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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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      Catherine, Princess of Wales, in Purple, Is a Wimbledon Winner

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      In her second public appearance since her cancer diagnosis, the princess once again made a considered choice.Carlos Alcaraz may have won the men’s Wimbledon final in relatively short order, Barbora Krejcikova may have surprised everyone by taking home the woman’s trophy, and Henry Patten and Harri Heliovaara may have survived a tiebreaker to claim an upset victory, but the off-court champion of the tournament was unquestionably Catherine, Princess of Wales.Making only her second public appearance since revealing her cancer diagnosis and treatment earlier this year, and her first solo appearance, the princess arrived on Sunday, the final day of the event, to assume her role as the royal patron of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, dressed in royal — and Wimbledon tennis club — purple.Coincidence? Doubtful. She was on center court, after all. The princess has long understood her role as a symbol of continuity and the future of the royal family, and she dresses for it. Her illness and subsequent retreat from public view, and the relatively small drip of information about her condition, have only heightened the import of each step back into the spotlight. She would know the image would be picked over, disseminated and analyzed for any clue to her prognosis.This is particularly true at Wimbledon, where what the attendees wear is given almost as much attention as what happens in the games. See, for example, Zendaya, who modeled Ralph Lauren jackets and ties to both finals, and Margot Robbie, who unveiled her take on pregnancy fashion in polka-dot Alaïa.To that end, Catherine’s dress, a graceful midi-length crepe style by Safiyaa that looked to be a version of the label’s Cecilia style, only appeared simple.But no choice in such a freighted moment is unconsidered. And Safiyaa, one of Catherine’s go-to labels, is a female-founded British brand that makes all its products to order, in part to avoid the issue of overstock. (See the alignment with the Prince and Princess of Wales’s sustainability efforts, which include Catherine’s very public shopping of her own closet.) She last wore a caped look from Safiyaa to the Royal Variety Performance in December, before stepping back from the public eye.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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      Vic Seixas, Winner of 15 Grand Slam Tennis Titles, Dies at 100

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      Once declared “the face of American tennis,” he was ranked among the leading players in the United States from the 1940s to the ’60s.Vic Seixas, who won 15 Grand Slam tennis tournaments in the 1950s, died on Friday. The oldest living Grand Slam champion, he was 100.His death was announced by the International Tennis Hall of Fame, which did not say where he died.“From 1940 to 1968 Vic Seixas was the face of American tennis,” the Hall of Fame declared when he was inducted in 1971.At 6-foot-1 and about 180 pounds, Seixas (pronounced SAY-shuss) was known for his superb conditioning and endurance and was frequently ranked among the top 10 players in the United States. The renowned Australian tennis figure Harry Hopman regarded him as the world’s No. 1 amateur of 1954.Seixas won two Grand Slam singles championships, eight mixed doubles titles and five men’s doubles championships. He captured his first men’s singles title when he bested Kurt Nielsen of Denmark at Wimbledon in 1953 and defeated Rex Hartwig of Australia in the 1954 singles final of the U.S. Nationals at Forest Hills, the forerunner of the U.S. Open.Seixas, who remained an amateur throughout his career, played in 28 U.S. championship tournaments at Forest Hills between 1940 and 1969. He missed the event only when he was serving in the military during World War II.“Even when he was off form, he pulled out big matches by persevering long after most men would have given in and then, quite miraculously, forcing his way out of the slough of despond with a sustained streak of brilliant volleying,” Herbert Warren Wind wrote in Sports Illustrated in 1958.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 Tennis Podcast that Champions, and Hosts, Black Pros

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      Black Spin Global found an audience with its cheeky coverage of the growing number of ranked Black tennis players. It also offered them a forum.Eugene Allen was an 8-year-old Black boy growing up in southwest London when he first started to nurse hopes of one day playing professional tennis. It was 1997, and there were no Black men ranked in the top 100 on the ATP Tour. Venus Williams had just made her U.S. Open debut that year, and she and Chanda Rubin were the only Black women ranked in the top 50 in the world; Serena Williams was at No. 99.About 10 years later, Allen put down his rackets to focus on his education. The costs of the game — coaching sessions, travel to tournaments, equipment — were piling up. His family could no longer afford to help him prepare for the pro circuit.“I kind of fell out of love with it,” he said. “There was almost a resentment.”Now, Allen is the center of an online community focusing exclusively on Black tennis players worldwide, at a time when there are more pros and juniors on tour than ever before. As of July 1, there were five Black men ranked in the top 50: Ben Shelton (No. 14), Felix Auger-Aliassime (No. 17), Frances Tiafoe (No. 29), Gael Monfils (No. 33) and Arthur Fils (No. 34). On the WTA Tour, there were four women: Coco Gauff (No. 2), Jasmine Paolini (No. 7), Madison Keys (No. 13) and Sloane Stephens (No. 50).Since 2019, Allen has run Black Spin Global, a digital media brand that encompasses a podcast, blog and social media accounts where he and Lucy Tezangi delve deep into the tennis universe. “It’s not just, ‘Oh, they won,’” she said. “It’s match updates, breaking news, coach updates, player updates and so on.”Allen, 35, was lured back to the sport in the mid-2010s, when both Williams sisters were routinely ranked in the top 20 and James Blake, Monfils and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga were fan favorites breaking through on the men’s tour.Since leaving high-level competition, Allen had majored in journalism and taken jobs at The Daily Mail Online and The Telegraph, while writing freelance soccer articles. He founded Pitching It Black, a website dedicated to covering Black soccer players in Europe, in 2016 and thought, what if he did something similar for tennis?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: Andy Murray, Battling Injuries and Age, Faces Final Call

