, said, which makes volleying easier, especially because he reads his opponents so well and can quickly cut off the lanes for passing shots. “He can push off to go back or explode forward.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      French Open: Aryna Sabalenka Wants to Win but Iga Swiatek Remains

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      Sabalenka has had success on clay, but Swiatek can be dominant.When Aryna Sabalenka was a teenager in Minsk, Belarus, she would have long conversations with her father, Sergey, a former Belarusian hockey player who introduced her to tennis when they drove by some empty local courts. They did not discuss specific results or rankings so much as aspirations. Sergey, Sabalenka has said, was anxious for her to win at least one major title before she turned 25.“We were just talking about goals and what I want and how big I want to go in the sport,” Sabalenka, 27, said in an interview during the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells in March. “We were having our chats, and it was, of course, his dream because he was the one pushing himself really hard to make sure that I stay there because it wasn’t something cheap back then in Belarus.”Sergey died suddenly in November 2019, more than three years before Sabalenka captured the first of her back-to-back Australian Open titles. In 2023, she defeated Elena Rybakina in the final and in 2024 she ousted Zheng Qinwen. She also won last year’s U.S. Open by beating Jessica Pegula.But Sabalenka, world ranked No. 1, has never won the French Open, which begins on Sunday, or Wimbledon, titles she covets most. The closest she has come at Roland Garros was a 7-6 (5), 6-7 (5), 7-5 semifinal loss to Karolina Muchova in 2023. Last year, while suffering from a stomach illness, she lost in the quarterfinals to Mirra Andreeva.At last year’s French Open, Sabalenka, suffering from a stomach illness, lost in the quarterfinals to Mirra Andreeva. She has won just three of her 20 career titles on clay.Dimitar Dilkoff/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesSabalenka has also missed two of the last three Wimbledons — she withdrew with a shoulder injury last year and was barred from playing in 2022 when Russians and Belarusians were prohibited because of Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Two years ago she lost to Ons Jabeur in the semifinals.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Tennis Was Once Ruled by Teenagers. Now, Not So Much.

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      Chris Evert, Steffi Graf, Bjorn Borg and Boris Becker grabbed the sport young. Today, it’s Joāo Fonseca and Mirra Andreeva.Wherever 18-year-old João Fonseca goes, he hears his name chanted as if he were akin to his countrymen, the Brazilian soccer stars Ronaldo, Pelé and Neymar. Mirra Andreeva, also 18, gets interview requests while she waits in line at a pharmacy in New York City.Teenage tennis prodigies used to be as common as gut tennis strings. Chris Evert was 16 when she reached her first U.S. Open semifinal in 1971. Steffi Graf was 17 when she captured the first of her six French championships. Monica Seles, Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, Martina Hingis and Maria Sharapova were all under 20 when they catapulted to fame.Bjorn Borg was 18 when he won the first of his six French Open titles in 1974. Boris Becker was 17 when he grabbed his first Wimbledon. Stefan Edberg, Pete Sampras, Michael Chang and Rafael Nadal were all teenagers when they won their first majors.Over the years, as the sport became more physical and endurance minded, necessitating more mature bodies, the tide changed. Equipment, fitness and nutritional advances have also allowed players to continue competing into their mid-30s. Forty-year-old Stan Wawrinka, for example, a three-time major winner, is playing in his 20th French Open, which begins on Sunday.Jakub Mensik, 19, is the only teenage man ranked in the ATP’s top 60.Aleksandra Szmigiel/ReutersThere is only one teenage man, Jakub Mensik, 19, of the Czech Republic, ranked in the ATP’s top 60 and only one teenage woman, the Russian Andreeva, who is ranked a career-high No. 6, in the WTA’s top 60. Fonseca is No. 65.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Australian Open: John Newcombe, Jimmy Connors and the 1975 Final

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      It was Newcombe’s home tournament, and for him, the No. 1-ranked Connors was the draw. Then the Australian won.John Newcombe never planned to play the 1975 Australian Open.At 30 years old, Newcombe was nearing retirement. He had played his home country’s major tournament almost every year since 1960, winning the championship in 1973 and reaching three other semifinals. He had also won Wimbledon three times and the U.S. Championships twice, as well as 16 Grand Slam doubles titles (he would add one more in 1976).This year’s Australian Open, which begins on Sunday in Melbourne, marks the 50th anniversary of one of the most important matches of Newcombe’s career.Newcombe was at home in Sydney when, in mid-December 1974, less than two weeks before the start of the ’75 Australian Open, he was informed by Tennis Australia, the tournament’s governing body, that Jimmy Connors, the defending champion, had entered the draw.Connors, 22 years old at the time and ranked No. 1 in the world, and Newcombe had been waging war with each other, on and off the court, since their first encounter in the quarterfinals of the 1973 U.S. Open. Newcombe won that match en route to the title.In his career, Newcombe won seven Grand Slam singles titles, including Wimbledon in 1970.GettyNewcombe was ranked No. 1 in 1970 and ’71, when rankings were determined by a group of journalists before the ATP established an official ranking system in 1973. He was also No. 1 briefly in 1974. Connors took over the top spot in ’74 when he won the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. He missed out on a chance for the Grand Slam — winning all four majors in a calendar year — that season when he was barred by the International Tennis Federation from playing the French Open because he had committed to playing World Team Tennis in the United States.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      The Young Talent of Tennis Takes Aim at the Established Stars

