Sinner and Swiatek awkwardly dance at Wimbledon Champions' Ball but VIPs ‘drunk enough' not to judge
It has been a long-held tradition that the two individual
Championship
conquerors at the prestigious grass-court tournament share the stage at the Champions' Ball and have a little boogie.
6
Wimbledon champions Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek shared an awkward dance
Credit: Instagram @U_Penjanju
6
The world No1 gave Swiatek a spin
Credit: Instagram @U_Penjanju
6
The dance lasted just 20 seconds
Credit: Instagram @U_Penjanju
6
The pair will each collect £3million in prize money
Credit: Getty
6
Swiatek dazzled in a long dress at The OWO – Raffles London hotel
6
Sinner beat Carlos Alcaraz 4-6 6-4 6-4 6-4
The act disappeared during the Covid years but has since returned, albeit it is begrudgingly done by the multi-millionaire winners – and they are usually not very good at it either.
They might have decent footwork on the Centre
Court
turf but not when it comes to dancing.
Jannik Sinner, who beat Spaniard
Yet before the Italian world No.1 could return to his table, Robson – the 2008 Wimbledon junior girls' singles champion – called up Poland's six-time Grand Slam champion.
READ MORE IN WIMBLEDON
Iga Swiatek, 24, had destroyed American
London
until Monday.
Swiatek, wearing a long silver gown and pearls, happily came up to the stage for the ceremonial dance.
The room contained All
England
Club top brass and committee members as well as respected BBC broadcaster
Annabel Croft
, who finished fourth in the 2023 edition of Strictly Come Dancing.
Robson said: 'Iga, if you would like to come on back up. You (Jannik) led me right into it.
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'Now, no matter what you do, we are going to give it a ten out of ten.
'If Annabel is here with the Strictly cards, it's a ten out of a ten.'
Adorable moment Princess Kate asks Wimbledon winner to sign tennis ball for Prince Louis after he missed the final
The pair engaged in a 20-second dance, albeit at a slow pace and with one twirl, to the soundtrack of 'Feel It Still' by
Portugal
. The Man.
And as befits two introverted characters, who are not comfortable in the media spotlight, it was not exactly a Rock 'n' Roll routine.
Nonetheless, they received a warm reception from the audience at The OWO – Raffles London hotel – in Whitehall.
Robson said: 'Fantastic. Look at the moves. A round of applause for both. We will let you both go.
'We said 10 out of 10, I think everyone in this room is drunk enough that it doesn't even matter.
'So, it's all good. Enjoy your champagne, guys. Enjoy the rest of the night. Congratulations.'
Sinner and Swiatek individually earned a record £3million for winning seven matches over the course of two weeks.
Yet their wins were mired in controversy given that the pair – Sinner (three months) and Swiatek (one month) – had served
anti-doping
bans since the 2024 Wimbledon Championships.
Neither player had been accused of intentionally cheating or wrongdoing but the infringements that led to their suspension have been the subject of much discussion in the sport and beyond.
Sinner twice
Between February 9 and May 4, he was suspended from the ATP Tour after an out-of-court agreement with world drug busters.
Swiatek, meanwhile, tested positive for prohibited substance Trimetazidine (TMZ) in an out-of-competition anti-doping test.
She accepted a one-month suspension that was served in the off-season last year.
It was a result of taking contaminated melatonin tablets from
Poland
, which she had been using for jet lag and
sleep
issues.
