'Rafa is the benchmark' - Southgatepublished at 13:26 British Summer Time 2 July 2022
England football manager Gareth Southgate is among the celebrities in the Royal Box on Saturday, and is looking very dapper as usual.
This time in 2021, he was a bit too busy to make it to Wimbledon - England were otherwise engaged with their European Championship campaign - but this year's winter World Cup gives him a chance to take in some tennis this summer.
Southgate spoke to BBC Sport earlier and said: "Obviously in the middle of last year's excitement we didn't get to see very much tennis at all, so I am really looking forward to it. It is always great to see top-level players and it is an English institution, coming to Wimbledon.
Rafa Nadal is one of the players Southgate will get to see later today and he feels there is plenty that England's footballers can learn from the Spanish superstar.
"His consistency over a long period of time and the way he has looked after himself," Southgate said when asked what impresses him about Nadal. "The benchmark now for professional athletes is to be how he is."