Famous faces watch Emma Raducanu as Wimbledon bosses address embarrassing faux pas
Emma Raducanu mastered her opening match at Wimbledon with ease, winning in straight sets on Centre Court, watched by numerous celebrity faces in the Royal Box.
David Beckham watched from the Royal Box on Centre Court as Emma Raducanu won her first round match at Wimbledon.
Beckham, 49, treated his mother Sandra, 75, to a day at SW19 and they were joined in the box by a number of other famous faces. Sir David Attenborough, 98, received a standing ovation as he took his seat.
Sir Trevor McDonald, 84, and opera singer Katherine Jenkins, 44, also watched. It could have been an embarrassing encounter for Beckham and Jenkins, who was sitting directly behind him with her husband Andrew Levitas.
In leaked emails from 2017, the former England captain reportedly wrote a message to his PR manager criticising the singer for receiving the OBE and expressing regret that he was not given a knighthood.
One person is said to have said: “Katherine Jenkins OBE for what? Because she sings at rugby, visits the troops and does coke. A shitty joke.”
On the court, 21-year-old Raducanu defeated 26-year-old lucky loser Renata Zarazua of Mexico in straight sets. Thousands had previously flocked to Wimbledon on the first day of the 2024 championships to enjoy strawberries and Pimm’s – and to say goodbye to Sir Andy Murray.
If he plays, tomorrow could be his last singles match at the All England Club. After a recent back operation, the former world number one wanted to wait as long as possible to decide if he was fit enough to take to the field.
Wimbledon CEO Sally Bolton hinted yesterday (Monday) that Sir Andy, like Fred Perry, could have a statue erected somewhere on the grounds at SW19 once his sporting career is over.
Meanwhile, Wimbledon organizers had to take a serious hit when it turned out that their AI-generated player profiles were wrong.
Raducanu was named as the British number one despite being ranked third, while Zhang Shuai and Daria Kasatkina, 35 and 27 respectively, were described as “up-and-coming”.
An AELTC spokesperson said: “The Catch Me Up feature is a first-of-its-kind pilot in sport, being implemented in partnership with IBM. This AI innovation will naturally evolve as the system’s capabilities increase with the addition of human controls.
“This feature complements the traditional breadth of extensive editorial content produced by our team of writers, who provide in-depth coverage of the Championships to audiences around the world.”
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