Wimbledon diary: Heatwave makes way for rain as Olivia Rodrigo visits Royal Box
The turf was covered and the rain cleared to allow play to begin just after 1pm on the outside courts, a delay on the intended 11am start time, but there were no hold-ups on Centre Court and Court One as play ran to time without the need to get under way with the roof closed.
*****
Olivia Rodrigo, fresh from her triumphant headline slot on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury, was present in the Royal Box as she extended her British sojourn to take in the sights at Wimbledon.
Rodrigo wore Union Flag shorts during her festival performance and delivered a brief ode to M&S sweets, Colin the Caterpillar and British pub culture, after which she invited The Cure's Robert Smith on stage as a guest.
She was joined in SW19 by her boyfriend, British actor Louis Partridge, and the pair were seen chatting to Olympic diver Tom Daley.
Also present from the sporting world were golfer Tommy Fleetwood, former England manager Roy Hodgson and current England boss Thomas Tuchel.
Dave Grohl, former Nirvana member and Foo Fighters founder, was also seen and so too was the American wrestler and actor John Cena.
*****
Aryna Sabalenka's advice to Alexander Zverev after his emotional press conference following a first-round loss, during which he described feeling 'alone' and 'empty'.
FOUND HER! And she was DELIGHTED! Get the pims in mum!!@JudyMurray @Wimbledon 🏏 ☀️ pic.twitter.com/E1QrXY1qFx
— The Other Murray Brother (@Duncan__Murray) July 2, 2025
Briton Dan Evans crosses paths with Novak Djokovic in the second round of the men's singles as the pair kick off the day four action on Centre Court.
Wild card Evans, 35, has met the all-conquering Serb once before, with the two clashing at the 2021 Monte Carlo Masters and the Briton emerging a shock victor.
Djokovic, 38, is on a mission to add a record 25th grand slam title and has made it clear he feels this tournament is likely his best chance of doing so.
Sunny changing to cloudy in the afternoon with highs of 25C, according to the Met Office.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
18 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Digested week: Wimbledon joy and the canny PR of the Dalai Lama
As someone who enjoys the women's tennis at Wimbledon, so to speak, the tournament's opening days are an annual joy and this week has been electric. Emma Raducanu leads the rise in British women powering up the world rankings, which makes the era of women's tennis I grew up in – I have a lot of time for Jo Durie, but those were hard years – seem like the 19th century. Today, after two stunning opening-round matches, Raducanu will meet Aryna Sabalenka, the mighty Belarusian world number one, which means tomorrow I will be on court one (in the park) knocking imaginary clay dust from my shoes and pretending to be in the final. If the tennis is sublime, the crowd so far has been slightly under par – although it's early days. Last year, the title of Wimbledon best dressed went for my money to Greta Gerwig, in a tan suit the provenance of which I still can't track down, as well as Zendaya in Ralph Lauren and Julia Roberts in Gucci. This week in the royal box and around the grounds we've had Cate Blanchett, who is welcome in any setting, Olivia Rodrigo and Russell Crowe, who combed his hair and dug out a tie for Centre Court. (Esquire ran a story about the £65,000 Rolex he was wearing, which if it was intended to set us against him, won't work – I won't hear a word against Rusty.) There were also, as usual, a high turn out of what my teenage tennis partner and I used to refer to nastily as Midweek Ladies, a crowd who, off-court, wear floral, ankle length dresses in pale shades and on court, are always one double fault away from losing their nerve and reverting to an underhand serve. Everyone should watch My Mom Jayne, the documentary about Jayne Mansfield made by her daughter Mariska Hargitay, released this week on HBO Max and a jaw-dropper of revelations and sadness. You may know Hargitay from her role as Detective Olivia Benson in Law & Order: SVU – I didn't even know she was Mansfield's daughter – and she was three years old in 1967 when her 34-year-old mother was killed in a car crash outside New Orleans. The film is heartbreaking, not least because Hargitay, who has no memories of her mother, was in the car with her siblings when it crashed. All three children survived and were raised by their father, but as Hargitay reports, she grew up feeling vaguely ashamed of her mother, a Hollywood sex bomb who spoke in a breathy voice that a generation later fell out of usage. As Hargitary digs into the history of the mother she never knew, she discovers Mansfield was an accomplished pianist and violinist, a brilliant, ambitious woman trapped by the only persona Hollywood allowed her – until now. Finally, someone has greeted the release of a new Brad Pitt movie not with praise-be gratitude for America's ageing sweetheart, but by looking at Pitt's success in shrugging off an allegation of domestic abuse. While in most of the entertainment press, Pitt's new film is treated to the customary chuckling puff piece, New York magazine runs the headline Brad Pitt is Fooling You and proceeds to get into it: the actor's image preservation, the crisis management PR he retains (former client: Johnny Depp) and the details of Angelina Jolie's allegation that he assaulted her and one of their children on a private plane. As the piece concludes, nobody cares. There's been a vibe shift since #MeToo, which let's not forget, Brad Pitt's production company, Plan B, aligned itself with by co-producing the movie adaptation of She Said, about the exposing of Harvey Weinstein – a sterling piece of allyship from America's most sensitive male feminist, or something else entirely. Either way, nothing sticks. In the last five years, the worst coverage Pitt has had is for Bullet Train. There was a story in the Sun mid-week about Pitt's ex, Jennifer Anniston, or rather, about a 43-year-old man from Southampton who believed himself to be in a Facebook relationship with the Hollywood star, who had reached out to him asking for a loan. That might have been your first clue, Paul, that something about this – hard to put your finger on what exactly – didn't smell right. It wasn't the first time the unfortunate victim had been targeted over social media by scam accounts claiming to be Hollywood stars. But when 'Jennifer Anniston' sent him a copy of her driving license, along with the message 'I love you', it was enough to clinch things and convince the hapless Facebook user he was at the start of a beautiful relationship. As requested, he sent the former Friends star the £200 of Apple gift cards she was asking for and never heard from her again. Oh, to have the confidence of the Dalai Lama that we'll all get a second go-around at this. Ahead of his 90th birthday this weekend, the Tibetan spiritual leader discussed arrangements for his successor, by which, per Buddhist beliefs, he means the body into which he will be reincarnated. This is as much a political as a spiritual consideration and in his address, the Dalai Lama pushed back against the Chinese government's insistence on preapproving the reincarnation, remaining firm that when the time comes, he'll be reincarnated in line with Tibetan tradition and with no interference from Beijing. He has also dangled some spoilers, suggesting, tantalisingly, that the new Dalai Lama may not be a baby, as he was, and – in what would represent a reboot more shocking than the new Dr Who and Ghostbusters combined – may not even be male. Which goes to show that even spiritual leaders these days have a canny knack for PR.
