The Japan Times - Alcaraz, Sabalenka in action on day one at sizzling Wimbledon

With London sweltering in a summer heatwave, Alcaraz will aim to maintain his red-hot form in the opening match on Centre Court against 38-year-old Italian Fabio Fognini.

Having vanquished seven-time champion Novak Djokovic in the past two Wimbledon finals, Alcaraz is looking to join an elite group at the All England Club.

The 22-year-old has won 29 of his 32 Tour-level matches on grass, with his last defeat at Wimbledon coming against world number one Jannik Sinner in the last 16 in 2022.

Alcaraz is bidding to become the fifth man in the Open Era to win at least three consecutive Wimbledon titles after Bjorn Borg, Pete Sampras, Roger Federer and Djokovic.

"I really want to lift the trophy. I'm not thinking about how many players have done it, winning three Wimbledons in a row," said the Spaniard, who beat Sinner in an epic French Open final earlier this month.

"I'm just thinking that I want to prepare myself in the best way possible. Obviously, I feel a lot of confidence right now."

Former England captain David Beckham will watch the action from the royal box on Centre Court, alongside ex-England manager Gareth Southgate.

- Mercury soars -

Temperatures on Monday are expected to climb to at least 33 degrees Celsius (91 degrees Fahrenheit).

According to the Met Office, it is provisionally the hottest start to Wimbledon on record, with 29.7 Celsius being recorded nearby.

The tournament has a heat rule that it is ready to activate to safeguard the health of the players.

The rule allows a 10-minute break to be taken between the second and third sets for women's matches and between the third and fourth sets for men's matches, when the heat stress index is at or above 30.1 degrees Celsius.

"The obvious point to make is that the athletes compete in temperatures like this all year on the Tour so for us Brits here at the championships it feels very hot," said Wimbledon chief executive Sally Bolton.

"We do have the heat rule available to us which again is well used on the tour so we will be taking heat stress monitor readings."

Sabalenka will be determined to keep her cool when the women's top seed starts her campaign against Canadian qualifier Carson Branstine on Court One.

The 27-year-old Belarusian is a three-time Grand Slam champion but has suffered agonising three-set defeats in this year's Australian Open and French Open finals.

Sabalenka was beaten by Madison Keys in Melbourne and Coco Gauff in Paris, with the latter defeat triggering a frustrated outburst from the loser.

She was heavily criticised for claiming the Roland Garros loss was due to her own mistakes rather than Gauff's performance.

"I didn't really want to offend her (Gauff). I was just completely upset with myself, and emotions overcame me. I just completely lost it," Sabalenka said.

"It was a tough time for me. The lesson is learned. I was able to sit back and be open to myself, not just to ignore some things.

"I really hope it will never happen again."

Elsewhere on Monday, German third seed Alexander Zverev faces France's Arthur Rinderknech, while Italian women's fourth seed Jasmine Paolini, beaten by Barbora Krejcikova in last year's final, opens against Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia.

There are 23 British players in the men's and women's singles, the most since 1984, with former US Open champion Emma Raducanu and Katie Boulter among those in action on Monday.

A significant change this year will be the absence of line judges after a switch to electronic line calling.

"It will be a little bit different and I think it'll take us a little bit of time to get used to that but we felt very much that it was time to move on," said Bolton.

With thousands of people in the queue for tickets on Monday the All England Club is advising people not to travel.

K.Yoshida--JT