British wildcard Jodie Burrage celebrates sweet success at Wimbledon

She had suffered first-round exits in the previous two years at SW19, and her victory against American Caty McNally yesterday means she has likely broken into the top 100 for the first time.

The 24-year-old was involved in one of the most popular stories of the 2022 tournament when she offered the Marks and Spencer treat to a ball boy who was on the brink of fainting in the middle of her match. She recalled the incident helping her to relax and realise that “there’s bigger things than tennis”. She told reporters last year that the confectionery was one of her favourites, and this year said she will “definitely” be celebrating with them after her win.

“I think my mum has a few in her bag,” she added in a press conference after her match.

“I will definitely be celebrating tonight.”

Burrage told reporters of another “ball kid”-related incident during her match this year.

She said she noticed blood on the balls, before adding: “It was another ball kid who cut their finger and I was like: ‘Why does this always happen?’”

Speaking about her win on Court Three on Monday, she said: “I haven’t got a lot of words. Just very happy. I think the smile says it all.

“Just happy to get through that and my first win at Wimbledon.”

She quipped that it was “never simple with me” after joking about her multiple attempts at securing match point.

The Briton went on: “To sit here and say that I’ve won my first round at Wimbledon, hopefully going to be in the top 100... not expecting that but very happy it’s happened.” She said she “can’t wait” for the possibility of playing on Centre Court or Court One in future rounds.

Burrage called it a “shame” that her dog could not attend the tournament, but insisted she had a “great support network” with her.

Elsewhere an impressive serving display from Katie Swan was not enough to prevent her suffering a straight-sets defeat to 14th seed Belinda Bencic in the first round at Wimbledon. British number six Swan sent down 11 aces during a tight encounter on Court Two, but lost 7-5 6-2 in one hour and 35 minutes. It was a fourth consecutive first-round exit for the world number 147 but there were encouraging signs against the Olympic gold medallist.

Coco Gauff was dumped out of Wimbledon by her fellow American Sofia Kenin in a bruising contest on Court One. The seventh seed, who made her big breakthrough in SW19 when she got to the fourth round as a 15-year-old in 2019, was a strong contender to challenge for the title this year but was beaten 6-4 4-6 6-2.

And Venus Williams suffered 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’s stay 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. 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.