Serena Williams can relax. The Wimbledon champion was thrilled to learn that the Queen would be in the Royal Box today and had been practising her curtsy in earnest — only to discover yesterday that her match against Anna Chakvetadze, of Russia, had been put on No 2 Court and not, as is usually the case for the previous year’s winner, on Centre.
But Williams will be introduced to Her Majesty away from the public gaze along with Roger Federer, the men’s champion, on the Members’ Lawn. Also present will be a selection of other top seeds, several of the British women and the two finest women’s players of the past 45 years, Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova. The Queen will have lunch in the Wimbledon members’ restaurant with a number of hand-picked guests and be finished in time for the start of play on Centre Court at 1pm, when Andy Murray faces Jarkko Nieminen, of Finland.
Unlike many Centre Court ticket-holders, Her Majesty will not take her seat after the first match is under way because this would disrupt play. The All England Club, however, has yet to know whether the Queen will stay to watch Rafael Nadal’s match against Robin Haase, of the Netherlands.
However, the Queen’s visit will start mid-morning in the public gaze at the Aorangi Terrace — aka Henman’s Hill — and her planned route will take her along St Mary’s Walk, where she will be introduced to Wimbledon officials, representatives from the London Fire Brigade and St John Ambulance, stewards and a ballgirl who will present Her Majesty with a posy.
The Queen will then move to No 14 Court to watch young players that are part of the Wimbledon Junior Tennis Initiative, the All England’s community programme led by Dan Bloxham, who will explain the initiative’s aims.
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The Queen last visited Wimbledon in 1977 when Virginia Wade won the title and Her Majesty would have been back sooner had a British player made a singles final. The Duke of Edinburgh is not expected to be in SW19 today.
The Queen will be whisked away from Centre Court by car either full of admiration for Britain’s No 1 or saddened by the state of British tennis — but she will definitely have seen one of the Williams sisters curtsy.