Wimbledon diary: football phobia, AI fandom and home-nation heartbreaks

Fans look for alternatives with no World Cup matches shown on site, while Britain’s best get off to a bad start

Before you pack your England shirt for SW19, be warned: Wimbledon is staying firmly in its own sporting lane. The All England Club confirmed that no World Cup matches would be shown anywhere on site. Centre Court, yes. Centre-forward, absolutely not. The football faithful, however, are nothing if not resourceful.“We are here to watch Senhor João Fonseca,” said Luis Suassuna, attending his first tennis tournament with his brother and cousin, all three donning bright canary yellow Brazil tops. “Hopefully he gives us some good tennis but also no need for him to drag it out too much because the Seleção kick-off against Japan at 6pm. No time for us to get back to our Airbnb so we will be watching on Henman Hill.” Elsewhere, a group of German fans admitted they had not realised how far Wimbledon was from central London and were already plotting an escape to find a pub before Paraguay at 9.30pm. “We have been Googling German fan groups in south London all day,” said Karl Weber. “No luck so far!”

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