Key events
Thanks Katy. And I greet you with the breaking of Kartal’s winning streak, as Tomova breaks back to love, successfully steering the Briton round the back of the court in a series of gruelling baseline rallies. Kartal’s still a break to the good at 4-1 and a set up though. Keys has also lost a game, but still leads Danilovic 6-4, 4-1.
It’s a seventh straight game for Kartal. And a fourth for Keys, who’s 6-4, 2-0 ahead. These two are now in a race to be the first winner on day three. I’m off to grab some lunch quickly, so Tom Davies is here to guide you through what look likely to be the closing stages …
Kartal, in the form of her life, is on the charge now, ripping through a fifth successive game. Make that six. The British No 3 leads Tomova 6-2, 2-0 and is well on her way to a place in the last 32 for the second straight year.
Keys recovers immediately, breaking Danilovic with a forehand winner to secure the opening set 6-4. Meanwhile on Court 12 there’s barely room to move – or hear – as the Brazilian fans chant for their man Fonseca, who’s now 6-4, 0-1 up on Brooksby.
Kartal breaks again to seal the first set 6-2. But Keys is broken when serving at 5-3. And it’s 15-0, 30-0, 40-0, game and first set Tiafoe.
Kartal, Keys and Tiafoe all back up their breaks. And here comes Aryna Sabalenka on Centre Court. The world No 1’s status as the favourite for the title has been strengthened by the departure of three of the top five women’s seeds, including Coco Gauff, even though Sabalenka has never been beyond the semi-finals at Wimbledon. This afternoon the Belarusian is up against the Czech Marie Bouzkova, and despite a double fault in the opening game, shows exactly what she’s about with some big, big hitting for 1-0.
Keys, after a tough three-set examination in the first round, doesn’t appear to be in the mood to hang around today. The temperature may have fallen, but a scorching forehand down the line secures the break for 4-2. Just as Kartal has a break point against Tomova … but the Bulgarian saves it with a looping backhand winner that just lands on the sideline. Kartal makes no mistake on the second break point and she’s also 4-2 to the good.
João Fonseca, the 18-year-old Brazilian sensation who defeated Britain’s Jacob Fearnley in the first round after bursting on to the scene at this year’s Australian Open where he took out Andrey Rublev, also has an early break, leading the American Jenson Brooksby 4-3.
Tiafoe’s a great entertainer and the No 1 Court crowd are already admiring his showmanship. It’ll be interesting to see which way the spectators go this afternoon – Norrie is the home player, of course, but his understated style isn’t as easy to get behind as Tiafoe’s crowd-pleasing ways. Tiafoe has the fans gasping with a lob that Norrie can’t reach and then rips a forehand winner down the line and a backhand pass down the other. It’s break point Tiafoe … and soon a second break point … and he takes it for a 3-2 lead.
Kartal v Tomovoa and Norrie v Tiafoe are both level at one game all. Meanwhile on No 2 Court, which accounted for the third seed Jessica Pegula and the seventh seed Lorenzo Musetti yesterday, Keys will be hoping to avoid a similar fate. The big-hitting Australian Open champion slams down an unreturned serve and she leads Serbia’s Olga Danilovic 2-1 on serve.
As for Norrie, his decline over the past year has been in contrast to Kartal’s rise, but the former British No 1 is enjoying having a little less expectation on him this year. The world No 61 said he felt “like a kid playing Wimbledon again” after his first-round win – but today could be less enjoyable for him if the charismatic American 12th seed known as “Big Foe” hits the form he’s capable of, but hasn’t always shown at Wimbledon. On the 50th anniversary of Arthur Ashe winning his landmark Wimbledon, Tiafoe, the son of Sierra Leonean immigrants, has spoken of how much it would mean to him to emulate the trailblazer by having a successful run this year.
Having been ranked 281 in the world this time last year, Kartal is now in the top 50 for first time – and the Londoner is chasing down her childhood rival Raducanu in the rankings. After a fine win over the former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko in the first round, the 23-year-old will fancy her chances of a second successive visit to the last 32 here, by defeating Bulgaria’s Viktoriya Tomova, who benefitted from poor Ons Jabeur’s retirement on Monday.
We’ve waited two hours for a match … and then of course they all come at once. Just as Cameron Norrie and Frances Tiafoe step on to No 1 Court to begin the show court action, Kartal, Keys, Fonseca, Tien, Fernandez and Khachanov are all warming up on the outside courts. We’ll have some play very shortly.
