Break point

Which snaps first: the zip of Iga Swiatek’s racket bag because of all the Wimbledon towels she has been stuffing into it to give to her friends and family members who have been asking for them, or her run on the grass of the All England Club?

Perhaps both will go unbroken this Fortnight.

The dream scenario for the Pole, of course, is that she wins seven matches here, because think of all the opportunities to scoop up the towels that players are given, and because then she would end up taking the ladies’ singles title for the first time.

“It’s a topic that no one ever talks about. We love our towels,” Swiatek, who plays American Caty McNally for a place in the last 32, said after she was spotted collecting several towels following her opening-match win.

“Sorry, Wimbledon, I’m not sure if I’m supposed to do that,” said Swiatek, who has 10 friends, along with 10 family members, wanting a present from her trip. Swiatek already has enough towels of her own at home – if she plays for another 15 years, she has said, she would need to build a new room to accommodate them all. What she really wants for herself is a replica of the Venus Rosewater Dish.

Swiatek vs McNally is scheduled second on Centre Court

Rare man Dan

Dan Evans is that rare figure – someone with a winning record against Novak Djokovic, the greatest tennis player of all time, who has come to London with ambitions of winning an eighth Wimbledon title and a 25th Grand Slam, which would extend his record.

But maybe their head-to-head history won’t be that relevant here, since they have played only once before and that was four years ago on the clay of the Monte Carlo Country Club.

This could be a fun second round match as the British wild card, who became emotional the other day when talking about losing and “feeling as though you have let people down”, has a creative game while Djokovic knows how to entertain the Centre Court crowd.

Evans vs Djokovic is scheduled first on Centre Court

Elena’s elite elevation?

Power and poise are a strong combination on the grass. Just consider Elena Rybakina.

Only three women have won multiple Wimbledon titles this century: Serena Williams, Venus Williams and Petra Kvitova (who played her final match at the All England Club on Tuesday).

But could this be the summer when Rybakina, the 2022 Ladies’ Singles Champion, joins that elite group? Three years ago, she became the first Kazakhstani player to land a Grand Slam title and she also put together long runs here over the last couple of years, reaching the quarter-finals in 2023 and the semi-finals last summer.

Rybakina, who was serving at speeds of up to 119mph in her first round appearance, plays Greece’s Maria Sakkari in the second round.

Sakkari vs Rybakina is scheduled second on No.1 Court

New ground to tread

Before everyone gets ahead of themselves when discussing how far Jack Draper can go this Fortnight, he’s going to have to first do something he has never done before: reach the third round at Wimbledon.

The Briton plays Croatia’s Marin Cilic, the 2017 Wimbledon finalist and the 2014 US Open champion (he played some astonishing tennis in his last three matches in New York City that summer, winning in straight sets against Tomas Berdych, Roger Federer and Kei Nishikori).

Draper vs Cilic is scheduled third on No.1 Court

Mood music

Off the court, Jannik Sinner has been showing his range, collaborating with tenor Andrea Bocelli on a single called ‘Polvere e Gloria’ (‘Dust and Glory’).

To get you in the mood for Sinner’s second round match against Australia’s Aleksandar Vukic, perhaps first listen to the music, with the world No.1 saying that being part of the project was “extremely moving”.

Sinner vs Vukic is scheduled third on Centre Court