Great British hope Jack Draper storms through to the next round at sizzling Wimbledon

JACK Draper flew the flag high for Britain on a sizzling hot second day at SW19.

The 23-year-old British number one took on Argentinian Sebastian Baez on the final match on Court No.1 and won through to the second round of Wimbledon after his opponent had to retire through injury while trailing 6-2 6-2 2-1.

Draper's victory means there are nine Brits left in the draw going into day 3.

The temperatures nudged 33C at Wimbledon on the hottest day of the year and led Katie Boulter to shade herself under an umbrella as she watched her 11th seed boyfriend Alex de Minuar win on court 18.

Meanwhile Carlos Alcaraz was forced to douse himself with water to keep cool on the practice courts as he prepares for a second round showdown with British qualifier Oliver Tarvet on Wednesday.

The air conditioning was lapped up in the Royal Box by Formula One legend Sir Jackie Stewart, England rugby legend Bill Beaumont along with acting royalty Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett and Rebel Wilson.

Happy Valley star Sarah Lancashire also attended with husband Peter Salmon alongside Sir Andy Murray's mother Judy, golfer Justin Rose and Lord Freddie Windsor.

Hollywood star Rebel Wilson, 45, who was supporting seven-time Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic, said: "I love it. I mean my grandma is watching it at home in Australia and she got me into it as a young child watching it on television.

"I just love coming. It's really very special to be here and to go to the Royal Box today is awesome.

"I love Sabalenka right now in the women's and Djokovic is a friend, so we are watching him play today."

Wimbledon bosses revealed that the daily queue has been boosted on the first two days because of the Alcaraz effect.

The popular world No.2 is helping to drive the numbers through the gates.

Michelle Dite, the operations director of the All England Lawn Tennis Club, said the number of people coming through the gates "were up" on both days.

She said: "We were over 10,000 in the queue this morning.

"I enjoy waking up to my first messages at 6am in the morning and that there are about 5,000 people already over the road eager to get into the grounds. It's just extraordinary."

She added: "I walked over to see people at the front of the queue on Saturday afternoon and there's a lot of people supporting Carlos, so there's a big factor that has come from his previous performances but everyone comes for different reasons.

"When the last ball was hit last night, we had more than 1,000 people queuing for tickets today."

British star Heather Watson, 33, ruled out that this was her last Wimbledon after crashing out in the first round to 23rd seed Clara Tauson, 22, and said "hopefully I've still got a few left in me."

But Dan Evans won the battle of Britain against Jay Clarke.

The 35-year-old picked up his first win in SW19 since 2021 with a 6-1 7-5 6-2 success.