It is the first time the monarch has visited SW19 since 1977.
Williams, who beat her first round opponent in straight sets yesterday (tues), has been busy practicing the mark of respect and said she was “speechless” at the thought of playing in front of the Queen.
“My curtsy is really fun, she said yesterday. “It is a little dramatic, I want it to be more natural - right now it feels really forced, so I am looking forward to nailing it.
“It’s something that she’ll definitely never forget, if I ever even get a chance to meet her.
“We really don’t do that so much in the United States, so I’m working really hard on it.”
Williams, 28, said she had planned to practice her curtsy during her first round match, but lost the courage.
“I think I flubbed it, so I’m definitely going to work on it a little more. I’m trying to tone down my wrist action.”
Williams beat Portugal’s Michelle Larcher de Brito in an hour and three minutes as the two women battled it out in front of a capacity crowd.
Both women are known for their loud grunting as they hit the ball, with the loudest noise recorded at 90 decibels – the equivalent of motorway traffic.
Williams, who is known for her striking fashion sense, sported a “strawberries and cream” outfit in honour of Wimbledon – complete with strawberries on her socks.
Temperatures reached 27 degrees Celsius on Centre Court and by 3pm 66 people had been seen by St John’s Ambulance for heat related ailments.
There was further disappointment for British tennis as Anne Keothavong threw away a 4-0 lead in the third set to lose to Australian Anastasia Rodionova.
Rodinova drew boos from the crowd after repeatedly shouting at Keothavong’s supporters to be quiet.
Keothavong was not immune to losing her temper after a series of umpiring decisions went against her, at one point shouting at the line judge: “Are you kidding me? Oh my God. What are you doing, lady?”
Afterwards, Keovathong said: “Nerves got the better of me, to be honest. There’s so much pressure on all of us here.
“There is nothing we would love more than to do well. Unfortunately that didn’t happen. Life goes on, nobody died.”
The warm weather encouraged spectators to flock to the tournament and the queue for on day two was full by 10.15am.
The queue allows for 1,500 seated tickets and 7,000 ground tickets to be bought. Fans without tickets being advised to turn back at Southfields underground station.
The capacity for this year’s tournament has been reduced by 2,500 because courts three, four and six are closed for improvements.
It is the last phase of improvements for the SW19 site.
Wimbledon had its latest finish on Monday night, with a match between Novak Djokovic and Olivier Rochus ending at 10.58pm.
The roof was closed at 8.15pm to allow te first round, five set match to continue with the last two sets lasting an hour each.
By the time the match finished, Centre Court was only a third full.
An All England Club spokesman said: “It is not something we seek to repeat on a regular basis, if at all.”
No comments:
Post a Comment