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      The top players still dominate, but many young players are expected to challenge them for the big trophies.Coming off a 2024 season of major breakthroughs — from 27-year-old Taylor Fritz cracking the top five to 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva breaking into the top 20 — the big question for 2025 is whether these rising stars can reach the most prestigious winners’ circles.The catch, of course, is that Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have won the last 10 men’s Grand Slams, the last three ATP Finals and half of the Masters 1000 titles in the last two years, while Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff have captured eight of the last 11 women’s Slams, the last two WTA Finals and 10 of the last 16 WTA 1000 titles.Taylor Fritz reached the U.S. Open final in 2024 and cracked the top five. Patrick McEnroe, an ESPN analyst, called Fritz “an amazing competitor,” but did not foresee him winning a Slam this year.Richard Wainwright/EPA, via Shutterstock“And it’s not like they’re going anywhere,” said Mary Joe Fernández, an ESPN analyst. Sinner is just 23 and Alcaraz is 21; while Sabalenka is 26, Swiatek is just 23 and Gauff is merely 20.“Players are knocking on the door and there is a tremendous excitement, but there are some question marks, too,” said Tracy Austin, a Tennis Channel analyst. “And now the question is whether they’ll be overwhelmed by the expectations.”Just a few years ago, those expectations were bestowed on Alexander Zverev, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Daniil Medvedev, said Patrick McEnroe, an ESPN analyst, but Medvedev is the only one of the three to have won a Slam — the U.S. Open in 2021 — and Tsitsipas has fallen from the top 10.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      In 2024, Tennis Was Busy With Action On and Off the Court

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      There were striking matches, coaching changes, and Novak Djokovic finally won his Olympic gold.Throughout much of the year, pro tennis players complained that the calendar was more overstuffed than their luggage following a weekslong tournament run and that the off-season was as slim as Sebastian Korda’s lanky frame.But as 2024 closes and thoughts move to the new season, which begins with the United Cup in Australia this month, the sport has seen several surprises in the last few weeks.Just as we were committing to memory some extraordinary matches this year — including Carlos Alcaraz’s five-set Roland Garros semifinal victory over Jannik Sinner; his final-round win over Sinner in Beijing that snapped Sinner’s 16-match win streak; Iga Swiatek’s third-set tiebreaker over Aryna Sabalenka in the final of Madrid; and Coco Gauff’s 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (2) win over Zheng Qinwen in the finals of the WTA Finals — there were even more upending developments off court.The most unexpected revelation was the news that Novak Djokovic, who split with his longtime coach Goran Ivanisevic in March and played largely coachless throughout the season, suddenly announced that he was adding Andy Murray to his coaching team at least through the Australian Open in January.Novak Djokovic changed coaches in 2024, leaving Goran Ivanisevic in March and recently announcing that he was adding Andy Murray to his coaching team.Karsten Moran for The New York TimesThe move dispelled any rumors that Djokovic, 37, who failed to win a major in 2024 for the first time since 2017 — but did capture a gold medal at the Paris Olympics over Alcaraz — is nearing retirement. It also delivered a message to his foes that Djokovic is aiming for a record-breaking 25th major in 2025.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Without Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Men’s Tennis Looks for New Faces

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      For the first time in decades, the ATP Finals will be played without either Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic. Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz are poised to take over.In mid-September, just two weeks after Jannik Sinner won the U.S. Open to secure a 2-2 win-loss record with Carlos Alcaraz at the major championships in 2024, Alcaraz was asked if he envisioned his rivalry with Sinner ultimately replicating that of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.“Well, a lot of people talk about it,” Alcaraz said during the Laver Cup in Berlin. “I like hearing it, I’m not going to lie. I hope that our rivalry is going to be or almost like the Big 3 had during their career. This is the first year that we shared all the Grand Slams. Hopefully, it’s going to keep going like that, sharing great moments, fighting for the great tournaments.”Sinner, the world No. 1, and the third-ranked Alcaraz have played three times this year — at Indian Wells, in the semifinals of the French Open and in the Beijing final in September — with Alcaraz winning all three matches. They could meet again in the ATP Finals, which begin on Sunday in Turin, Italy. The two have yet to face each other in the ATP Finals.Sinner and Alcaraz will be joined in Turin by Alexander Zverev, Daniil Medvedev, Taylor Fritz, Casper Ruud, Alex de Minaur and Andrey Rublev.Zverev, runner-up to Alcaraz at this year’s French Open, is a two-time ATP Finals champion, in 2018 and 2021. Medvedev, who reached the final of the Australian Open in January before falling to Sinner, won the ATP Finals in 2020 and was runner-up to Zverev in 2021.This is the first time in 23 years that neither Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer nor Rafael Nadal will compete in the eight-man year-end championships. Federer, who won the championships six times from 2003 to 2011, retired in 2022 and Nadal, who is retiring after representing Spain in the Davis Cup Finals in Malaga later this month, did not play enough tournaments this year to qualify.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More