Royal Box roll call. It’s a rather eclectic mix today, ranging from the England head coach Thomas Tuchel, to Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl, wrestler John Cena and Glastonbury headliner Olivia Rodrigo. If it wasn’t for the Centre Court roof, I’d love to see what entertainment they’d put on between them during the rain breaks.
Game on! The net has been put up on Court 3, where Sonay Kartal, the British No 3, will be playing Bulgaria’s Viktoriya Tomova. There’s similar action around the grounds, with Madison Keys, João Fonseca, Learner Tien, Leylah Fernandez and Karen Khachanov also due to weave and wind their way to the outside courts shortly, though the skies are still fairly grey. We’ve got Cameron Norrie v Frances Tiafoe on No1 Court at 1pm too.
Some emails.
Marcus Walsh is on the side of the bots: “I’m a tennis player from Finland; I wonder did Hugh Muir ask any of the players about absent line judges before writing his column?Because there’s nothing more excruciating emotionally than being on the receiving end of a – sometimes really obvious – bad line call. No player – really none – will miss those. Tennis is often a game of minuscule margins – you can win the match having won less points than your opponent. Which means that a badly timed poor call can decide a match – even a grand slam final. If technology one day allows, it might be interesting to go back over some GS finals and check whether the title in fact went to the wrong person…”
And here’s one from “I like Biltong”: “My name is Joshua, and as you might be able to tell from my email address, I may be a bit biased, but I feel that the South African Lloyd Harris is going to pull off an upset in the second match on Court 3 today against the 14th seed Andrey Rublev. He’s a dangerous server (22 aces in R1), so keep your eyes out for him.”
A magnificent seven British players will be attempting to make the last 32 today. Ollie Tarvet is the big story, as the world No 733 looks to follow in the footsteps of George Bastl, Lukas Rosol and others by plotting one of Wimbledon’s greatest ever shocks. He’s up against the two-times defending champ Carlos Alcaraz, while Emma Raducanu also faces a former Wimbledon winner in Marketa Vondrousova. The pair have history here, with Raducanu beating the Czech back in 2021.
Katie Boulter plays Argentina’s lucky loser Solana Sierra, Cameron Norrie faces Frances Tiafoe, the American 12th seed, while Sonay Kartal, Billy Harris and Arthur Fery are also in action.
Ho-hum. Hopefully this will keep you going.
CORENTIN MOUTET SHOT OF THE TOURNAMENT AGAIN.
10/10 vision. 10/10 execution.
French flair at its finest. 🇫🇷🪄 pic.twitter.com/XBwEqohVsA
— Bastien Fachan (@BastienFachan) July 2, 2025
Strike that. Play’s been pushed back to 12.30pm. Do remember you can get in touch with any predictions/predilections. Mail me here.
Turns out I was being a bit too pessimistic. The covers are now off on the outside courts, so barring any more rain, the 12.15pm start looks to be on.
Hugh Muir
It’s the perfect Wimbledon. The sun is out, the Brits are firing and as for the scoring, that too will be somewhat perfect, this being the first Wimbledon since the tournament told the line judges, long the arbiters of accuracy, that after 148 years, their services will no longer be required.
Arguments, unpredictability and, as the cameras zoom in to the line judge whose eyesight judgment prompts a participant explosion, buttock-clenching awkwardness in close-up: goodbye to all that. Hello, AI and sharp-eyed robots, analysing in real time 18 lots of footage.
It’s perfect now, but is it progress? After the first day, players complained that while the calls were perfect in their accuracy, they were imperfect in that the gizmo’s volume was set too low and they could not hear the verdicts.
To some extent, Wimbledon is falling into line – both the Australian and US Opens, and very many of the lesser professional tournaments, have waved goodbye to the humans and embraced electronic line calling. The players wanted it. They strive truly, madly and deeply for perfection; their short, explosive careers cannot hinge on the human fallibility of others.
But look at Centre Court without the sentries posted around the border, and without the quiet ceremony that has always marked the departure of one set of line judges and the arrival of another. One day their absence will feel natural and maybe we’ll forget they were ever there, barking their assessments. But for now, their absence feels like a loss. Game, set and match to the gizmos.
Of the grand slams, the premier tournaments of world tennis, only the French Open has resisted the temptation to shoo away the line judges and embrace electronica, and you may think therein lies a morality tale of sorts. When the Wimbledon plan was mooted, one experienced line judge there spoke not just of the hurt of being abruptly discarded but also of her worry that line judges, drawn from clubs around the country, were a crucial link between the elite game, with its Wimbledon showpiece, and the grassroots, which has perennially felt neglected. They saw being asked to participate at Wimbledon as a reason to stay connected, a kind of lodestar. “I worry that smaller tournaments will struggle to find line judges soon,” she said.