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      He is the last British man to have won this very English tournament. He did it twice, along with grabbing two Olympic golds.“I guess I’ll just need to win Wimbledon to shut everyone up.” — Andy Murray to The Daily Telegraph in June 2004Mission accomplished, although it took nearly a decade for Murray to manage it. He had to scrap and scream through all sorts of tennis trouble before finally putting a halt to all the annual chatter about when a British man might finally win Wimbledon again.Now, at 37 and at the end of his career — win or lose (or forced to withdraw because of recent back surgery) — he is saying goodbye to a tournament he conquered not once, but twice. Three years elapsed between his first victory in 2013 and his second in 2016, when his proud country rewarded Murray with a knighthood. In that same year, he won his second Olympic gold.For more than 70 years, the hope that a British man would win Wimbledon had become a tradition in a country that still likes its tradition: a part of the landscape at the well-tended All England Club where Fred Perry had won the men’s singles in 1936, but had long gone without a British successor.Tim Henman was still the local focal point when Murray emerged in 2005. Henman had reached four singles semifinals by rushing the net, but had always fallen short, handling each setback with a firm handshake and a dignified demeanor.Murray — a scruffy shock-absorbing baseliner from Scotland — managed the pressure and the project quite differently: muttering, moaning and sometimes swearing between points. But above all, he embraced the challenge as he trundled about the grass with a heavy gait only to move with astonishing quickness once the ball was in play.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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      At Wimbledon, Players Must Deal With the Challenge of Grass

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      Fewer and fewer events are held on that surface. It can be tricky, and injuries are common.For Debbie Jevans, a seat on Centre Court at Wimbledon requires no more than a left turn out of her office, then a right turn past the trophies honoring past champions. A few short steps further, the same steps taken by the competitors on finals day, and Jevans finds herself on hallowed grass.“Centre Court is such a special place,” said Jevans, the first female chair of the All England Club, by video call last month. “The court is pristine, the flowers look amazing, the overviews of St. Mary’s Church in the background. I feel an enormous sense of pride and thanks to the hundreds of people who have got us to this point.”Seeing the elegance and lush lawns on opening day at Wimbledon is, for players and fans, like stepping back in time. One of the biggest reasons is because professional play on grass is as elusive as a Wimbledon title itself.Wimbledon groundskeepers work most of the year to maintain the rye grass courts, which allows the ground underneath to remain dry and firm.Jane Stockdale for The New York TimesIga Swiatek has played 23 WTA grass-court singles matches out of almost 400 total in her career. Swiatek, the world No. 1, has not advanced beyond the quarterfinals at Wimbledon.Jannik Sinner, the newly named world No. 1 in men’s tennis, enters Wimbledon having played just one ATP grass-court tournament this year — which he won over Hubert Hurkacz in Halle, Germany, on June 23 — and only nine in his career. One of those matches was a five-set Wimbledon quarterfinal loss to Novak Djokovic in 2022.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: For Marketa Vondrousova, Winning the Title Was a Family Affair

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      Last year, she became the first unseeded player in the Open era to win the event’s women’s singles title. A celebration ensued.It was past dusk when Marketa Vondrousova and her coach, Jan Hernych, made it back to their rented house near the Southfields Underground Station, almost a mile from the All England Lawn Tennis Club. Hours earlier, Vondrousova had beaten Ons Jabeur, 6-4, 6-4, to become the first unseeded player in the Open era to win the Wimbledon women’s singles title.Waiting for Vondrousova at the house were family members, coaches and close friends. Many of them were inebriated from a combination of champagne and beer, including Hernych.“I just went for the press and after two hours I came back and they were all drunk,” said Vondrousova during a phone interview in late May. It is her fondest memory of that Wimbledon win and what she thinks about most often as she begins the defense of her title on Centre Court this Tuesday.“I always think about my family and the celebration with my box,” said Vondrousova, who marked the occasion by adding a tattoo of the numbers 150723, the date of the final, to a body already dotted with tattoo artistry. “That was the main thing that I wanted to do since I was playing in the final.”Vondrousova’s career has been a series of spirals. The Czech, who turned 25 last week was the top-ranked junior in the world and won her first career title, in Biel, Switzerland, when she was 17. She also reached the final of the 2019 French Open, losing to Ashleigh Barty, 6-1, 6-3, and captured a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.Vondrousova has also been injured. She has had two wrist surgeries that sidelined her for more than six months shortly after her 2019 run at the French Open.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