Success without Styles
The Harry Styles concert karma theory. Elina Svitolina had tickets for a Harry Styles concert in Vienna last Saturday, but couldn’t go because she was shredding stereotypes at Wimbledon. Harry Styles got in touch on Instagram saying: “We have four shows to go, you’re welcome at any of them.” That number is now down to three after victory against Iga Swiatek means the gig in Barcelona on Wednesday is out. Make the final and Madrid (14 July) goes. Win the thing and Lisbon (18th) looks shaky too, leaving only Reggio Emilia (22nd) up for grabs, if rest and recuperation allows. All we’re saying is there appears to be an inverse correlation between tennis success and the chances of watching style-over-substance Styles in the flesh. And in further evidence, Jessica Pegula made it to a Styles concert in Paris during the French Open, lost in the quarter-finals and was beaten at the same stage at Wimbledon on Tuesday. Might be significant – who knows?
Blake bigs up Eubanks
James Blake, the former world No 4 and not the Mercury music prize winner, was back in town to take part in the Wimbledon legends doubles event on Tuesday. He has been paired with Lleyton Hewitt, the guy who once accused a line judge of ruling in Blake’s favour because both men were black, but Blake has long since let that slide. “He still practises and plays a lot so I’ll be looking for him to take about 80% of the balls,” said Blake, the old charmer, before going on to rave about everyone’s favourite British middleweight near-namesake, Chris Eubanks. According to Blake, if Big Chris continues to flash his smile around SW19 for much longer (he plays Daniil Medvedev in the quarters on Wednesday), he’s going to have his name in lights by the time of the US Open. “I hope he enjoys being a superstar because that is what he is in the making,” Blake said, “he might be on the side of a bus, he might be up on billboards.” Great stuff, but if they want to fit him all on, the bus will have to be a doubledecker.
SW19’s numbers game
Confirmation of what was already clear – the crowds are back at Wimbledon, baby. In week one of the Championships there was an aggregate of 293,681 people through the gates, up nearly 17,000 on 277,354 last year. That included the biggest opening Monday since 2015 (you’ll recall it was so big there were roughly 10,000 people in the queue who couldn’t get in). The second Monday was a little disappointing with totals showing five fewer people made it than on the same day last year. This could be down to a counting error of course, or maybe just five people on Novak Djokovic’s entourage who assumed his match had finished the night before.
