Warren Gatland has called up uncapped back-row forward Taine Plumtree to Wales’ World Cup training squad for a two-week camp in Switzerland.

Plumtree is part of a group that has travelled to Fiesch in the Swiss Alps, the Welsh Rugby Union said.

The 23-year-old was born in Swansea and is the son of former Ireland, Japan and New Zealand assistant coach John Plumtree.

A New Zealand Under-20 international, he has played Super Rugby for the Auckland-based Blues and will link up with the Scarlets next season.

Wales head coach Gatland has seen his back-row options hit by Justin Tipuric retiring from Test rugby and Josh Macleod suffering a shoulder injury.

And Plumtree now has a golden opportunity to showcase World Cup credentials ahead of Gatland announcing his final 33-strong squad next month.

Carlos Alcaraz emerging as a contender for Novak Djokovic's world number-one crown leaves tennis "in good hands" after Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal's impact lessened.

That was the message from two-time major finalist Mark Philippoussis, who believes Alcaraz has what it takes to hold off Djokovic in the battle for the men's top spot.

Alcaraz triumphed at The Queen's Club on Sunday to move back to the top of the ATP rankings, with the 20-year-old seeing himself as a favourite to win at Wimbledon.

Jeremy Chardy will be Alcaraz's first opponent at the grass-court major on Tuesday and former player-turned-coach Philippoussis believes the Spanish youngster has all the skills to down Djokovic.

Philippoussis told Stats Perform: "I think the sport is in good hands. He's somebody that has his mind on looking to take over but looking to do it right now and not just wait until Djokovic has gone.

"Djokovic got to number one, Alcaraz took it back just now by winning Queen's, and by him winning Queen's, it just shows where his mind is.

"He's another guy that has been a grand slam winner and number one in the world, he's always looking to improve.

"He's still looking to improve in every way, he's got a great team around him, and he's doing the right things on and off the court.

"He's continuing to try and improve his net game, along with moving to the net more and mixing up with serve and volley on the grass and it is shown by winning Queen's."

Alcaraz and Djokovic have faced off twice so far, with the latter winning at Roland Garros this year after falling foul of the boy wonder in Madrid last year.

Nadal and Federer were long the challengers as tennis' 'Big Three' alongside Djokovic, but with the injuries curtailing their careers Alcaraz's excellence has somewhat filled the void.

Spanish veteran Nadal has not played a singles match since January at the Australian Open, with his troublesome injury record ruling the 37-year-old out of the French Open and Wimbledon.

Nadal is expected to retire next year, and Philippoussis lauded the 22-time major winner for the legacy he will leave behind when that time comes.

"I mean, it speaks for itself. He is so well loved and respected, and then what he's done in tennis, he is one of the all-time greats," Philippoussis added. 

"It is as simple as that, and somebody that tennis will miss, one of those personalities that we will miss greatly but he's definitely paved the way for a lot of generations from behind him to look up to."

Frances Tiafoe "undoubtedly" has the potential to win a grand slam and do "something special" at Wimbledon, so says his former coach Zack Evenden.

Tiafoe surged into the world's top 10 in June after winning the Stuttgart Open, Tiafoe achieving a career-high ranking after his triumph in Germany.

Wimbledon will be the next challenge in Tiafoe's sights, with the 25-year-old looking to build upon his last-four appearance at the 2022 US Open – his best finish in one of the four majors.

Evenden oversaw Tiafoe's his first ATP title in 2018 before the pair parted ways three years later, and he sees no reason why the American cannot go all the way to glory.

Speaking to Stats Perform at the inaugural Tennis Black List at the LTA National Tennis Centre, Evenden said: "We worked together for four years and every day he stressed me out, but it was because I knew this was waiting at the end of the road and I know he's got much further to go.

"I think it's only a matter of time before he now figures out a way to get to the top five and then hopefully it's only a matter of time before that slam comes."

Asked whether Tiafoe had the ability to go all the way in a major, Evenden added: "Undoubtedly. That's no doubt, it's just a matter of when for me. I've never doubted that from him for a minute."

