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Clare Balding: A 'tremendous honour' to be BBC's lead presenter for Wimbledon

Clare Balding 21 Dec 2022

Clare Balding will replace Sue Barker as BBC's lead presenter at Wimbledon.

Clare Balding feels honoured to take over from Sue Barker as the BBC's new lead presenter for Wimbledon.
Barker stepped down at the end of last year's tournament after 30 years covering one of the broadcaster's flagship events.
Balding, who has worked on Wimbledon for TV and radio since 1995, believes a new batch of rising stars are jostling to replace established champions like Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams as they head towards retirement.
"It's a tremendous honour. Sue is a good friend of mine and has been really supportive. I will try and do her proud without trying to do what she did," said Balding.
"What I'm really looking forward to this year, and over the next five or six years, is seeing who will become the major stars of the next decade.
"We have reached the end of Roger Federer's reign here, and we are reaching the end of Novak Djokovic, who is still reigning supreme, but what next?
"What happens with Stefanos Tsitsipas or Felix Auger Aliassime or Carlos Alcaraz? Could Ons Jabeur win this? Can they lift the trophy? Can they win the championship here at Wimbledon?"
Alcaraz will head into the tournament as the men's top seed after clinching last week's Queen's Club title, while Poland's Iga Swiatek heads a wide-open women's field despite never previously having gone past the fourth round.
For Balding, the unique atmosphere of SW19 will help determine which of the new generation of talent is best-equipped to carve their own name into the famous history of the tournament.
"This is the greatest sporting theatre anywhere in the world and therefore creates the greatest drama, because the crowd is so close and so involved.
"They live and breathe every single shot, but also things happen fast on grass. A match can start to slip away from a really good player who looks in a dominant position, then suddenly something happens, it turns and the underdog comes back."

READ MORE: Wimbledon tips: Straight shootout between Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz in men's draw

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