Follow the latest news and scores from Wimbledon 2016 on Wimbledon.com or Apple TV, or download the official IOS or Android apps for smartphone and tablet
Spectators are always looking for ways to innovate in the creation of a tennis-ball hat. Like the one snapped here.
But the threshold for defying convention and setting a new fashion trend at Wimbledon used to be much higher and more challenging.
The curator of the Wimbledon museum, Anna Renton, has been telling me about her heroine, the French player Suzanne Lenglen — the first woman to compete on court without a corset. Instead, in 1919, she daringly contested, corset-less, in a risqué calf-length skirt.
Lenglen was a trailblazer in an expanding age of modernity, with society poised to leave behind the privations of the Great War and let its hair down — and that included greater freedom of personal movement in sport as the Twenties roared in.
Not surprisingly, I discover, the lack of corset and shorter skirt served the lady well. She won the ladies’ singles title that year. And the next. And again in 1921, 1922, 1923 and 1925.
As well as the museum telling Lenglen’s story, there’s a fleeting chance, on Tuesday, to catch sight of the prize captured by the British Davis Cup team in 2015. Won for the first time in almost 80 years, the giant trophy is on tour, made an appearance on Middle Sunday and will be on display again.
Also on Tuesday are the draws for the Wheelchair events: the singles at 10.30am and the doubles at the afternoon Player Meeting. Personally, I’ll never forget the incredible atmosphere at the track and football events I managed to see at the London 2012 Paralympics. I didn’t get to see the wheelchair tennis then, but hope to put that right at Wimbledon 2016.