Evenden, who was replaced by former top-10 player Wayne Ferreira in 2021, believes Tiafoe's technique is perfectly suited for Wimbledon, where he faces Yibing Wu in his opening round on Tuesday.

He continued: "That quick whip take-back, short, compact backhand. He has got all the touch and all the feel.

"I think he's got so much potential on the grass. I've always thought that and I think that this year, we could see something special from him."

Pete Sampras won Wimbledon seven times across his illustrious career, while Andre Agassi triumphed once in SW19. Andy Roddick, meanwhile, reached three finals at the All England Club, and Evenden is confident Tiafoe can deal with the pressure of being compared to his compatriots.

"As with everyone, it takes a while for you to come to terms with the pressure and come to terms with the success too because it's hard winning because you got to sacrifice so much," he said. 

"Someone with such a personality like him, he's got to sacrifice more than other players. I think he deals with it very well.

"I think he's taken some huge steps in dealing with it and figuring out what works for him and what he needs to do. Obviously, he loves to show up at the big events. I think he's only going to get better."

America has not had a male grand slam singles winner since Roddick triumphed at the US Open back in 2003.

Jude Bellingham has revealed David Beckham sent him a good luck message after joining Real Madrid.

The 20-year-old has become just the seventh British player to join the Bernabeu club following his 103million euros (£88.5m) move from Borussia Dortmund last month, following in the footsteps of the likes of Beckham, Gareth Bale and Michael Owen.

Beckham was perhaps the highest profile to make the switch to the Spanish capital following his 2003 move from Manchester United, which only heightened his global profile, and the former England captain recently got in touch with Bellingham.

And the new Bernabeu star said he might tap into Beckham and other former players’ knowledge of playing at Madrid.

“David Beckham messaged me briefly to wish me all the best,” Bellingham told the PA news agency.

“It is one of those moves where everyone has their input from the outside so you do hear a lot of things and advice, I am quite good at filtering out the good from the bad, so far it has been really positive from ex-players.

“I will try and take that on board and at some point maybe get in touch with them and see how they adapted to life in Spain.”

One of the things Bellingham will be doing to adapt to his new lifestyle in Spain is to learn the language.

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The midfielder has started using a learning app, aiming to build on the vocabulary he got at school.

“I have got it on my phone, I’ve got a good little streak going at the minute,” he added. “It’s nine days since I started taking it properly seriously.

“It is one of those things where you hear it and you start to pick up little things and you see it on TV with interviews of other players, so it comes a bit more naturally than you think.

“It is a lot easier than trying to learn German at least. I did Spanish at school up to year 9, obviously, in hindsight, I would have carried it on.”

Bellingham is now an ambassador for McDonald’s Fun Football programme, the largest grassroots programme in the UK for 5-11 year olds, where 250,000 children have had access to free football in the last 12 months.

He used to attend similar events but admits that it was not immediately obvious that he was destined for greater things.

“For the first year or so of going to things like that I was more interested in British Bulldog and some of the fun games,” he said. “So for me it was a process of getting into the game, but it was made easy because there was no pressure on me.

“For my parents that was the main thing, just getting that social aspect of it and something that is healthy and good for me.”

:: Jude Bellingham was speaking at the largest ever McDonald’s Fun Football session to celebrate the landmark of over 250,000 children across the UK benefiting from access to free football this season. Sign up to a free session near you at www.mcdonalds.co.uk/football

Serena Williams beat sister Venus Williams on this day in 2009 to claim her third Wimbledon singles title.

The Americans were contesting the final for the fourth time, and five-time champion Venus, the defending champion, was surprisingly outplayed as Serena triumphed 7-6 (3) 6-2 in an hour and 27 minutes.

Venus had been considered favourite after dropping just 20 games in her previous six matches.

Serena broke serve twice in the second set and although Venus saved three match points, the younger sister made sure of victory on her next chance.

Venus netted with a backhand and Serena, Wimbledon winner in 2002 and 2003, was able to celebrate.

The new champion, aged 27 at the time, said: “It feels so amazing, I feel so blessed, I feel like I shouldn’t be holding the trophy, like I can’t believe I won and not Venus.

“This is one of the few times I didn’t expect to come out with the win. I felt like I had nothing to lose.