Click here for the rest.
Apart from the fallen stars and the hot hot hot first two days, one of the other stories of the tournament so far has been AI’s overthrow of the line judges. But for Hugh Muir, the perfection of the technology has made things, well, rather imperfect …
As expected, the rain is not relenting yet. Play has been pushed back to 12.15, at the earliest. Though looking at the forecast there could be another couple of hours of drizzle before what’s forecast to be a clear mid-afternoon/evening.
Tumaini Carayol
Emma Raducanu stressed the importance of leaning on her support network at Wimbledon as she prepares for her challenging second-round match against Marketa Vondrousova, the 2023 champion.
Raducanu, who reached the second round on Monday with a solid 6-3, 6-3 win over the 17-year-old British wildcard Mimi Xu, reflected on the additional support she has received at the All England Club. “At Wimbledon, it’s particularly special. I had really good friends in the box there,” said Raducanu, before reeling off a list of names. “To have them all here in this one week, and the way the stars align that they could be here, it means so much when I see them there. It just makes me really happy.”
After her win, Raducanu said that it was emotional to catch up briefly with those close friends and the feeling of being supported contrasts sharply to her solitary existence the rest of the tennis season. “Big time,” said Raducanu. “After the match there, I just went outside to see them for five or 10 minutes and speak to them. And that’s just an opportunity that is so rare, and you don’t really get that at other tournaments, because I don’t really travel my friends out. They have lives. So I have a few friends in other cities, but to have my real core, best friends here, it means a lot.”
The 22-year-old is accompanied at Wimbledon by her coach, Mark Petchey, and the former player Jane O’Donoghue, who acts as an elder sister figure. With her fitness coach, Yutaka Nakamura, away for personal reasons, Raducanu is working with Ian Aylward, a strength and conditioning coach for the LTA, and the rest of the British governing body’s fitness personnel.
She will need all of their encouragement as she faces an extremely difficult task in round two against the in-form Vondrousova. Two years ago, the Czech produced one of the most surprising title runs in Wimbledon history. She was a French Open finalist in 2019 aged 19 and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic silver medallist, but Vondrousova’s career has been ravaged by serious injuries. After already missing significant periods in her career because of multiple wrist operations, she underwent surgery on her left shoulder in 2023 shortly after her Wimbledon title run.
You can read the rest here.
There’s a chance the show courts could get going before all the courts that don’t have a roof, with Cameron Norrie first up on No 1 Court against Frances Tiafoe at 1pm and Aryna Sabalenka opening on Centre against Marie Bouzkova at 1.30pm. Also on the show courts today: world No 733 Ollie Tarvet’s big date with Carlos Alcaraz, Katie Boulter v the lucky loser Solana Sierra, Taylor Fritz v Gabriel Diallo and Emma Raducanu v the former champ Marketa Vondrousova. Here’s Tumaini’s preview of Raducanu’s match …
Greg Rusedski is confident that order will be restored at the All England Club today. “All the upsets due to heat and faster conditions on the grass,” the former British No 1 says. “Harder to control the ball and you can actually hit through the grass courts because of it. Back to normal today with rain and temperature.”
It’s a good 10C cooler today – and unfortunately it’s still raining. When play does eventually get under way, Madison Keys, Sonay Kartal, João Fonseca, Learner Tien, Leylah Fernandez and Karen Khachanov will be among the early runners and riders on the outside courts.
If you haven’t now been inspired to start your own chain reaction, Jannik Sinner reflecting on his rivalries with Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic is well worth a watch too:
The bad news: the umbrellas are up and the covers are on. There’ll be no play on the outside courts until 11.45am at the earliest.
The good news: this seems like a very good excuse to show you this. Enjoy.
The first-round carnage among the seeds has broken several records. Four of the top ten went out on both the men’s and women’s side — the most in the opening round at any major in the open era. Thirteen men’s seeds stumbling at the first hurdle is an all-time grand slam record. And that’s 23 seeds in all who’ve departed. Here are the names who’ve claimed an undesirable place in history:
Gauff (2), Pegula (3), Zheng (5), Badosa (9), Muchova (15), Ostapenko (20), Frech (25), Kostyuk (26), Linette (27), Kessler (32).
Zverev (3), Musetti (7), Rune (8), Medvedev (9), Cerundolo (16), Humbert (18), Popyrin (20), Tsitsipas (24), Shapovalov (27), Bublik (28), Michelsen (30), Griekspoor (31), Berrettini (32).
