Wimbledon 2022: Sue Barker receives a standing ovation on Centre Court

Veteran tennis broadcaster Sue Barker shed a tear on Centre Court yesterday as she received a standing ovation at her last tournament after 30 years of presenting the ‘s coverage.

However there was an awkward moment for Barker as her fellow presenter John McEnroe referenced her previous relationship with singer Sir Cliff Richard, after the pair dated between 1982 and 1986.

Sir Cliff had rewound the clock to sing ‘Summer Holiday’ a capella in the stands yesterday – some 26 years after he rose from his seat to entertain the crowd with an impromptu performance during a rain delay on July 3, 1996. 

And three-time Wimbledon champion McEnroe said: ‘Let’s hear it for Sir Cliff Richard!Sue, didn’t you have a…’ An embarrassed Barker replied: ‘No, stop, stop, stop… we’ll move on, thank you John’ to raucous laughs in the crowd.

It comes as Britain’s hopes for week two of Wimbledon ride on Cameron Norrie as the only British singles player left in the tournament, following the 26-year-old’s exhilarating win yesterday against Tommy Paul of the US.

The new home favourite will next appear tomorrow against David Goffin of Belgium.In addition, Britain’s Alicia Barnett will return tomorrow in the doubles with Jonny O’Mara, as will Heather Watson with partner Harriet Dart. 

Also yesterday, some 26 Wimbledon champions spanning 60 years lined up for the centenary ceremony as they stood shoulder to shoulder to mark 100 years of action on the hallowed grass in South West London. 

Previous champions Sir Andy Murray, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Billie Jean King were present. Barker, 66, and McEnroe, 63, introduced them in order of how many Championships they had won, before Barker shed a tear.

And McEnroe said: ‘One final word to the crowd.On behalf of all the players, I just want to say that we’re going to be lost without you. After 30 years of covering this tournament magnificently, please give it up for Sue Barker.’

The ‘lost without you’ phrase was a reference to British singer Freya Ridings having performed her song Lost Without You on a white piano as the grand slam winners looked across the grass and some spectators wept. 

Following a lengthy applause, Barker said: ‘Just to say thank you so much, but this is about the tournament and all I can say is that from now on John McEnroe’s going to be commentating on Court 17 after that, going off script.But thank you, that really does mean the world to me, it really does.’

Writing in his book My Life, My Way in 2008, Sir Cliff had previously said of Barker: ‘I seriously contemplated asking her to marry me, but in the end I realised that I didn’t love her quite enough to commit the rest of my life to her.There were no broken hearts.’

Yesterday, each tennis star was greeted with applause – and fans got to their feet and cheered when the record eight-time Wimbledon winner, Roger Federer, strode on to the court wearing a suit and tie with white trainers.

American former number one King wore a bright pink blazer and blew kisses to the crowd.

During an on-court interview with Barker, she said: ‘As a 17-year-old I played my first match ever here at Wimbledon. I had two days on this court.It was magical and wonderful and I knew I belonged here.’

She paid tribute to nine-time Wimbledon winner and her friend, Martina Navratilova, who was wiped out of the line-up by coronavirus.

Navratilova had been due to attend with Harry Potter author JK Rowling, who also had to cancel her royal box slot online yesterday morning.

Novak Djokovic, the favourite to win the men’s singles this year, said it was an ‘absolute honour and privilege’ to be sharing the court with ‘the legends of our sport’ and revealed he was more nervous than when he had been playing.

The Serbian 20-time grand slam winner said: ‘Definitely this court has been truly special for my childhood and I always dreamed of being here and hopefully winning as well.The dreams came true and I was blessed back in 2011 – probably the highlight of my career and the most beautiful moment.’

Swiss great Federer gave a characteristically humble speech, saying he felt ‘awkward’ to return to the court without playing and he had ‘missed’ Wimbledon this year.

‘I hope I can come back one more time,’ the 20-time grand slam winner, who is out with a knee injury, told the audience.The knee has been rough on me but I’ve been happy at home, it’s been a good year.’

Centre Court has been the main stage at the Championships since 1922, when the tournament relocated from SW19’s Worple Road to Church Road.

From Althea Gibson being the first black player to win Wimbledon in 1957, to the now-jailed former grand slam great Boris Becker winning the year the Berlin Wall came down, it has hosted many memorable moments in history.