“I just wanted to move the ball around better than I did in my past few matches. When I won that first set, I was like, ‘Wow, this is great’.”

Venus, two years Serena’s senior, said: “Today she was too good. She had answers for everything, she played the best tennis today.”

The victory took Serena to 11 grand slam singles titles – she has since boosted that to a record 23, and her tally of Wimbledon singles triumphs to seven.

Michael Harris II hit two home runs, Bryce Elder made another quality start and the Atlanta Braves recorded a 4-2 victory over the Cleveland Guardians on Monday to extend their winning streak to a season-high nine games.

Harris homered in the third and fifth innings and Marcell Ozuna added a solo shot in the fourth as the Braves built a 4-0 lead en route to their 17th win in 18 games. Atlanta is 24-3 since June 3 and owns the best record in the majors at 57-27.

Elder (7-1), one of eight Atlanta players selected for next week's All-Star Game, began his fourth straight quality start with six scoreless innings before Ahmed Rosario plated two with a single in the seventh.

The 24-year-old has pitched at least five innings in each of his 17 starts this season, with Atlanta going 13-4 in those games.

Rosario finished with two hits and Steven Kwan went 3 for 5 with a run scored for Cleveland. Gavin Williams, the Guardians' No. 1 prospect according to MLB.com, allowed all three Atlanta homers and four runs across 6 1/3 innings in his third major league start.

Astros blow eight-run lead but rally by Rangers

The Houston Astros squandered an eight-run lead, then rallied with two runs in the ninth inning for a wild 12-11 win over the Texas Rangers in the finale of a key four-game series between the American League West's top two teams. 

After the division-leading Rangers battled back to take an 11-10 lead on Corey Seager's eighth-inning sacrifice fly, Houston responded in the top of the ninth with consecutive RBI doubles by Jose Abreu and Chas McCormick off Will Smith. 

Ryan Pressly then retired the Rangers in order in the bottom of the inning to notch his 18th save and help the Astros take three of four games from their in-state rivals. Houston moved within three games of first-place Texas in the AL West.

Kyle Tucker went 4 for 4 with a double and a grand slam that staked the Astros a 10-2 lead after the top of the fourth inning.

Texas cut the lead to 10-9 by the end of the fifth, however, thanks in part to homers by Travis Jankowski and Leody Tavaras. Adolis Garcia tied the game with a seventh-inning solo shot before the Rangers briefly went in front an inning later.

Jankowski went 3 for 5 with five RBIs and Tavares had three hits and three RBIs. Abreu homered and knocked in four runs for Houston, which also got homers from McCormick and Yainer Diaz.

Bader's three-run homer lifts Yankees over Orioles

Harrison Bader capped a New York Yankees' comeback with a tie-breaking three-run homer in the eighth inning that staked the Bronx Bombers to a 6-3 victory over the Baltimore Orioles.

The Yankees overcame an early 3-0 deficit to take the opener of this four-game series and close within three games of the upstart Orioles for the AL's top wild card spot.

Anthony Volpe and Kyle Higashioka began the rally with back-to-back solo homers in the fifth inning, and Volpe recorded the tying run in the seventh when he scored from third on a wild pitch from All-Star reliever Yennier Cano.

After singles by Giancarlo Stanton and Anthony Rizzo put two Yankees on in the eighth, Bader drilled a pitch from Danny Coulombe into the left-field seats for a 6-3 lead.

All-Star catcher Adley Rutschman went 3 for 5 with an RBI for the slumping Orioles, who have lost five of their last six games. 

Baltimore did manage three runs - two earned - off Domingo German in the Yankee starter's first outing since throwing the 24th perfect game in major league history last Wednesday at Oakland.

German allowed nine hits in his follow-up start while lasting only 4 1/3 innings. 

Andy Murray will not be the only men’s grand slam champion to grace Centre Court on Tuesday as Wimbledon prepares to celebrate Roger Federer.

Federer, who announced his retirement last September, will have his achievement of winning a record eight grand slam titles in SW19 recognised during a special ceremony before the action on Centre Court begins at 1.30pm.