Let’s hit rewind quickly on yesterday’s action:
Today’s order of play
Centre Court (1.30pm UK time)
(1) Aryna Sabalenka (Blr) v Marie Bouzkova (Cze)
Oliver Tarvet (GB) v (2) Carlos Alcaraz (Spa)
Emma Raducanu (GB) v Marketa Vondrousova (Cze)
No1 Court (1pm)
Cameron Norrie (GB) v (12) Frances Tiafoe (US)
Katie Boulter (GB) v Solana Sierra (Arg)
(5) Taylor Fritz (US) v Gabriel Diallo (Can)
No2 Court (11am)
Olga Danilovic (Ser) v (6) Madison Keys (US)
Nuno Borges (Por) v Billy Harris (GB)
Naomi Osaka (Jpn) v Katerina Siniakova (Cze)
Arthur Fery (GB) v Luciano Darderi (Ita)
No3 Court (11am)
Viktoriya Tomova (Bul) v Sonay Kartal (GB)
(14) Andrey Rublev (Rus) v Lloyd Harris (Rsa)
(4) Jasmine Paolini (Ita) v Kamilla Rakhimova (Rus)
Botic Van de Zandschulp (Ned) v (26) Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (Spa)
Court 12 (11am)
Joao Fonseca (Bra) v Jenson Brooksby (US)
Renata Zarazua (Mex) v (13) Amanda Anisimova (US)
(23) Jiri Lehecka (Cze) v Mattia Bellucci (Ita)
Aliaksandra Sasnovich (Blr) v (14) Elina Svitolina (Ukr)
Court 18 (11am)
Shintaro Mochizuki (Jpn) v (17) Karen Khachanov (Rus)
(12) Diana Shnaider (Rus) v Diane Parry (Fra)
(25) Felix Auger-Aliassime (Can) v Jan-Lennard Struff (Ger)
Emily Appleton (GB) & Heather Watson (Gbr) v (5) Mirra Andreeva (Rus) & Diana Shnaider (Rus)
Court 4 (11am)
Xin Yu Wang (Chn) & Saisai Zheng (Chn) v (2) Gabriela Dabrowski (Can) & Erin Routliffe (Nzl)
Daniel Evans (GB) & Henry Searle (GB) v (2) Harri Heliovaara (Fin) & Henry Patten (GB)
Jodie Burrage (GB) & Sonay Kartal (GB) v Jessica Bouzas Maneiro (Spa) & Yvonne Cavalle-Reimers (Spa)
Maria Camila Osorio Serrano (Col) & Alycia Parks (US) v Alicia Barnett (GB) & Eden Silva (GB)
Court 5 (11am)
(16) Yuki Bhambri (Ind) & Robert Galloway (US) v Romain Arneodo (Mon) & Manuel Guinard (Fra)
Miomir Kecmanovic (Ser) & Andreas Mies (Ger) v (4) Marcel Granollers (Spa) & Horacio Zeballos (Arg)
Qianhui Tang (Chn) & Lin Zhu (Chn) v (12) Xinyu Jiang (Chn) & Fang-Hsien Wu (Tpe)
Court 6 (11am)
Rafael Matos (Bra) & Marcelo Melo (Bra) v Ivan Dodig (Cro) & Orlando Luz (Bra)
Fernando Romboli (Bra) & John-Patrick Smith (Aus) v MacKenzie McDonald (US) & Alex Michelsen (US)
Angelica Moratelli (Ita) & Sabrina Santamaria (US) v Sorana Cirstea (Rom) & Anna Kalinskaya (Rus)
Court 8 (11am)
Yulia Putintseva (Kaz) & Peyton Stearns (US) v Hao-Ching Chan (Tpe) & Barbora Krejcikova (Cze)
Tomas Machac (Cze) & Jakub Mensik (Cze) v Pedro Martinez (Spa) & Jaume Munar (Spa)
David Goffin (Bel) & Alexandre Muller (Fra) v Nicolas Barrientos (Col) & Rithvik Choudary Bollipalli (Ind)
Nadiia Kichenok (Ukr) & Yuliia Starodubtseva (Ukr) v (14) Ekaterina Alexandrova (Rus) & Shuai Zhang (Chn)
Court 9 (11am)
Ariel Behar (Uru) & Joran Vliegen (Bel) v (7) Simone Bolelli (Ita) & Andrea Vavassori (Ita)
Anna Blinkova (Rus) & Yue Yuan (Chn) v (15) Nicole Melichar-Martinez (US) & Ludmilla Samsonova (Rus)
Jakob Schnaitter (Ger) & Mark Wallner (Ger) v Sebastian Baez (Arg) & Francisco Comesana (Arg)
Shuko Aoyama (Jpn) & Ena Shibahara (Jpn) v Magda Linette (Pol) & Bernarda Pera (US)
Court 10 (11am)
Marta Kostyuk (Ukr) & Elena Gabriela Ruse (Rom) v Anastasija Sevastova (Lat) & Yanina Wickmayer (Bel)
Theo Arribage (Fra) & Patrik Trhac (US) v Quentin Halys (Fra) & Nicolas Mahut (Fra)