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The tenacious defender was a big fish in a small pond in Killybegs but this was totally different as he went to war for a jersey with men such as Neil and Eamon McGee, Paddy McGrath, Frank McGlynn, Kevin Cassidy and Karl Lacey. He was in the squad when Donegal conquered Ulster for the first time in 19 years in 2011 but training was full of ravenous characters and nailing down a place seemed impossible. After just one year, he left the fold. Now 36, Noctor added: 'When young lads come out here to Boston to play, I pass on my experience and tell them they have to be patient. 'Some lads are better at it than others but at club level, you're used to it being all about you and then next thing you know you're on the periphery of a squad. 'You're thinking, 'What's going on here?' You think you're doing the right things and you probably are, but the manager might see it differently. 'It was patience for me and maybe I wasn't mature enough, but I regret not sticking with it a lot. For me just newly coming in, I was 21 and what's actually happening goes over your head a bit. 'As a young fella, maybe it's not registering as much but you could see the likes of Rory Kavanagh, Neil McGee, Neil Gallagher, Karl Lacey and Michael Murphy — who was beyond his years — were such a big part of it. 'It was laid out what we needed to do and you could see it hitting home with those older players. "I was just maybe a bit naive to it or unaware of how bad things were and how it was affecting Donegal football. The culture had to change. 'We'd won the Ulster Championship and were beaten by Dublin in the semis. 'As winter training approached, I thought about it for a long time before deciding I didn't have the heart for it and made the call. "When I chose to walk away, I had a great conversation with Jim but he told me to put on a stone and a half — and that still hasn't happened.' Donegal climbed to the summit in 2012 but Noctor went on his own journey. Killybegs reached another county final in 2013 where Murphy's Glenswilly gunned them down. He saw the Tír Chonaill seniors make another All-Ireland final in 2014, losing out to Kerry, the county the current crop will face tomorrow. STATE SIDE Calls from the States tempted him and St Catherine's bagged a league and cup soccer double in 2015 before he finally took flight. Donegal Boston has been his team for over a decade and he helped them win their sixth championship in ten years last summer. The players are different but the colours are the same. He said: 'I didn't ring Jim so he'd convince me to stay. I'd played around four games for Killybegs that year because I was in a group of around seven players on standby, not allowed to play for their clubs. 'I just got frustrated at not being able to play for the club because we were struggling that year — and you feel guilty too. 'Rory Gallagher asked me to come back in for the 2015 campaign but I declined and Paddy McDevitt in Boston had reached out to me a few times. "Paul Martin McDaid from Malin was manager and he phoned me one day when I was down working at the boats in Killybegs. 'We'd just won the Donegal League with St Catherine's and I said I'd go, and in June 2015 I was gone. 'When you move out, you think you're going to America but then you go to training and everyone is from Donegal. 'After a couple of months I decided to stay and moved to Dorchester, where the core of the club are based and it's like living in an Irish town. 'We won the Boston championship that summer and I got sorted with a job, so I stayed. Every summer is just about football, and time has flown.' And Noctor's list of past and present team-mates is frightening. Diarmuid Connolly, Ger Brennan, Paul Mannion and Shane Carthy have flown the Dublin flag in Beantown. Current Donegal stars Ciarán Thompson, Jamie Brennan, Shane O'Donnell, Caolán McGonagle and Jason McGee have all played for the club and Armagh starlets Oisín Conaty and Darragh McMullan are out there now. Liam Silke, Emlyn Mulligan, Ray Connellan, Daire Cregg — the list goes on. Carpenter Noctor captained the club to their 2018 Boston championship title with Connolly in tow. Scores of players have come and gone since. He will look on at tomorrow's All-Ireland final between Donegal and Kerry from across the pond, hoping old team-mates McBrearty and Murphy can avenge their 2014 defeat to the Kingdom. LIVE AND LEARN But he still carries what he learned from McGuinness 14 years ago. He said: 'I'm often asked to name the best I've played with but I'm blessed to have played with so many between club and county at home. 'Then there's all the fellas that have come out here and sometimes you're like, 'How did I forget him?' 'I'm very fortunate because you've got Michael Murphy and Diarmuid Connolly in there, Karl Lacey, Séamus Coleman at home. 'But I'd have Lacey right up there. When I went in with Donegal, he was so good with all the young lads in the squad and was a huge role model for me. 'He'd always take you to the side and give you advice, he helped to really mould me. When people see lads coming out here, they think they're just happy to be squad players at home but they're not. 'They're building a platform for themselves to be proper inter-county players. 'A lot of that experience with Jim and Donegal in 2011 shaped me into who I am now. 'As an older player with Donegal Boston now, I try to be like how they were with me.'
