{"id":228180,"date":"2025-07-01T02:47:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T02:47:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/228180\/"},"modified":"2025-07-01T02:47:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T02:47:18","slug":"wimbledon-play-paused-after-fan-collapses-in-32-3c-centre-court-heat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/228180\/","title":{"rendered":"Wimbledon play paused after fan collapses in 32.3C Centre Court heat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Play was suspended on Wimbledon\u2019s hottest opening day as the defending champion Carlos Alcaraz went to assist a spectator who collapsed in the heat.<\/p>\n

Temperatures reached 32.3C at the All England Club as at least six British players progressed to the second round.<\/p>\n

They included Arthur Fery, the 461-ranked player who beat the 20th seed Alexei Popyrin, and Emma Raducanu<\/a>, 22, who defeated Mimi Xu, 17, from Swansea, after their match was interrupted by a champagne cork landing on No 1 Court.<\/p>\n

The heat peaked at 4.05pm, smashing the previous opening day record of 29.3C set in June 2001.<\/p>\n

Four hours and 26 minutes into his match against Fabio Fognini, Alcaraz<\/a>, 22, spotted that Delyth Lewis, 79, was struggling. Spectators said she was left in direct sun after the court roof was moved to keep the royal box in shade.<\/p>\n

The Spanish player rushed to the British umpire James Keothavong to halt the game before picking up his own water bottles and going to her aid. <\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Spectators hoping to get in on Monday have been camping over the weekend<\/p>\n

MIKE EGERTON\/PA<\/p>\n

\"Aerial<\/p>\n

JULIAN FINNEY\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

The game was halted for 15 minutes as officials shielded Lewis from the sun with umbrellas. The retired bank worker, from Upper Tumble in west Wales, was eventually taken off the court on a stretcher. Lewis\u2019s niece, Sharon Lewis, said her aunt told her she needed to leave but fainted forwards when she stood up.<\/p>\n

\u201cCarlos came over straight away and he gave us water, and he just kept on asking if she was all right; he stayed there,\u201d she said. \u201cHe was such a sweetheart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lewis said they were sitting in the sun for hours but were determined to remain \u201ceven though it was so hot [as] we honestly thought it would only be three sets\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Crowd<\/p>\n

Sweltering in the queues<\/p>\n

ALASTAIR GRANT\/AP<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cWhen it got to the fifth set, even I thought, \u2018this is really getting really hot\u2019. She was agreeing but we just wanted to stick it out and to see him win.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think she overheated. We were drinking plenty of water; we were just about to hop out because she said she needed a break from the sun but she was desperate to see him win. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s a huge fan. The first thing she asked when she came around was, \u2018did he win?\u2019 and she was delighted that he did win but she was sorry she didn\u2019t get to see it. She\u2019s his number one fan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rich Bichero, 46, from Redhill, Surrey, who was accompanied by his wife, Louise, 45, said the roof was moved before the woman passing out, putting their section of the stands in direct sunlight. <\/p>\n

\"Spectator<\/p>\n

The queue is never officially closed but fans not already in line were told entry was unlikely<\/p>\n

MIKE EGERTON\/PA<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not surprised someone collapsed,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s been scorching. What\u2019s bad is the roof was out and then they moved it back to shade the royal box, which increased the sun on us.<\/p>\n

\u201cHad they left it where it was, we would\u2019ve been in the shade for at least another hour.\u201d<\/p>\n

Julia Hitchcock, 53, questioned the time it took for first aid staff to arrive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw Alcaraz hanging around the stands but I didn\u2019t realise what was going on at first,\u201d she said. \u201cIt took ages for the medical staff to go over.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Spectators dressed as the Wimbledon champions John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg<\/p>\n

ISABEL INFANTES\/REUTERS<\/p>\n

Another woman collapsed unconscious an hour into the match and was placed in the recovery position by a midwife who was also a spectator.<\/p>\n

The All England Club said a number of spectators received treatment for heat-related issues during the day. The club advised fans not to join the queue an hour before the gates opened at 10am as more than 10,000 people were waiting in line.<\/p>\n

Sir David Beckham watched the match on the front row of the air-conditioned royal box along with Sarah, Duchess of York, and her daughter Princess Beatrice, Sir Gareth Southgate, the former England football manager, and Ronan Keating, the singer.<\/p>\n

Organisers said they made sure there was plenty of ice on court, while the \u201cBeau Geste protocol\u201d was in place for ball boys and girls with hats and cooling scarves to protect their necks.<\/p>\n

Sally Bolton, the Wimbledon chief executive, asked spectators to \u201ckeep an eye on your friends and others around you, people who look like they\u2019re suffering a little bit from heat stress\u201d. <\/p>\n

She added: \u201cWe\u2019ve got a really significantly sized medical team here so we\u2019ve got people here to help if that\u2019s needed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Play was suspended on Wimbledon\u2019s hottest opening day as the defending champion Carlos Alcaraz went to assist a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[79,1068,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-228180","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114775696946309867","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}