Wimbledon chiefs reiterated on Monday that the men's final will start at its traditional time despite it clashing with a potential England World Cup final.
The All England Club has come under increasing pressure to rethink its 2pm (5pm UAE) start time for Sunday's men's singles final with the football showpiece in Moscow kicking off at 4pm in the UK.
Should England defeat Croatia in Wednesday's semi-final then the national team will feature in a World Cup final for the first time since lifting the trophy in 1966.
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Read more:
Extra Time podcast: Predicting the World Cup semi-finals
Gary Meenaghan: England inspired but untainted by World Cup past
Richard Jolly: England look to pragmatic Henderson to defeat Croatia
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"It is purely our decision to stay at 2pm. It will stay this year, it will stay next year," said All England Club chief executive Richard Lewis.
He added that there were no plans to show either Wednesday's semi-final or Sunday's final at the World Cup on Wimbledon's giant TV screen attached to one of the sides of Court One.
Last Saturday, England made the semi-finals with victory over Sweden as action at Wimbledon took place.
"Saturday was one of the most special days I can remember at the championships. The tennis was very good and there as a historic football match going on," Lewis said.
"People followed the football on their devices thanks to modern technology without disturbing other spectators.
"You can tell when England scored and it was wonderful but we didn't receive any complaints that the enjoyment of tennis had been spoiled."
"I am sure the same again will happen on Wednesday -- and hopefully on Sunday. People get Wimbledon and we get the balance right."
Lewis has become exasperated by stories that the All England Club has been indifferent to the national wave of affection which has engulfed Gareth Southgate's football team.
"We have a very strong public wi-fi signal and it worked brilliantly on Saturday," he said.
"That indicates that we are supportive of the World Cup and that we are not turning down the signal strength!
"We are a tennis tournament but we are aware that there is something special going on elsewhere.
"I have met Gareth Southgate, he's a great guy. Jeremy Dier (the father of England player Eric Dier) is a member of the club. I have known Eric since he was a teenager."
Babumoshai Bandookbaaz
Director: Kushan Nandy
Starring: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Bidita Bag, Jatin Goswami
Three stars
Pros%20and%20cons%20of%20BNPL
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'Young girls thinking of big ideas'
Words come easy for aspiring writer Afra Al Muhairb. The business side of books, on the other hand, is entirely foreign to the 16-year-old Emirati. So, she followed her father’s advice and enroled in the Abu Dhabi Education Council’s summer entrepreneurship course at Abu Dhabi University hoping to pick up a few new skills.
“Most of us have this dream of opening a business,” said Afra, referring to her peers are “young girls thinking of big ideas.”
In the three-week class, pupils are challenged to come up with a business and develop an operational and marketing plan to support their idea. But, the learning goes far beyond sales and branding, said teacher Sonia Elhaj.
“It’s not only about starting up a business, it’s all the meta skills that goes with it -- building self confidence, communication,” said Ms Elhaj. “It’s a way to coach them and to harness ideas and to allow them to be creative. They are really hungry to do this and be heard. They are so happy to be actually doing something, to be engaged in creating something new, not only sitting and listening and getting new information and new knowledge. Now they are applying that knowledge.”
Afra’s team decided to focus their business idea on a restaurant modelled after the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Each level would have a different international cuisine and all the meat would be halal. The pupils thought of this after discussing a common problem they face when travelling abroad.
“Sometimes we find the struggle of finding halal food, so we just eat fish and cheese, so it’s hard for us to spend 20 days with fish and cheese,” said Afra. “So we made this tower so every person who comes – from Africa, from America – they will find the right food to eat.”
rpennington@thenational.ae
Saturday's results
Women's third round
- 14-Garbine Muguruza Blanco (Spain) beat Sorana Cirstea (Romania) 6-2, 6-2
- Magdalena Rybarikova (Slovakia) beat Lesia Tsurenko (Ukraine) 6-2, 6-1
- 7-Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia) beat Polona Hercog (Slovenia) 6-4. 6-0
- Coco Vandeweghe (USA) beat Alison Riske (USA) 6-2, 6-4
- 9-Agnieszka Radwanska (Poland) beat 19-Timea Bacsinszky (Switzerland) 3-6, 6-4, 6-1
- Petra Martic (Croatia) beat Zarina Diyas (Kazakhstan) 7-6, 6-1
- Magdalena Rybarikova (Slovakia) beat Lesia Tsurenko (Ukraine) 6-2, 6-1
- 7-Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia) beat Polona Hercog (Slovenia) 6-4, 6-0
Men's third round
- 13-Grigor Dimitrov (Bulgaria) beat Dudi Sela (Israel) 6-1, 6-1 -- retired
- Sam Queery (United States) beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France) 6-2, 3-6, 7-6, 1-6, 7-5
- 6-Milos Raonic (Canada) beat 25-Albert Ramos (Spain) 7-6, 6-4, 7-5
- 10-Alexander Zverev (Germany) beat Sebastian Ofner (Austria) 6-4, 6-4, 6-2
- 11-Tomas Berdych (Czech Republic) beat David Ferrer (Spain) 6-3, 6-4, 6-3
- Adrian Mannarino (France) beat 15-Gael Monfils (France) 7-6, 4-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-2
The years Ramadan fell in May
KYLIAN MBAPPE 2016/17 STATS
Ligue 1: Appearances - 29, Goals - 15, Assists - 8
UCL: Appearances - 9, Goals - 6
French Cup: Appearances - 3, Goals - 3
France U19: Appearances - 5, Goals - 5, Assists - 1
Europe’s rearming plan
- Suspend strict budget rules to allow member countries to step up defence spending
- Create new "instrument" providing €150 billion of loans to member countries for defence investment
- Use the existing EU budget to direct more funds towards defence-related investment
- Engage the bloc's European Investment Bank to drop limits on lending to defence firms
- Create a savings and investments union to help companies access capital
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
ADCC AFC Women’s Champions League Group A fixtures
October 3: v Wuhan Jiangda Women’s FC
October 6: v Hyundai Steel Red Angels Women’s FC
October 9: v Sabah FA
'The Batman'
Stars:Robert Pattinson
Director:Matt Reeves
Rating: 5/5
MATCH INFO
Euro 2020 qualifier
Ukraine 2 (Yaremchuk 06', Yarmolenko 27')
Portugal 1 (Ronaldo 72' pen)
Remaining Fixtures
Wednesday: West Indies v Scotland
Thursday: UAE v Zimbabwe
Friday: Afghanistan v Ireland
Sunday: Final
