For 102 years, the Royal Box has been reserved for members of the Royal Family and a host of illustrious guests and friends of tennis invited by the All England Club Chairman. 

Day 3 of the 2024 Championships was graced with the first visit by a member of the royal family, HRH The Duchess of Gloucester, the Honorary President of the Lawn Tennis Association.

Her Royal Highness was accompanied by Sarah Clarke, Usher of the Black Rod in the House of Lords, but a familiar face to many in these parts from her previous role as Championships Director – indeed the first woman in history to be a Grand Slam tournament director.

The glitterati took up their places in the Lloyd Loom wicker chairs at 1.30pm to watch players who would like to reign on Centre Court come finals weekend. Tension was palpable, but in Black Rod they boasted an expert in ceremonial proceedings. As the monarch’s representative in the House of Lords, she is best known for knocking three times on the door of the House of Commons to summon MPs for the King’s Speech at the State Opening of Parliament.

This is a scenario well-known to fellow guest and former Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Theresa May. In the interest of keeping The Championships a politics-free zone this election season, can we just talk about Mrs May’s legendary footwear (zebra-patterned kitten heels, red and black snakeskin boots or jewel-embellished stilettos)?

The Royal Box preserves guest discretion and, alas, courtside spectators could not see her choice of footwear for a day out at Wimbledon. But with Mrs May’s interest in shoes, and the nifty footwork of Medvedev, Navarro and Sinner below, there was surely much synchronicity of interest with another guest, namely Sir John Timpson, founder of the people’s champion of shoe repair services.

Glamour is part of the world of Gus Christie, Executive Chairman of Glyndebourne, and his wife, the international soprano, Danielle de Niese. Like Wimbledon, the opera venue has an English country garden setting, sculptures dotted around the grounds and a croquet lawn; like the All England Club it stages drama and spectacle.

The Christies are not to be confused with Christy, the company which manufactures Wimbledon’s cult Championship Towel, whose Chief Executive Officer, Vanshika Goenka Misra, was also a guest of Deborah Jevans on Day 3, taking up prime position to check on the look of this year’s new 'seasonal purples’.

Tennis royalty was headed by Maria Sharapova (main picture). Can it really be 20 years since the 17-year-old swept aside Serena Williams in straight sets and then tried to call her mother on a mobile phone before the trophy presentation? 

Wimbledon is also where Sharapova won an Olympic silver medal in 2012. Other guests with notable Olympic credentials included: Lord Deighton, Chairman of the Economist Group and former CEO of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and golfer Justin Rose, who took gold in 2016.

Supremos of other sports enjoyed their day at the cathedral of tennis alongside David Clarke from the British Paralympic Association and Lord Allen of Kensington, Chairman of Invictus Games.

Bruce Carnegie-Brown, Chairman of the Marylebone Cricket Club, swapped the egg-and-bacon colours for purple and green in SW19. He was joined by Richard Thompson, Chair of the England and Wales Cricket Board; Neil Donaldson, Captain of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrew’s; and Vinai Venkatesham, the CEO of Arsenal Football Club.

And nice to have TV pundit Daniela Hantuchova, the Wimbledon mixed doubles champion in 2001, on hand for match analysis over scones and clotted cream at tea.