Rafael Nadal vs Felix Auger-Aliassime LIVE: Tennis result from Hurlingham Club as Nadal loses

Here come the players. The last two days at Hurlingham Club have been played under bright skies with blazing sunshine but the conditions are a little bit more overcast this afternoon.

It’s another packed house as the fans have come in to watch Nadal play. There’ll be a few Felix Auger-Aliassime supporters out there as well.

The pre-match photo is taken and the two players start to warm up.

Rafael Nadal’s odds of adding the Wimbledon title to his 2022 Australian and French Open victories have dropped since the draw came out and placed him in the bottom half with players of quality like Matteo Berrettini, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Felix Auger-Aliassime.

Still, the 36-year-old will be feeling upbeat about his chances. He’s had a fantastic year and will want it to continue at the All England Club.

Today’s exhibition match will go a little way to seeing how he’ll cope on the grass courts. His return against Stan Wawrinka on Wednesday was encouraging but Auger-Aliassime is a step up.

Marta Kostyuk says Ukraine is grateful to Wimbledon and England for its support in the war with Russia and has expressed her relief the third major of the year has not been hit by boycotts.

The All England Club’s decision in April to ban Russian and Belarussian players from competing at the Championships sparked criticism in some quarters and eventually saw the ATP and WTA strip ranking points from the tournament.

Naomi Osaka was one high-profile figure who suggested she could skip Wimbledon and while she is absent due to injury, the world’s best will be at SW19 despite initial fears it could become akin to an exhibition event.

Rafael Nadal played his first grasscourt match in three years on Wednesday and the Spaniard says a couple of exhibition games at the Hurlingham Club is the perfect preparation for Wimbledon, where he will bid for a third straight grand slam this season.

Nadal won the Australian and French Opens back-to-back for the first time and a win at Wimbledon, where the main draw kicks off on Monday, will take him a step closer to becoming the first man to win all four majors in the same year since Rod Laver in 1969.

The Spaniard, who had not played a competitive match on grass since his 2019 semi-final loss at Wimbledon to Roger Federer, beat Stan Wawrinka 6-2 6-3 on Wednesday and said it was good to get the feel of the surface again.

An interesting side-plot here, as it was at the French Open meeting last month, is that Felix Auger-Aliassime is coached by Rafael Nadal’s uncle - the infamous ‘Uncle Toni’.

Toni Nadal coached Nadal from his childhood until 2017 and apparently it was his decision to put the racket in Nadal’s left hand early on in his career.

Now, though, he’s on the other side of the court. Speaking ahead of the French Open match last month, Nadal said he expects his uncle to remain professional during the match despite their relationship.

“I already talked with Toni after my match,” said Nadal in Roland Garros. “For me, it’s very simple. He’s my uncle. I don’t think he will be able to want me to lose, without a doubt, but he’s a professional and he’s with another player. I don’t know what’s going to happen, if he’s going to stay in the box or not, but I don’t care. I have zero problem with that. It’s not a story at all for me.

“I know the feelings that we have between each other. I know he wants the best for me. Now he’s helping another player. But honestly, for me, it’s zero problem, and I know he wants the best for me.”

Wimbledon organisers have handed out hundreds of free tickets to Ukrainian refugees in a bid to welcome them to their new homes.

The tickets were presented at an afternoon tea held in Merton, south-west London, for the borough’s recent arrivals and their host families.

Food included the classic Wimbledon dish strawberries and cream, while white, green and purple bunting was draped from the ceiling in the tournament’s distinctive colours.

The tables were decorated with tennis balls, which were taken by two young boys to bounce on their miniature racquets.

It is quite amusing that Nadal and Auger-Aliassime are playing each other today just a couple of hours after being paired in the same quarter of the Wimbledon draw.

You’ve got to say that Hubert Hurkacz, a player who is suited to grass and was a semi-finalist at Wimbledon last year, is the big winner here out of the top 16 seeds.

There will be upsets, of course, there is no way this will be the fourth round.

Projected fourth round ties and bracket based on seeding

Novak Djokovic / Reilly Opelka vs Carlos Alcaraz / Jannik Sinner

Casper Ruud / Pablo Carreno Busta vs Hubert Hurkacz / Cameron Norrie

Matteo Berrettini / Diego Schwartzman vs Stefanos Tsitsipas / Dennis Shapovalov

Felix Auger-Aliassime / Taylor Fritz vs Rafael Nadal / Marin Cilic

The odds on Rafael Nadal reclaiming the Wimbledon title have dropped after the Spaniard landed in the same side of the draw as Matteo Berrettini.

The big-serving Italian, who is on form after winning titles in Stuttgart and Queen’s, reached the final last season and is the favourite to do so again.

While Novak Djokovic remains the favourite overall, Nadal faces the tough task of potentially having to beat Berrettini just to reach the final.

The Spaniard has of course upset the odds before this season on his way to winning the Australian Open and French Open titles.

Rafael Nadal’s 2022 has been described as a “miracle” with the Spaniard set to resume his bid for a Calendar Slam at Wimbledon next week.

The Spaniard’s extraordinary year started with his epic win at the Australian Open, before reaffirming his status as the king of clay with a 14th French Open.

Nadal, now 36 years of age, has battled numerous injuries over the last year, but has now moved two grand slams clear of Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer with a record 22 men’s singles titles.

And Alex Corretja believes only Nadal could have pulled off his recent resurgence ahead of his latest grand slam bid at SW19 next week.

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Rafael Nadal played his first grasscourt match in three years on Wednesday and the Spaniard says a couple of exhibition games at the Hurlingham Club is the perfect preparation for Wimbledon, where he will bid for a third straight grand slam this season.

Nadal won the Australian and French Opens back-to-back for the first time and a win at Wimbledon, where the main draw kicks off on Monday, will take him a step closer to becoming the first man to win all four majors in the same year since Rod Laver in 1969.

The Spaniard, who had not played a competitive match on grass since his 2019 semi-final loss at Wimbledon to Roger Federer, beat Stan Wawrinka 6-2 6-3 on Wednesday and said it was good to get the feel of the surface again.

“It has been a while without playing on grass,” he told reporters. “Since 2019 I haven’t been able to play on grass through the tough moments we went through with the pandemic and last year I got injured.

“I am older now - I can’t manage to play so many matches. For me it is perfect to play a couple of matches here before Wimbledon starts. That helps me to feel at least some competition before Wimbledon.”