There has never been any doubt who has the best seat in the house at Wimbledon. It has been the preserve of Tim Phillips for the past 10 years in his capacity as chairman of the All England Club. And the man whose on-court claim to fame was reaching the semi-finals of the men's doubles at the US Open in 1964 certainly makes the most of his privileged position in the middle of the front row of the Royal Box.
Rarely is he absent from that padded chair as he sits stoically for all but the occasional set in the entire fortnight, either transfixed to the tennis or exchanging pleasantries with the various pillars of society who receive special invitations to sit alongside him. On Thursday it was Queen Elizabeth, making her first visit to Wimbledon since 1977 ? the day Virginia Wade became the last British player to win a singles title here.
Yesterday was more of a guessing game as to who would be on the shoulder of Phillips because Middle Saturday, as the sixth day of the tournament is known, is the day when the world of sport invades the corridors of tennis power. The honour fittingly went to another popular queen of Wimbledon ? Evonne Goolagong Cawley, the women's champion in 1971 and 1980. She, like the array of past and present talent assembled with her in the exclusive, 74-seat enclosure, was given an enthusiastic welcome by the Centre Court spectators who traditionally take their places before play starts for this stage-managed episode of star-gazing.
Sue Barker, herself a grand slam champion, having enjoyed a lower-profile triumph at Roland Garros in 1976 than Wade experienced here in the Queen's Silver Jubilee year 12 months later, did the introductions in her presenter's role for the host broadcaster. Other tennis luminaries such as Budge Patty, the 1950 champion, Ashley Cooper (1958), Neale Fraser (1960) Jan Kodes (1973) and Ilie Nastase (twice a beaten finalist) took their bows before there was a special cheer for the game's greatest women's player, Martina Navratilova, nine times the champion here. The Czech-born American, who holds the record for men and women of 167 career singles titles (18 of them in grand slams) recently celebrated her most important victory of all when she was diagnosed to have won her battle against breast cancer.
Just as big a reception came the way of Sir Bobby Charlton, the Manchester United football legend who had faced a difficult clash of interests on this busiest of sporting weekends. Charlton, instrumental in England's only World Cup success, back in 1966, opted to watch Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray in their respective Centre Court encounters rather than travel to South Africa to see Steven Gerrard, John Terry and Wayne Rooney taking on old enemy Germany in Bloemfontein this afternoon.
Glenn Hoddle, who followed Charlton into the England team in 1979 and then became one of the forerunners to Fabio Capello as manager 17 years later, also preferred to sample the best of Wimbledonrather than get behind his nation's international footballers during their day of reckoning. There were two cricketers in the top seats ? three if you count the double Oxbridge Blue Alastair Hignell, who made his name more as a rugby player. Hignell was bracketed first with the record-breaking batsmen Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar and then with his fellow England internationals Martin Bayfield, Jason Leonard and Lewis Moody.
Olympians were out in force: the most recent gold medallist being Amy Williams, who took skeleton gold at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver four months ago. She was accompanied by the cycling champions Sir Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton, skiers Chemmy Alcott and Julia Mancuso, Tim Brabants, the 2008 canoeing champion, Mark Foster, the swimmer, and Dame Kelly Holmes, the dual athletics gold medallist at 800 and 1,500 metres.
Middle Saturday this year coincided with British Armed Forces Day and to mark the occasion Phillips asked their Chief of Staff to nominate a worthy band of 14 soldiers, sailors and airmen to attend. Their collective introduction was left to the end and they received a moving and lengthy standing ovation from the Centre Court crowd. All of the special guests remained seated until Serena had taken a fairly comfortable third step towards the defence of her women's title by accounting for the Slovakian challenge of Dominika Cibulkova 6-0, 7-5.
What treats lay in store during the first short break before the appearance of Nadal and Germany's Philipp Petzschner is something that only the lucky souls who have received those precious invitations can tell. @Email:wjohnson@thenational.ae
