Wimbledon Prices hit records - so stick to the strawberries

A young, smartly dressed man is walking through the well manicured grounds of Wimbledon, carefully carrying a couple of championship branded plastic glasses and two half bottles of champagne. They are covered by tennis ball sleeves.

- Alexandra Topping

When asked how much they cost, he stops. "I don't know, actually," he says. He looks at the credit card receipt: £92. "Well, it's champagne," he shrugs. "At an event like this, that isn't bad." 

In the rest of Britain, a cost of living crisis rages on. Inflation is at 8.7%, the costs of mortgages and rents are spiralling, food banks are helping record numbers of people. You wouldn't know it in SW19.

The first day of the competition was its busiest since 2015. Its Wimbledon Collection products have had record-breaking sales every day of the championships this year, onsite and offline, organisers told the Guardian.

Boosted by spreads in Tatler and Vogue, as well as by influencers who have promoted Wimbledon's clothing range for the first time in its 146-year history, many of its semi-formal clothing lines are expected to sell out before the men's singles final tomorrow.