After Federer’s appearance, the focus will turn to defending champion Elena Rybakina and later Australian Open winner Aryna Sabalenka, who is back for the first time since 2021 after last year’s ban on Russian and Belarussian athletes.

Murray takes on fellow Briton Ryan Peniston while Cameron Norrie gets his tournament under way and world number one Carlos Alcaraz is involved in an action-packed second day of the 2023 championships.

Order of PlayBrit Watch

A bumper day of British tennis is in store with nine home hopes in action. Murray’s match with Peniston is second on Centre Court while Norrie’s clash with Tomas Machac is scheduled last on Court One.

Elsewhere, Britain’s number one female Katie Boulter opens Court 18 against Daria Saville, while Heather Watson – who reached the fourth round last year – will try and topple 10th seed Barbora Krejcikova.

George Loffhagen, Arthur Fery and Sonay Kartal are also scheduled for action, while Dan Evans will return to complete his first-round match after bad light forced him off just after he had slipped two sets down to France’s Quentin Halys.

Match of the day

Stefanos Tsitsipas opens his Wimbledon campaign against former US Open champion Dominic Thiem in one of several mouthwatering ties on the second day of the 2023 Championships.

It represents a tricky draw for fifth seed Tsitsipas, who made the Australian Open final in January but traditionally struggles on the English lawn and has only made the fourth round on one occasion in five appearances.

Austrian Thiem has endured a torrid time since his Flushing Meadows win in 2020, plagued by wrist injuries in particular, and has not played this grand slam since 2019. Nevertheless, he will relish the chance to put his name back in the headlines on Court Two.

Queue storm to rumble on

Day one saw lengthy queues and a number of Wimbledon fans decide to give up on their attempts to see some of the action in SW19.

Organisers later confirmed increased security, in place due to fears over protests, had resulted in entry via the queue being slower than past years, with club executive Sally Bolton acknowledging Just Stop Oil’s presence at recent sporting events had raised alarm bells for the All England Club.

Spectators set for day two will hope for a more slick process on Tuesday.

Weather

Los Angeles Dodgers All-Star pitcher Clayton Kershaw has been scratched from Monday's scheduled start against the Pittsburgh Pirates and placed on the 15-day injured list due to shoulder soreness he's experienced since his most recent outing.

Kershaw, who was named to his 10th career All-Star Game Sunday, complained of discomfort following his start against the Colorado Rockies last Tuesday.

The three-time National League Cy Young Award winner has since resumed light throwing after receiving a cortisone shot, though Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said the team decided to give Kershaw some additional time with the All-Star break next week.

"If there is any time for us to do this, and give him a little reset, this would be it,” Roberts said. “Obviously, Clayton expects to make all of his starts, and that’s what makes him special.”

Kershaw has dealt with several injuries the past few years, most notably an elbow issue that sidelined him nearly two months in 2021. The 35-year-old hasn't pitched more than 126 innings in any of the last three seasons.

The 2014 NL MVP had been healthy up until this point while putting together another outstanding season in 2023. Kershaw's 10 wins are tied for the NL lead, while his 2.55 earned run average ranks third among qualified NL hurlers. 

Los Angeles recalled right-hander Michael Grove from Triple-A Oklahoma City to start Monday's game.

Stuart Broad believes Australia captain Pat Cummins will regret his handling of the controversial stumping of England’s Jonny Bairstow at Lord’s.

Alex Carey’s opportunistic stumping of his fellow wicketkeeper during the dramatic conclusion to the second Ashes Test sparked fury from fans and members at the home of cricket and the row has shown no signs of abating.

Broad replaced Bairstow in the middle following the incident, before Australia went on to win and take a 2-0 lead.

Broad insists “zero advantage” came from Bairstow straying from his crease and, after making his point to the Australian players throughout the duration of his stay, the England seamer feels Cummins will eventually think upholding the appeal was the wrong play.

“What amazed me, and what I told the Australians I could not believe as we left the field at lunch, was that not one senior player among them — and I very much understand in the emotion of the game that the bowler and wicketkeeper would have thought ‘that’s out’ — questioned what they had done,” Broad wrote in the Daily Mail.