Damir Dzumhur (Bos) & Skander Mansouri (Tun) v (12) Maximo Gonzalez (Arg) & Andres Molteni (Arg)
Aleksandar Kovacevic (US) & Learner Tien (US) v N.Sriram Balaji (Ind) & Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela (Mex)
Court 11 (11am)
Kimberly Birrell (Aus) & Maya Joint (Aus) v Ulrikke Eikeri (Nor) & Makoto Ninomiya (Jpn)
(13) Irina Khromacheva (Rus) & Fanny Stollar (Hun) v Aleksandra Krunic (Ser) & Suzan Lamens (Ned)
Tomas Martin Etcheverry (Arg) & Camilo Ugo Carabelli (Arg) v Hendrik Jebens (Ger) & Albano Olivetti (Fra)
Rinky Hijikata (Aus) & David Pel (Ned) v (14) Andre Goransson (Swe) & Sem Verbeek (Ned)
Court 14 (11am)
(29) Leylah Fernandez (Can) v Laura Siegemund (Ger)
(3) Kevin Krawietz (Ger) & Tim Puetz (Ger) v Rohan Bopanna (Ind) & Sander Gille (Bel)
Eva Lys (Ger) v (30) Linda Noskova (Cze), Kamil Majchrzak (Pol) v Ethan Quinn (US)
Court 15 (11am)
Nicolas Jarry (Chi) v Learner Tien (US)
(21) Beatriz Haddad Maia (Bra) v Dalma Galfi (Hun)
Jordan Thompson (Aus) v (9) Benjamin Bonzi (Fra)
Hailey Baptiste (US) & Catherine McNally (US) v (11) Beatriz Haddad Maia (Bra) & Laura Siegemund (Ger)
Court 16 (11am)
Adrian Mannarino (Fra) v Valentin Royer (Fra)
McCartney Kessler (US) & Clara Tauson (Den) v Harriet Dart (GB) & Maia Lumsden (GB)
(31) Ashlyn Krueger (US) v Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Rus)
(16) Caroline Dolehide (US) & Sofia Kenin (US) v Bibiane Schoofs (Ned) & Dayana Yastremska (Ukr)
Court 17 (11am)
(1) Marcelo Arevalo (Esa) & Mate Pavic (Cro) v Roberto Carballes Baena (Spa) & Laslo Djere (Ser)
Cristina Bucsa (Spa) v (22) Donna Vekic (Cro)
(24) Elise Mertens (Bel) v Ann Li (US)
Christian Garin (Chi) v Arthur Rinderknech (Fra)
Preamble
Hello and welcome to our coverage of Wimbledon day three. After a Tumultuous Tuesday, which stirred memories of 2013’s infamous Black Wednesday with its levels of destruction, the remaining leading names will be hoping the shockwaves subside as the second round gets under way without 23 (!) seeds, including four of the top ten in both the men’s and women’s draws.
But with the world No 733 Oliver Tarvet up against the two-times defending champion Carlos Alcaraz, Emma Raducanu facing the 2023 winner Marketa Vondrousova and Cameron Norrie taking on the 12th seed Frances Tiafoe, the British players will attempt to continue the devastation – along with the opponents of the top seed Aryna Sabalenka, Australian Open champion Madison Keys, last year’s runner-up Jasmine Paolini and the fifth seed Taylor Fritz, who survived a two-day, five-set serve-off with Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard to avoid going the way of Coco Gauff, Alexander Zverev et al.
Also in action are Elina Svitolina, Naomi Osaka, Andrey Rublev, the up-and-comers João Fonseca and Learner Tien, the 13th seed Amanda Anisimova, plus Britain’s Katie Boulter, Sonay Kartal, Arthur Fery and Billy Harris. And this year’s doubles events begin too. But after a high of 33C yesterday, the real British summer has decided to turn up, and showers could affect play on the outside courts early on.
Play is due to start at: 11am UK time on the outside courts (depending on the weather), 1pm on No 1 Court and 1.30pm on Centre Court.
If the first two days have taught us anything: make predictions at your peril.
