Princess of Wales welcomed to Wimbledon Centre Court with applause

The Princess of Wales has been welcomed with applause to the Royal Box in Wimbledon’s Centre Court.

She arrived on the morning of the tournament’s second day and smiled and greeted two young children before heading to Court 18 to watch British number one Katie Boulter before the rain suspended her match.

Kate is the patron of the Lawn Tennis Association and regularly attends Wimbledon.

In the afternoon, she took her seat in the Royal Box in Centre Court. Those around her stood and applauded as she was led into the stands.

Former champion Roger Federer was also welcomed to the box. He took a seat next to the princess, who was stood clapping as the 41-year-old arrived at the scene of his eight titles for the first time since he retired last September.

Behind them sat British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was imprisoned in Iran for six years.

They joined spectators in watching Elena Rybakina, the defending women’s champion, begin her title defence against American Shelby Rogers.

Both women were wearing dark undershorts during the game after Wimbledon adjusted their all-white clothing policy this year. The move to allow competitors to wear coloured undershorts was made to help reduce period anxiety.

An all British-clash will take place after the women’s match as Sir Andy Murray battles fellow Briton Ryan Peniston.

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe met Sir Andy in December last year and recalled watching him win Wimbledon in 2016 from solitary confinement, saying he offered a “connection” to her life outside prison and an “escape” from her six-year detention.

On Court One, Cameron Norrie will face Tomas Machac from the Czech Republic.

British colleagues Heather Watson, George Loffhagen, Arthur Fery and Sonay Kartal will also play while Dan Evans continues his match after it was suspended on Monday.

Wimbledon saw the highest attendance on day one of the tournament since 2015, organisers said.

According to the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC), 42,815 people attended the championships on Monday, which means there were over 6,000 more spectators than last year when 36,603 people visited.

Michelle Dite, operations director for AELTC, told reporters that 11,500 people gained entry to the grounds via the queue on Monday.

She added: “We had our highest attendance at the championships on day one since 2015 yesterday.”

On Tuesday morning, fans in the queue were optimistic about their chances of watching the second day of the tournament after hold-ups at security frustrated spectators on Monday.

On day one, some spectators who had visited Wimbledon in previous years said the queue was the “worst” they had seen.

Organisers said extra checks – put in place over concerns about protests – were to blame for the slow queue.

A group of friends who arrived to queue for day two on Monday at 10am said the queue seemed less busy on Tuesday.

Joanne Price, 48, from Swansea, told the PA news agency: “Yesterday it was way busier than today.

“When I got here yesterday morning it was massive.”

Thomas Hoeg-Jensen, 59, from Copenhagen, has queued for Wimbledon many times and told PA that there were far fewer tents pitched up on Monday night compared with previous years.

He said: “Other years when we showed up at the same time we got (queue number) 500 or 600. We got 70 this time.

“Maybe because of the weather, people saw it was going to rain today.”

Nicola Yeadon, 40, from Liverpool, got to the queue just before 5am.

She told PA: “We were reading all the tweets from yesterday. We’ve done it for a few years and so far it’s the same.”

She added: “We’re waiting to get to the security bit.”

Ms Yeadon was queueing with her mother, Val Ormerod, 69, and sister, Clare Ormerod, 37, both also from Liverpool.

All three were braced for rain with “brollies and macs” at the ready.

Karim Charania, from London, arrived to start queueing outside Wimbledon at 1am on Tuesday.

Asked how the queue has been, the 29-year-old pharmacist told PA: “Initially we were going to come at 4am or 5am but we heard that the queue was a bit crazy (yesterday) so we were like, ‘let’s go a bit earlier to make sure we get in’.”

He said he was not put off by Monday’s queue chaos, adding: “I guess it was the first day so you expect some teething issues.”

The club’s chief executive, Sally Bolton, told reporters on Monday that security arrangements had been boosted after climate change group Just Stop Oil (JSO) disrupted the second Ashes Test at Lord’s, the Gallagher Premiership rugby final at Twickenham and the World Snooker Championship.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman will hold talks on Wednesday with senior sporting figures and police leaders on protecting Wimbledon and other events this summer from disruptive protests.

Event organisers and national sporting bodies will meet Ms Braverman and Sports Secretary Lucy Frazer to discuss the JSO and Animal Rising groups.

Ms Bolton told journalists that security measures included a “100% bag search” and “selective body search” at all gates – the latter of which will be conducted “on the basis of intelligence”.

Chalk dust or powder substances have been banned this year. They were not listed as prohibited items in 2022.

The championships will run until July 16.