“Especially given what their team has been through over recent years, with all their cultural change. Not one of them said ‘Hang on, lads. I’m not really sure about this’. Not one of them thought ‘He’s gaining no advantage. He’s not trying to get a run. It’s the end of the over. It’s a bit of a random dismissal. We should cancel that appeal’.

“Ultimately, Pat Cummins is a really great guy and I would be amazed, once the emotion settles, if he does not sit back and think ‘I got that one wrong’, even though his bottom line at the time was winning a Test match.”

Ex-players, pundits and even Prime Minister Rishi Sunak weighed in on the debate, while anger in the crowd at the manner of Bairstow’s exit spilled over in the usually restrained Long Room at Lord’s, where Australian players Usman Khawaja and David Warner were involved in heated exchanges with jeering members – three of whom were later suspended by Marylebone Cricket Club.

Broad, too, admits the moment got the better of him as he joined captain Ben Stokes, watching from the other end as the skipper hit a remarkable 155 in a forlorn effort to level the series.

“The red mist came over me, too, when I arrived at the crease to replace Jonny, and some of what I said was picked up on the stump mics — which naively, given my experience, I didn’t really think about. I just said to Pat on repeat ‘All these boos are for you, for your decision’. And ‘What a great opportunity you had to think clearly’,” he added.

“Also, I needed to support Ben Stokes in any way, shape or form I could, and I am always better when I’m in a bit of a battle. I normally try and pick a fight with someone on the opposition but on this occasion I picked a fight with the whole team.

“To Alex Carey, I said ‘This is what you’ll be remembered for, and that’s such a shame’. It may have been a bit silly, but I also shouted ‘in’ every time I crossed the line. It annoyed the Australians for maybe half-an-hour, although after two-and-a-half hours, they were probably a bit bored of it.”

Bookies favourites Novak Djokovic and Iga Swiatek made light work of their day one opponents to progress into the Wimbledon second round with ease.

Swiatek, a four-time grand-slam champion, has not always felt at ease on the lawn at the All England Club but produced a near-faultless display on Court One to down world number 34 Zhu Lin in straight sets.

It was a similar story for Djokovic, looking for a fifth straight title in SW19, and after a delay due to rain before a slippery surface saw leaf blowers required to dry the court, he strolled to victory over Pedro Cachin.

Harriet Dart was the first British hopeful to exit the Championships but Liam Broady, Jodie Burrage and Jan Choinski clinched victories to give the home crowd plenty to cheer.

Tweet of the dayPicture of the dayQuote of the dayBrit WatchShot of the dayStat of the dayRehabbing Raducanu checks in

Emma Raducanu is a one of a number of high-profile absentees from this year’s Wimbledon following surgery on both wrists and her left ankle in May.

The 2021 US Open champion has been hampered by injures since her stunning Flushing Meadows triumph and these latest setbacks ruled her out of the grass-court season, but she was still able to make a surprise appearance on the opening day of the Championships.

Raducanu, in her role as global ambassador for Evian, attended their VIP auite alongside fellow British prospect Jack Draper before the duo were involved in Vodaphone’s Connection Experience in the Southern Village.

Jodie Burrage is set to join Katie Boulter in the world’s top 100 after claiming her first grand slam victory at Wimbledon.

The 24-year-old has struggled with injuries during her career but has made big strides over the last year and a 6-1 6-3 victory over Caty McNally should be enough to see her achieve the rankings milestone.

Burrage, who had lost in the first round on her previous two appearances at the All England Club, revealed after the match how close she came to giving it all up.

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“After my third ankle operation, my mind had decided that that was it,” she said. “That was my tennis career done.

“But I somehow got back on the horse with help from family and friends, and my boyfriend as well, that really helped push through that not-so-nice time.

“To sit here saying I’ve won my first round at Wimbledon, hopefully going to be in the top 100 in two weeks, I was not expecting that, but I’m very happy that it’s happened.”

Burrage was joined in the second round by Liam Broady and debutant Jan Choinski on a broadly positive day for the home contingent.

Broady has achieved some of the best results of his career here, including a run to the third round 12 months ago, and he claimed a 6-1 6-3 7-5 victory over France’s Constant Lestienne to reach the last 64 for the fourth time.

