
Wimbledon diary: Thunderous reception on Centre Court as heavy rain hits SW19
The fourth-round contest threatened to become a tempestuous affair when Pavlyuchenkova was angered at being denied a key point in the opening set by a malfunction in Wimbledon's new electronic line-calling system.
A thunderous entrance ⚡️
Sonay Kartal and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova take to Centre Court for a fourth round meeting 🤝#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/P2SgxEAcuC
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 6, 2025
But the Russian former French Open finalist set aside the setback to storm into the quarter-finals at the expense of British debutant Kartal.
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Paralympic champions packed the Royal Box on day seven of the Championships.
Wheelchair tennis duo Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid occupied prime front-row positions.
Wheelchair racers Hannah Cockroft and Sammi Kinghorn, canoeists Emma Wiggs and Charlotte Henshaw, archer Jodie Grinham and fencer Dimitri Coutya were among the other star names.
Cricket great Brian Lara, triple Olympic swimming champion Tom Dean and former footballer and presenter Chris Kamara were also in the premium seats.
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Watch out Wimbledon, there is another Hewitt on the scene.
Cruz Hewitt was watched by dad Lleyton on Court Nine (Mike Egerton/PA)
Twenty-three years since his father Lleyton won the men's singles title, Cruz Hewitt marked his maiden SW19 appearance with victory.
The 16-year-old – mirroring his dad by wearing a backwards baseball cap – beat Russian Savva Rybkin 6-1 6-2 in the first round of the boys' singles.
Lleyton, who defeated David Nalbandian in the 2002 men's final – the last champion before the dominance of Roger Federer, was courtside for the milestone moment.
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While Hewitt junior 'cruz-ed' through, 18-year-old Briton Oliver Bonding had his wings clipped in the same competition after a bird stopped play at a key moment of his three-set defeat to Jack Kennedy.
The unwelcome intruder strutted into a service box on Court 18 at set point for the American eighth seed in the second-set tie-break.
Both players looked to the umpire for guidance before Kennedy won the set en route to completing a 1-6 7-6 (5) 6-4 comeback success.
Quote of the day
'Because she is local, they can say whatever. You took the game away from me.' – Pavlyuchenkova let the umpire know about her dissatisfaction with the electronic line-calling system during victory over Kartal.
Picture of the day
A day after stealing the show on Centre Court by performing a celebratory 'pump it up' dance, Novak Djokovic's daughter Tara sheltered from the rain outside the practice courts as wet weather once again disrupted play at SW19 (John Walton/PA)
Monday's match of the day
Alex de Minaur clutches his hip after victory over Arthur Fils at last year's Wimbledon (Zac Goodwin/PA)
Alex De Minaur has been forced to wait for a crack at seven-time champion Djokovic.
The pair were scheduled to meet in the 2024 quarter-finals before a devastated De Minaur withdrew ahead of play due to a hip injury sustained in his previous round win over Arthur Fils.
Twelve months on, the Australian has an opportunity a round earlier.
The 26-year-old, who will be cheered on by British fiancee Katie Boulter, trails the head-to-head record 2-1.
Monday weather watch
Heavy rain will change to sunny intervals by late morning, according to the Met Office. Highs of 23C.

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Leader Live
an hour ago
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Umpire given a rest while Wimbledon officials insist tech fail can't be repeated
Officials blamed human error for the incident at a crucial stage of the fourth-round match between Sonay Kartal and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, with the system inadvertently turned off and not flagging that a shot from the British player was out. Pavlyuchenkova, who would have moved 5-4 ahead, was furious with umpire Nico Helwerth for ordering the point to be replayed rather than making the call himself, accusing him of stealing the game and the tournament of home bias. German Helwerth, who had officiated at matches on each of the first seven days and is one of the sport's leading umpires, was notably absent on Monday, although organisers insisted it was a regular day off rather than a reaction to Sunday's events. Wimbledon officials apologised to both players, and chief executive Sally Bolton said: 'It was important for us to to explain as much as we could at that point in time what we believed had happened, and to apologise to the players for it happening in the first place. 'We're deeply disappointed that this has happened in the Championships. It was a human error. The ball-tracking technology is working effectively.' The system has replaced line judges for the first time this year and such a high-profile malfunction is hugely embarrassing for the All England Club. Bolton refused to go into the details of how the error had happened, or to explain what safeguards had been put in place during a briefing with reporters on Monday morning. 'They stole the game from me' 😠 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova wasn't happy when #Wimbledon's electronic line-calling system failed ❌ — BBC Sport (@BBCSport) July 6, 2025 'I wasn't sat there, so I don't know what happened,' she said. 'It was clearly deactivated in error, because you wouldn't ordinarily deactivate a set of cameras mid-match intentionally. 'Once this happened, we did a full review of all of our systems and processes to check all of those kinds of things and to make sure that, both historically and moving forward, we have made the appropriate changes that we needed to make. So we're absolutely confident in the system.' Organisers later clarified the changes that have been made, with a spokesman saying: 'Following our review, we have removed the ability for Hawk-Eye operators to manually deactivate the ball tracking. This error cannot now be repeated.' Pavlyuchenkova, who went on to lose the game in question but won the match, was critical of Helwerth in her post-match press conference. 'I just thought also the chair umpire could take initiative,' said the Russian. 'That's why he's there sitting on the chair. He also saw it out, he told me after the match. He probably was scared to take such a big decision.' Bolton cited a breakdown in communication between the review official and the umpire, with Helwerth unaware the system had not been working previously during the game. It is also a big week in a different type of court for the All England Club, with a judicial review into the decision to grant planning permission for its expansion into neighbouring Wimbledon Park taking place at the High Court on Tuesday and Wednesday. There has been vehement local opposition to the scheme, which will see 39 new courts, including an 8,000-seat show court, built on the site of a former golf club. Wimbledon chair Debbie Jevans will be at the High Court on Tuesday, and Bolton said: 'We remain really confident that we'll make the progress we need to make.'