As celebrity sightings go, it wasn’t a bad start. Just after 10am, a trio of Spaniards strolled up Wimbledon’s Church Road towards Gate 1 of the All England Club.

Even as the seventh best player on the planet, Spanish teenager Carlos Alcaraz is still relatively unrecognisable to the average SW19 resident and went unnoticed during his walk to work with coach and former world No.1 Juan Carlos Ferrero.

These days, not much gets in the way of ‘Carlitos’ – as he likes to be known – but even the 19-year-old was stopped in his tracks outside the entrance as a fire alarm interrupted his progress towards the Aorangi Park practice courts.

Alcaraz was one of a handful of big names out early with five days to go before showtime next Monday. While some prefer tournament tennis the week prior to a Grand Slam, others, such as the Spaniard, like to fine-tune their preparations behind closed doors, onsite.

At times it makes for a surreal setting: the sport’s biggest names prepping for the world’s biggest tournament as a handful of Wimbledon staff and construction workers look on during their lunch hour.

While Alcaraz was hitting with Belgium’s David Goffin, recent Roland-Garros ladies’ runner up Coco Gauff was another early starter in the first practice slot at 10am.

The pre-competition facilities are impressive. Aorangi offers 20 practice courts, there are another six nearby at the Southlands venue and five of the Championships courts were in action, too, where some of the most successful men in recent years were rubbing shoulders.

No sooner had three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka finished pummelling his famous single-hander towards practice partner Dominik Koepfer, on Court 14, than Rafael Nadal appeared with his team next door.

Now the owner of 22 Grand Slam singles titles after winning in Melbourne and Paris this year, the Spaniard spent time focusing on his serve technique with input from coaches Francisco Roig and Marc Lopez.

Once he’d wrapped up his serving, another of those surreal episodes played out. After posing for selfies, Rafa set off in the direction of the changing rooms and inadvertently joined a group of young staff members enjoying their first day’s orientation tour. Nobody seemed to realise.

Back on Court 14, six-time champion Novak Djokovic and former semi-finalist Grigor Dimitrov were attracting attention as they began their second session of the day.

Look closely and you’d notice another former men’s singles champion on court. Novak’s coach, Goran Ivanisevic, watched from the shadows on a boiling hot summer’s day.

Yards away, Andy Murray passed the time with Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis as the two-time winner waited to hit with American Francis Tiafoe.

It was another session with notable coaching personnel in attendance. Murray is back alongside eight-time Grand Slam winner Ivan Lendl while Tiafoe took advice from South African former pro Wayne Ferreira across the net.

Nearby on Court 18, yet another former Grand Slam champion could be found. Here it was 2014 US Open champion Marin Cilic pounding groundstrokes towards Polish rising star Kamil Majchrzak.

While both world No.1 Iga Swiatek and reigning US Open champion Emma Raducanu preferred Aorangi as their training destination on Wednesday, another seeded player in the ladies’ draw, Spain’s Paula Badosa, appeared on Court 15 on the stroke of five o’clock.

With her warm-ups done, specific forehand drills began. Even as the world No.4, sometimes it’s the simple methods that are the most effective and coach Jorge Garcia fed the 24-year-old mid-court balls that were ripped towards three bright yellow targets around a metre inside the baseline. 

Each hit received immediate feedback and the best strikes were rewarded with a hearty ‘bellisima’.

British tennis fans will be pleased to hear Kyle Edmund is back on the road to recovery after a second knee surgery and was spotted returning from Aorangi alongside coach Colin Beecher.

Many will remember Edmund’s run to the last four at the 2018 Australian Open before those knee problems forced him off the Tour.

The 27-year-old plans to play the mixed doubles at The Championships this year – it would be his first match of any kind since late 2020 – before playing on the Challenger Tour and a potential return to Grand Slam singles action in New York in late August.

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