Key events44m agoPreamblePreambleWotcha one and all and welcome to Wimbledon 2026 – day two!As you’d expect, we’ve a faintly daunting and thoroughly thrilling banquet of tennis awaiting us today, so let’s dig right in.Early doors, last year’s double-bagelled finalist, Amanda Anisimova, gets herself and that work-of-art backhand going, with Katie Boulter also up first. Others in action are Jasmine Paolini, Madison Keys and Donna Vekic, while Maria Sakkari’s match with Clara Tauson has the potential to be a highlight.Then, when No 1 gets going, Taylor Fritz takes on Dusan Lajovic – it was meant to be the bone-bruised Jack Draper – while on Centre, Iga Swiatek, the defending champion, meets doubles specialist, Taylor Townsend.But it’s second on No 1 that really looks like the match of the day, Elena Rybakina, a former winner and this year’s second-favourite, drawn against Loïs Boisson, surprise semi-finalist in last year’s French Open.Then, if to that, we add Alexander Zverev’s first appearance, along with those of Ben Shelton, Eline Svitolina, Alex de Minaur, Marta Kostyuk and the in-form Jakub Mensik, we know we’re flying – but of course that’s not the size of it. Jacob Fearnley meets Alex Michelsen in a match that has five-set epic written all over it; the surging Arthur Fils returns after injury; Griggzy Dimitrov, so unlucky to injure himself last year when two sets up against Jannik Sinner is back; Flavio Cobolli meets Mariano Navone; and No 1 finishes for the day with an aesthete’s banger, the great Stan Wawrinka beginning his final campaign against Mario Berrettini.We have, though, kept the best till last: the Queen returning to her palace! Yup, four years since her last appearance, Serena Williams, the seven-times champion and greatest of all time, is back at the age of … 44 – ! – and will close out the action on Centre, facing Maya Joint for a place in roundOr, put another way, of all the things going on in the world today, the most exciting, the most affirming and the most inspirational is coming right up – at SW19 and in these pages. This is going to be very, very special. Here we go!
Wimbledon 2026: Serena Williams returns, Swiatek, Zverev and Boulter in action – live
Join our writers for all the latest from SW19, with big names and British hopes in action before Serena Williams returns to Centre Court
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