The court was also bombed in October 1940, during the Second World War, and Wimbledon was unable to repair the damaged section until 1947.

In 1979, it was expanded to host a larger capacity and in 2009 it gained a retractable roof.

Over the last two years, the tournament has been compromised by coronavirus, as 2020 saw it cancelled, while it had a 50 per cent capacity limit in 2021.

This year, thousands of free tickets have been given to Ukrainian, Syrian and Afghan refugees, as well as to community groups and schools.

Ukrainian refugees Inna Ohrimchuk, 28, and Oleksandra Alimova, 28, were among the crowd, having arrived in the UK in May after fleeing the war in their home country.

Miss Ohrimchuk said: ‘I’ve never been to a tennis tournament.We want to get our mind off everything that is going on back home.

‘It’s like you are a watching the tournament but checking the news at the same time to see what is happening back home – it was an experience for me. You are trying to enjoy life but not forget that it is not exactly like this back in Ukraine.’

Miss Alimova added: ‘It is the first time I’ve experienced something like this.It is something to show off about that we’ve been to Wimbledon as everybody knows about it!’

The winners appearing yesterday were: Angela Mortimer Barrett, 90, champion in 1961; two-time Wimbledon winner Rafael Nadal, 36; Stan Smith, 75, who won in 1972; and 2011 and 2014 champion Petra Kvitova, 32.

Next up was 1969 winner Ann Jones, 83; Andy Murray, 35, who has two Wimbledon titles; Jan Kodes, 76, who won in 1973; three-time winner Margaret Court, 79; and 1987 champion Pat Cash, 57.Next to him was three-time champion John Newcombe, 78; 1994 winner Conchita Martinez, 50; Chris Evert, 67, who won Wimbledon three times; 1997 winner Martina Hingis, 41; and Goran Ivanisevic, 50, the only wild card to lift the trophy.

To his left was Bjorn Borg, 66, who won five consecutive titles; Lleyton Hewitt, 41, champion in 2002; four-time winner Rod Laver, 83; Venus Williams, 42, who won Wimbledon five times; and 2013 champion Marion Bartoli, 37.

She stood next to Billie Jean King, 78, a six-time champion; 2018 champion Angelique Kerber, 34; six-time winner Novak Djokovic, 35; Simona Halep, 30, who won in 2019; three-time champion John McEnroe, 63, who introduced the players; Stefan Edberg, 56, a double winner; and eight-time champion Roger Federer, 40.

Today, first on Centre Court in week two will be fiery Australian Nick Kyrgios against America’s Brandon Nakashima.

This comes after the Canberra-born star beat equally-bullish Stefanos Tsitsipas in a drama-filled game which saw the players pick up three code violations between them.

Kyrgios was cautioned for swearing, while his Greek opponent breached the rules twice for smashing the ball away into the crowd.

Athens-born Tsitsipas slammed Kyrgios as ‘a bully’ with ‘a very evil side’ after the match, and spectators were divided over whether it was ‘absolutely incredible’ entertainment or an ’embarrassing’ display of temper tantrums.

Two-time grand slam winner, Romanian Simona Halep, will take on Spaniard Paula Badosa, who has never won a grand slam but is now more highly ranked at world number four.

Tennis titan Rafael Nadal, who has 22 grand slam titles under his belt, will face the Netherlands’ Botic van de Zandschulp for today’s Centre Court finale.

The success of Norrie, along with previous wins from Britons Heather Watson and Katie Boulter, seemed to spark a rise in attendance after a lower-than-expected turnout over the first four days of the tournament.

Figures rose from 38,620 fans on Thursday to 42,173 tickets sold on Friday, with another slight increase on Saturday to 42,561.

Tennis-lovers said attendance in the famous Wimbledon queue for premium on-the-day tickets, which returned after a Covid-induced two-year hiatus, was at least five times lower this year than in 2019.

Fans attributed the drop to a combination of the cost-of-living crisis, fears about catching Covid, and the absence of eight-time Wimbledon winner Roger Federer who normally draws in swathes of international observers.

The All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) told the Daily Telegraph it is considering making the queue partly digital in response to the sudden dip in popularity – something superfans have said would be ‘a disastrous idea’.

They opposed an additional virtual queue in any form, saying it would detract from the atmosphere and allow people to claim tickets easily, only to drop them later.