Russia's Anastasia Potapova serves to Russia's Mirra Andreeva during the women's singles match on day seven of the Wimbledon tennis championships in London, Sunday, July 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)
By Ken Maguire
Where and when to pop your Champagne is such a Wimbledon problem.
Someone got the timing wrong Sunday at the oldest Grand Slam tournament, where the bubbly helps wash down the strawberries and cream.
“Ladies and gentlemen, please, if you are opening a bottle of Champagne don’t do it as the player is about to serve. Thank you,” Australian umpire John Blom announced just after the start of a match on No. 3 Court.
Anastasia Potapova smiled and nodded in approval. The 22nd-seeded player was serving to start her third-round match against teenager Mirra Andreeva. When she tossed the ball in the air a cork popped and she sent the serve long. She then lost the point on her second serve, and the umpire's warning followed.
Lanson Champagne is available on the grounds of the All England Club by the glass, half-bottle and bottle. “Le White Label Sec” goes for 95.10 pounds ($122) for a bottle.
“Usually, actually, we buy it here, but it’s quite nice that you can actually bring your own in, which I didn’t realize until my husband looked it up this morning,” said Sarah-Jane Watson, a lawyer from Surrey.
“We brought a bottle," she said, “and then we bought a bottle.”
They watched matches at No. 2 Court, where a security guard asked that they not open the bottle inside.
A cork was heard popping at Centre Court, though, between points during a match featuring Iga Swiatek and Belinda Bencic.
The 32nd-seeded Marie Bouzkova said she's too dialed in to be distracted. The Czech Republic native, who lost to Marketa Vondrousova, said during a match a couple of years ago she hadn't noticed a fire alarm going off in a nearby building.
“I was like ‘what fire alarm?'” she said.
Though there's at least one place, she added, that's a bit louder than average: Flushing Meadows.
“In New York," Bouzkova said, "you have more outside noise, I would say, just from the crowd either drinking maybe too much beer or just being a little bit more loud.”
Partha Unnava, Founder and CEO and Lasso, joins Cheddar Innovates to discuss how the design behind these compression socks can prevent injuries and improve performance.
The United States Women’s National Team has settled its lawsuit over gender-based pay disparity with U.S. Soccer for $24 million. Filed in 2019, the settlement will end with all claims by the USWNT being resolved following a judge's dismissal of its case in 2020.
Coming off of the latest NFL season, Draftkings has plans for growth and new bettors to join its platform following what it saw as a record year of state legalization of sports betting and Super Bowl action. CEO Jason Robins joined Cheddar News to talk about what in store for the company in 2022, including labor issues leading to the postponement of the MLB's spring training games and the NCAA's March Madness. "There's a lot of really exciting stuff that happens in the first couple of rounds all the way through to the championship game. So typically we've seen incredible activity during March Madness on the betting side," Robins said.
PlayersTV is bringing sports viewers Athletes On Demand, a subscription platform to provide fans with thousands of hours of sports content from their favorite athletes. CEO Angela Bundrant joined Cheddar News to discuss the new rollout. "People can expect to receive content or buy into content on demand that comes from their favorite athletes," said Bundrant, listing star partners like the Phoenix Suns' Chris Paul and New Orleans Pelicans' C.J. McCollum.
Walker Ross, Assistant Professor of Sports Business Management at Florida Southern College, joins Business of Sports: The Beijing Winter Olympics 2022, where he says that actions Beijing and other Olympic host sites have been implementing to combat climate change has simply not been enough to offset their carbon footprint.
Olivia Harlan Dekker breaks down Thursday's primetime matchup between the 76ers and Bucks, NBA champion Richard Jefferson sets the scene for this weekend's All-Star Game, and Alex Monaco discusses who he's bullish and bearish on for Thursday's action.
The 15-year-old Russian Olympic figure skater Kamila Valieva found herself at the center of a scandal after a positive test for a banned substance became public. Valieva fell out of gold contention in the women's free skate after falling, avoiding a potentially embarrassing situation, where a medal ceremony would have been nixed had she won. Scott Hamilton, the retired American figure skater and Olympic gold medalist in the 1984 Games, joined Cheddar to break down the scandal. “It’s a team competition and every member of the team participated in that score and hers should be disallowed”.
Alex Monaco, host of the “The Bettor Half Hour” on MSG Networks and the “Sports Gambling with Moneyline Monaco” podcast, joins Cheddar Bets to give his last-minute tips before tonight's slate of games starts.
Sponsored by BetMGM
Richard Jefferson, host of the Road Trippin' podcast, NBA Today analyst, and NBA Champion, joins Cheddar Bets to break down All-Star Weekend festivities and to give his "Pick 6" for tonight.
Sponsored by BetMGM
BetMGM Host Olivia Harlan Dekker joins Cheddar Bets to break down tonight's big Bucks-76ers matchup -- likely Philly's last game without James Harden.
Sponsored by BetMGM
