Rusedski calls out Kyrgios
Nick Kyrgios was unrepentant after striking Rafael Nadal with a forehand during his defeat on Thursday but it turns out the majority at Wimbledon still care about proper etiquette. “Ninety-nine per cent of players would have apologised,” Greg Rusedski, the former British power server, said. “Most people here are going to tell you the same thing.” What would Greg have done if he had been on the receiving end from Kyrgios? “Rafa gave him the death stare but at the end of the day it was all about winning the match. It was a second round and you saw how he celebrated at the end.”
Presidency row heats up
No doubt fellow royal box guests were queuing up to quiz David Haggerty about the growing row surrounding the International Tennis Federation presidency. Haggerty is bidding for re-election after four years in the job but one of his rival candidates is unhappy with the code of ethics recently introduced by the ITF board. “The code of conduct stops me from doing everything Dave Haggerty did four years ago,” Dave Miley said earlier this week. “He gave out his manifesto early, he travelled to all the regional meetings. People tried to stop me from going to the African AGM but I went anyway. They stopped me from going to the European AGM and the South American AGM and Dave Haggerty went to all those.” Haggerty has called Miley’s allegations “spurious”. Still, it all sounds very stressful. Let’s hope Haggerty didn’t spend all of his day on Centre Court talking shop, especially when there was a chance to discuss the Cricket World Cup with Sir Alastair Cook or find out the latest on the next James Bond film from Fleabag star Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
Bubbling over on court
The champagne was flowing a little too freely on Court 18. Play had to be stopped during the match between Benoît Paire and Jiri Vesely when a cork flew out of a bottle of bubbly and knocked a punter’s sunglasses off. “Ladies and gentlemen, enjoy your champagne but please don’t open it on the court,” the umpire Gianluca Moscarella sighed. A Wimbledon spokesperson said: “In our conditions of entry, it states that all corked bottles, including bottles of champagne and sparkling wine, must be opened prior to being taken into the stands of any court.” Only at SW19.