The National
19 minutes ago
- The National
Spectator's 'bomb Glastonbury' rant is toxic. Who will call it out?
WHEN you're a washed-up relic of British journalism, there's one way left to get some of the attention you so desperately crave: puke up some bile and hope people hear the hacking. Enter Rod Liddle, the tabloid fossil and professional outrage merchant. Due to a willingness to spit hatred – and having predictably weathered repeated storms around his racism and misogyny (they were all just jokes the rest of us were too stupid to get) – Liddle's slop is still being pumped out into the public sphere by various right-wing outlets: The Times, The Sun, The Spectator. His latest diatribe is aimed at the quarter of a million people who dare to attend Glastonbury festival. One on Glasto, one on Brighton, and the UK would soon begin its recovery. ✍️Rod Liddlehttps:// — The Spectator (@spectator) July 3, 2025 Whether Liddle has ever been to the event which has become a cultural institution is unclear. It is also irrelevant. Reality be damned. Liddle is perfectly capable of imagining exactly what it's like, thank you very much – and he wants to bomb it. Whipped into a froth by his own imagination and enamoured with his own perceived brilliance, his latest outburst – printed in The Spectator – sees the former BBC man suggest dropping a 'small yield nuclear weapon' on Glastonbury festival. That, Liddle claims, would 'immediately remove from our country almost everybody who is hugely annoying'. Spectator editor Michael Gove has admitted to taking cocaine on 'several occasions', but is not the type of 'druggie' which Rod Liddle is talking about Apparently forgetting his own editor Michael Gove's proclivity for a line or two, Liddle suggests that bombing Glastonbury would rid the UK of 'druggies', 'liberal politicians', and 'tattooed blue-haired hags', along with a much longer list of people he views as undesirables. Of course, this is actually high satire, don't you know. No doubt for legal reasons, he does offer a fig leaf, writing: 'I am not saying that we should do this … I am merely hypothesising, in a slightly wistful kinda way.' You can tell by the spelling of 'kinda' that he is being wistful. Who among us hasn't longingly day-dreamed of rounding up hundreds of thousands of people and killing them in one fell swoop? Satirically, of course. READ MORE: Glasgow locals give verdict on Keir Starmer's Labour after one year in power Yet, when you next hear the predictable lament that social media has become 'too toxic', the debate 'too polarised', the misogyny too much for young women to brave entering the political scene, it is a safe bet you won't hear anyone so much as whisper that any blame could be laid at Liddle's door, let alone the publications that print his unfiltered hatred. No. The Times, The Sun, The Spectator, Liddle himself. None of them will get so much as a mention – despite his casual description of women as 'hags', or the racially-charged suggestion that a BBC staffer without the 'merest vestige of sentience' would be someone with a name like 'Ayesha'. As long as Liddle's hatred is directed at the right people – his suggestion that Brighton should also be bombed hints at exactly who that is – the British media will continue happily plodding along, pointing fingers at everyone but themselves for the world's wrongs.
Time Out
19 minutes ago
- Time Out
Barbecue, gin and outdoor cinema? Yes, please.
The July calendar at the Cidadela Art District kicks off on the 5th with the KAU BBQ Fest – an American-style barbecue with live music and plenty of smoke (trust us, that delicious smell in the air will be impossible to resist). Also on the 5th, little ones (and grown-ups too) can get creative with 'Brincar na Tela', an interactive painting workshop hosted by Saltão Gallery from 2pm to 5pm. The ARTBEAT Week running until the 6th, brings urban art to the space – and don't worry if you miss it, it returns later in the month from 31 July to 3 August. Mid-month brings even more action: the Garrafeira Nacional's Gin Sessions on 11 and 12 July (from 5pm to 8pm), and the opening of Júlio Dolbeth's illustration exhibition This Must Be the Place on the 12th at 6pm. Then, on 25 July, it's time to mix wine, petiscos and art at Vinh'Art in the Taberna da Praça at 7pm. The next day, 26 July, Desvio Ceramics hosts a live pottery demo (3pm–5pm), followed by an outdoor screening of the modern classic La La Land at 7pm – all set against the stunning backdrop of the Cidadela Art District. On top of all that, there are regular weekend events: Taberna Beats brings DJ sets every Saturday and Sunday from 5pm to 8pm, and BBQ Summer keeps the grill going strong with delicious barbecue and sea views every Friday from 12:30pm to 3pm.