The 29-year-old was spurred on by a message of support from Manchester City, saying: “It was cool. It was about 20 or 30 minutes before I went on today. They tweeted me. I thought, ‘Oh, God, I’m not going to tweet them now before the match, I want to try and get a win, then I can reply’.

“They’re amazing. They’re always so supportive of me. I can remember playing here at the age of 17 and buzzing off them tweeting me. It’s still the same to this day. I absolutely love it. I’m grateful they keep a track of my career the way I keep a track of the football club.”

Broady now gets a shot at fourth seed Casper Ruud and, asked if he minds which court he plays on, said: “I’m playing the number four in the world second round of Wimbledon. I’ll play him back up in Stockport if I have to.”

Choinski will be a new name for many British fans. The son of British and Polish ballet dancers and born and brought up in Germany, he switched allegiance to Britain in 2018.

He is inexperienced on grass but appears to be learning quickly and claimed the best victory of his career with a 5-7 7-6 (4) 6-2 6-2 win over Serbian Dusan Lajovic.

“I feel absolutely amazing,” said Choinski. “And the crowd was electric tonight at my court. Even though it was one of the smaller courts, I felt carried by the crowd, carried by the whole team. My mum especially, as well. My girlfriend. So just an amazing day.”

The 27-year-old will next face his former junior doubles partner Hubert Hurkacz, the 17th seed.

Harriet Dart was the first British player on court, and the first knocked out of the tournament, with the 26-year-old disappointed with her own performance in a 6-7 (4) 6-0 6-4 loss to France’s Diane Parry.

“I’ve had a really good grass-court season,” said Dart. “It’s just disappointing that my worst match of the grass-court season came here.”

Katie Swan had a tough assignment against 14th seed Belinda Bencic and was unable to capitalise on an early break in a 7-5 6-2 defeat.

“I just didn’t play well enough in the big moments,” she said. “But she’s a great player. I knew it was going to be tough. There’s positives to take from it and also lots to learn and take forward.”

British number two Dan Evans did not get on court until late in the day and will have to come back on Tuesday with a mountain to climb trailing France’s Quentin Halys 6-2 6-3.

Evans arrived at the tournament low on confidence after a difficult year and it showed, with the 33-year-old a shadow of the player he can be, particularly on grass.

As well as Evans, Cameron Norrie, Katie Boulter, Heather Watson, George Loffhagen, Arthur Fery and Sonay Kartal are in action on Tuesday along with the Centre Court clash between Andy Murray and Ryan Peniston.

British wild card Jan Choinski paid tribute to the home crowd at Wimbledon after they “carried” him through to a second-round meeting with former doubles partner Hubert Hurkacz.

German-born Choinski, the son of an English ballet dancer, changed allegiances in 2019 and rewarded the faith placed in him at the All England Club with an excellent 5-7 7-6 (4) 6-2 6-2 win over world number 56 Dusan Lajovic.

During his main draw debut at the Championships, Choinski fought back from a set down on Court 17 to secure the biggest victory of his career and set up a clash with 2021 Wimbledon semi-finalist Hurkacz, who is Polish like his father.

“I feel absolutely amazing and the crowd was electric at my court,” Choinski said.

“Even though it was one of the smaller courts, I felt carried by the crowd, carried by the whole team, the whole LTA support that was there, my mum especially, and my girlfriend.

“So, yeah, just an amazing day. I’m happy that I could produce some good tennis.”

On the prospect of facing Hurkacz next, Choinski revealed: “We had great contact as juniors.

“We played many doubles tournaments together. As a matter of fact, we won Roehampton, a junior grade one tournament, leading up to Wimbledon in 2014. Then we also played Wimbledon doubles together.

“I’m always great friends with the Polish squad. We practised together a lot. Yeah, he’s done very good for himself. I’m happy to see him where he is right now. I’m thankful for the challenge and thankful to be able to play him in the second round.”

Choinski and world number 18 Hurkacz last partnered up in 2016 and the past seven years have brought a number of challenges for the six-foot-five right-hander.

