Tennis fans faced the hottest start to Wimbledon on record on Monday as temperatures soared to 32C.
Spectators used fans and umbrellas to cope with the heat as they queued from the early hours to watch players including Emma Raducanu, the British women’s No 1; and the defending men’s champion, Carlos Alcaraz, who rushed to the aid of a fan who collapsed.
Delyth Lewis, 79, was assisted off Centre Court after falling ill in the fifth hour of the 22-year-old Spaniard’s match against Italy’s Fabio Fognini.
Players were offered ice on court to help cool off and more than 100 water stations were dotted across the grounds for spectators. Temperatures reached a high of 32.3C at Wimbledon on Monday afternoon, surpassing the previous record of 29.3C set on day one of the championships on 25 June 2001. The Met Office said temperatures could reach 34C on Monday and Tuesday.
“Records are tumbling off the court as we can confirm this is the hottest start to Wimbledon on record,” said Met Office spokesperson Marco Petagna. “The really high heat is not ideal conditions for playing, but the temperature will fall to 24 or 25C later this week.”
Alcaraz spotted Lewis struggling during his match and rushed to the umpire’s chair before handing the unwell woman a bottle of water. Play was briefly stopped before Alcaraz returned to take the fifth set. Her niece Sharon Lewis said: “We think she overheated, we were drinking plenty of water, we were just about to hop out because she said she needed a break from the sun but she was desperate to see him win.
“Suddenly she just leaned over and passed out. He came over straight away, he stayed and he kept talking to her. He was such a sweetheart.”
Alcaraz spotted the struggling spectator during his match and rushed to the umpire’s chair before handing the unwell woman a bottle of water. Play was briefly stopped before Alcaraz returned to take the fifth set. Another woman collapsed earlier in the match and had to be put in the recovery position by a spectator who was a midwife. A number of spectators were treated for heat-related incidents on Monday, Wimbledon said.
Meanwhile, the world No 1, Aryna Sabalenka, held a bag of ice against her head during a break in her match against Canada’s Carson Branstine on No 1 Court.
“We’re not used to these kinds of temperatures but we’re absolutely ready for it and actually delighted that it’s sunny and not wet like it was last year,” said Sally Bolton, the chief executive of the All England Lawn Tennis Club.
Heavy rain over the first nine days of last year’s championships caused a major backlog of matches that had to be rescheduled.
Wimbledon, like other tennis tournaments, monitors air temperature, surface temperature and humidity for a heat-stress reading that allows for a 10-minute break between the third and fourth set of men’s matches, or between sets two and three of women’s matches, at temperatures of 30.1C or above. The hottest ever Wimbledon day was on 1 July 2015, when temperatures reached 35.7C.
Bolton said all 250 ball boys and girls would be wearing caps that include neck coverings and using cooling scarves to cope with the hot weather. She added that workers across the grounds would be given regular breaks. Wimbledon’s on-site pharmacy has had to order more sun block, which has been flying off the shelves.
The heat did not stop fans from flocking to Wimbledon on the opening day of the 138th championships, with organisers advising people in the morning not to travel to the grounds to join the already busy queue. An announcement at Earl’s Court station in west London at about 8.50am warned travellers the grounds were already “at capacity”.
Protesters also gathered outside the grounds, calling for a boycott of Wimbledon’s banking partner Barclays over ties to Israel’s war on Gaza. They held placards and handed out pamphlets about the bank’s “sportswashing” as they stood by a replica of the bullet-ridden car that five-year-old Hind Rajab and her family died in after it came under fire in Gaza City.
“I think the world is carrying on like nothing’s happening. We’re eating, drinking, going to functions, but at the same time human beings are being killed, tortured,” said Lubna, a local resident who held a placard on the street facing Centre Court.
Another, Damian McCarthy, added: “I enjoy tennis, I don’t enjoy genocide, and no one should.”
Barclays said in a statement that it was proud of its partnership with Wimbledon. It added: “We provide a range of financial services and products to companies supplying defence products to the UK, Nato and its allies.”
Bolton said Palestinian flags would not be banned from the grounds and that the club was always reviewing its security measures for athletes and spectators. It comes after Raducanu’s stalker was blocked from buying tickets for the championships this month in the public ballot.
“What we saw with the incidents with Emma Raducanu I think brings it front of mind for people perhaps outside the tennis community, but sadly, the reality for particularly female athletes in sport, is it’s not particularly unusual and so those are the sorts of issues that we are fairly well versed in dealing with,” she said.
Six British players went through to the second round of Wimbledon on Monday afternoon, including Raducanu who defeated 17-year-old Mimi Xu, from Swansea. The 21-year‑old qualifier Oliver Tarvet, the lowest-ranked man at Wimbledon at No 733, beat Switzerland’s Leandro Riedi in straight sets, while Sonay Kartal triumphed over Jeļena Ostapenko, the 20th seed. The wildcard Arthur Fery upset 20th seed Alexei Popyrin, while Cameron Norrie, the former British No 1, defeated Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut, and Billy Harris triumphed over Dusan Lajovic.
Six Britons – Xu, Harriet Dart, Jacob Fearnley, Hannah Klugman, Oliver Crawford and Henry Searle – suffered first round exits.
