COURT REPORT: Wimbledon suffer AI gaffe on Emma Raducanu, Sir David Attenborough is the toast of Centre Court... and Casper Ruud shows that even a PARASITE can't keep him down

Naomi Osaka secured a first win at Wimbledon in five years, beating Diane Parry Sir David Attenborough was given a standing ovation by the Centre Court crowdWimbledon's link-up with Artificial Intelligence on its website looked to backfire 

It was an action-packed opening day at Wimbledon with storylines aplenty throughout the grounds.

Emma Raducanu was given a momentary scare on Centre Court by a Lucky Loser, while Australian tennis star Jordan Thompson edged a four-hour epic on Court 10 against Pavel Kotov.

Andy Murray looked to prove his fitness on the practice courts while Coco Gauff put on a dazzling display on Centre Court as she kickstarted her bid for SW19 glory.

Mail Sport's NATHAN SALT was on hand to recap some of the things you may have missed from the opening day of the championships.

Emma Raducanu ignited this edition of Wimbledon with a straight sets win on Centre Court

David Beckham (middle) was among the A-List names in the Royal Box for

Wimbledon AI gaffe

Wimbledon fans were left scratching their heads when the Artificial Intelligence arm of it's website, well, didn't seem to be very intelligent at all.

One eagle-eyed fan yesterday was quick to point out a series off gaffes on the player cards, including labelling Emma Raducanu as British No 1, and claiming 27-year-old Daria Kasatkina is 'up and coming'… despite being as high as world No 8.

The All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) joined forces with IBM this year to expand its use of generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI), the idea being it would help create automated, personalised catch-up summaries, as well as player profiles.

When the partnership was announced it was hailed that the feature would be powered by IBM's 'Watsonx' AI platform and the company's Granite large language model (LLM), which utilises Wimbledon's wealth of data.

The errors were eventually rectified. Seems that human intervention is needed after all.

St David's Day

There was a lovely moment before the Centre Court opener between Carlos Alcaraz and Mark Lajal when the crowd all got up to show their appreciation to Sir David Attenborough in the Royal Box with a standing ovation.

With England, Manchester United and Real Madrid icon David Beckham a few seats down it was Attenborough who proved to be the star of the show.

Alongside his daughter Susan, the 98-year-old was beaming ear to ear as applause rang round the stadium.

And while many were keen to applaud Attenborough, well, because it's Sir David Attenborough, his impact on tennis often gets forgotten about.

When he was director of programming at the BBC in the 1960s and 70s it was Attenborough who looked after the rollout of colour television, with Wimbledon the pick of the bunch to launch with. As a result, Attenborough decided for it to work balls at Wimbledon needed to be luminous yellow/green so they could easily be seen.

Sir David Attenborough (middle) was given a standing ovation when he got to Centre Court

Todoni makes dream come true

Grand Slam debutante Anca Todoni was left in tears after making it out of qualifying for Wimbledon and more tears were shed after booking her place in the second round.

The 19-year-old, who treated herself to a box of strawberries and cream prior to her 7-5, 6-1 win over Serbia's Olga Danilovic, thrived on the big stage to ensure herself at least £93,000 in prize money.

Todoni had earned about £77,000 in career prize money before pitching up at the All England Club and she is now living the dream, with the potential for a Centre Court berth up next with Coco Gauff in wait.

Grand Slam debutante Anca Todoni has guaranteed herself £93,000 after her first round win

Golden Oldies

From a youngster getting her first taste of Wimbledon to two stalwarts locking horns.

When Stan Wawrinka, 39 years and 97 days old, takes on Gael Monfils, 37 years and 305 days old, they will produce the oldest combined men's singles match at Wimbledon since Rod Laver battled against Bob Howe in 1971. Stat.

Five years in the making for Osaka

By the end it was relief for Naomi Osaka to dispose of tricky Frenchwoman Diane Parry on Court No 2.

The new mother was back at Wimbledon courtesy of a wildcard and after what seemed a routine first set, won 6-1 in 22 minutes, many expected her to breeze to victory.

But Osaka is still finding her feet and with her legion of fans roaring her on following a second set wobble lost 6-1, she found her rhythm, showed her championship pedigree to record her first win at Wimbledon since 2018.

Having never made it past the third round here, history beckons for the two-time Slam winner.

Naomi Osaka shook off a difficult second set to secure her first Wimbledon win in five years

Even a PARASITE can't stop Ruud

Much was made of Casper Ruud's non-existent grass-court preparation ahead of Wimbledon - but there was more to it than met the eye.

After his opening round win over Alex Bolt, boyfriend of Brit Katie Swan, Ruud revealed he has secretly been battling a pretty serious illness since the French Open.

'It was a little bit unusual,' he explained. 'I went home the day after and kept feeling quite bad for a full week and decided to take a few tests after a week of almost, like, lying in bed all the time. I had no appetite, and I was still bothered.

'I took some tests and found out that I had this kind of uncommon small parasite that I had been infected with through not sure where, but the most kind of normal place where you can get infected from it is through just unclean water.

'I was mostly in bed for 10, 11 days, which was not what I was kind of hoping for. Those days are my kind of days off after busy stretch of five months in a row with a lot of tournaments. So I rested well, that's for sure, but it wasn't ideal.'

Ruud usually hates the grass-court swing but a 7-6, 6-4, 6-4 win over Bolt has set him on his way. Take that, parasite.

Casper Ruud revealed that a nasty illness brought on by a parasite upset his preparations

Protestors cause havoc

Some ticket holders found their route to the grounds made far more arduous due to an early morning protest by group of around 100 pro-Palestine protesters.

The demonstration, organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, was levelled against Barclays' sponsorship of Wimbledon, with strawberries covered in red sauce to represent them being 'tainted with Palestinian blood'.

Standing in front of the main entrance to the All England Club, alongside a giant tennis ball with the words 'Barclays sponsors Wimbledon and genocide', it made for a lively start to the first day of the Championships.

In response, a Barclays' spokesperson said: 'We are proud of our partnership with Wimbledon which supports the growth of the championships and opportunities for young people across the UK through the Wimbledon Foundation.

'Like many other banks, we provide financial services to companies supplying defence products to the UK, Nato and its allies.

'We are also financing an energy sector in transition, including providing one trillion dollars of Sustainable and Transition Finance by 2030 to build a cleaner and more secure energy system.'