After he started out playing for Germany, a conversation with Britain’s Davis Cup captain Leon Smith at the IMG academy in 2018 set the wheels in motion for a nationality switch.

Being a British citizen, due to his mother being born in Southampton, Choinski was able to smoothly link up with the LTA.

But surgeries on his hip and shoulder followed, sandwiched by the coronavirus pandemic, and he was ruled out of Wimbledon last year with Covid-19.

His spell on the sidelines saw Choinski drop to 692 in the ATP rankings in August but he never once contemplated walking away from the sport and after impressing at several ITF and Challenger Tour events, he was delighted to justify his place in SW19 with a fine win.

World number 167 Choinski said: “This time last year? I was struggling with mononucleosis and Covid on top of that.

“I was 26 at that time, had almost dropped all my ranking points and came back from two years of being out, two years of being injured, two surgeries.

“But I just never wanted to leave tennis, put tennis by the side. I just thought I’ve got more in myself and I want to show it.

“My attitude is never to really think that’s it. I never doubted it for one second. Never said for one second that I want to stop.

“My love and the passion for the sport is just so big. Also my love for practising, working on myself, getting better, seeing progress day by day.

“After my second surgery, I basically locked myself into National Tennis Centre at the LTA. I got the best support I could have, but we were working so hard.

“We were working six days a week from nine in the morning till six at night. Sometimes I was sleeping there.

“I’d go into the gym or something by myself at eight in the evening and still do another rehab session to try and speed up the whole process of rehab.

“Then we got to a point where I finally was able to compete again after six months or something.

“Yeah, it’s great being here representing Great Britain and being able to produce some good tennis in the first round.”

Venus Williams said she was “killed by the grass” after suffering a nasty fall as her emotional Wimbledon return ended in Centre Court defeat to Elina Svitolina.

The 43-year-old, whose first outing at SW19 came in 1997, was absent from the singles draw last year but was handed a wild card into this year’s tournament.

However, the five-time champion did not make it past the opening afternoon as she went down 6-4 6-3 to the Ukrainian having been injured in the opening moments of the match.

She slipped approaching the net in the third game and fell to the ground, shrieking loudly in agony.

It looked like that may be the end of her afternoon, but she was able to carry on, though admitted she was in so much pain she could not focus on the match.

“Grass is inherently going to be slippery. You’re going to fall at some point. It was just bad luck for me,” she said.

“I started the match perfectly. I was literally killing it, then I got killed by the grass.

“It’s not fun right now. I felt like I was in great form coming into this tournament, and great form in the match.

“It’s all very shocking at the moment. This is sports. I’m hitting the ball well.

“Hopefully I can just figure out what’s happening with me and move forward.

“I think what makes this one hard to process is I’ve had so many injuries. I’ve been missing from tour for quite a while. This is not what I want for myself.

“This kind of fall, I didn’t do anything wrong. I just went for the ball. There’s nothing I can really do about it.

“Those kinds of things are hard to process emotionally, mentally and physically on the court.

“I just couldn’t figure it out today. It was just real challenging. I’ve played through a lot of injuries and won a lot of matches injured.

“It’s almost a specialty of mine. I just couldn’t figure it out today.”

It remains to be seen whether this will be her Wimbledon swansong, as it was for her sister Serena 12 months ago, but time is obviously ticking on one of the all-time great tennis careers.

Williams would not commit on whether she would be fit enough to play at the US Open later this summer.

She added: “I’ve got to figure out my next plan. Right now I’m kind of in shock. I just can’t believe this happened. It’s, like, bizarre. I don’t know. I’m still processing it at the moment.”

Svitolina, who is making a return of her own after missing last year’s tournament following the birth of her first child, proved she is still a top-class player and was not going to let Williams off lightly.

But she admits she was fearing the worst when the veteran was screaming in agony.

“She screamed really loud, I was shaken up,” she said. “I was really shocked in a way, because I thought it was really, really serious.

“So I was really happy for her actually that she could stand up after and didn’t take a medical timeout. She just was checking how the knee is. And then we continue playing.

“I was really happy, because it’s such a horrible injury, the knee injury. Any injury is bad, but, you know, she screamed really loud. So I really got scared.”