Britain’s Andy Murray has confirmed he will play mixed doubles with Serena Williams at Wimbledon.

Murray, a two-time singles champion at SW19, will compete in both the men’s and mixed doubles less than a month after returning following hip surgery.

American Williams, a 23-time Grand Slam singles winner, had earlier told journalists: “If you guys really want it… all right, done.”

The pair are expected to play their first match together on Thursday.

Murray, who won Queen’s with Feliciano Lopez, will partner Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert in the men’s doubles.

The Scot was turned down by world number one Ashleigh Barty before suggesting he might pair up with 37-year-old Williams, who has won seven doubles titles at Wimbledon.

Murray said: “Serena is obviously a brilliant player, has a great doubles record and is brilliant on grass obviously. She’s arguably the best player ever.”

Laughing, he added: “So she’d be a solid partner.”

The only issue will be whether the American’s knees will cope with the extra demands of playing doubles as well as singles – and whether Murray’s fitness holds up to what will be a packed doubles programme if they have a good run.

Williams has struggled with a knee injury this year but beat Giulia Gatto-Monticone on Tuesday.

Murray played mixed doubles at Wimbledon in 2006 where he teamed up with Belgium’s Kirsten Flipkens and reached the second round.

He was also a silver medallist with Laura Robson in the London 2012 Olympics which were played at the All England Club.

Williams is a two-time mixed doubles Grand Slam champion, having partnered Max Mirnyi to win Wimbledon and the US Open in 1998.

Some 64 pairings compete in the mixed doubles, which is played over the best of three sets.

Williams teases media over Murray doubles

Just before the pairing was confirmed, Williams had remained coy about the prospect at a news conference following her first-round singles victory.

Journalist: “When do you think you could make that decision? Next three hours? In the morning?”

Williams: “This is crazy. I don’t know. I’m still kind of in the singles mode, trying to figure that part out. We’ll see. I could use extra matches, though, so… could be something.”

Journalist: “Could you give us a rough percentage of how likely you think it is you would play with Andy?”

Williams: “I don’t know. If you guys really want it, then maybe I’ll do it.”

Journalist: “We do really want it.”

Williams: “Yeah? All right, done, just for you guys. Don’t forget.”

• Relive the coverage of day two from Wimbledon
• Williams through with Barty and Kerber
• ‘Frozen’ Federer survives scare, Nadal also through
• Konta among five Britons to reach second round on Tuesday
• Theatrical Kyrgios sets up Nadal tie as Tomic loses in under an hour
• Sharapova retires injured in final set

Eight-time champion Roger Federer survived a first-set scare to see off South African debutant Lloyd Harris and reach the Wimbledon second round.

Federer, 37, moved through the gears to win 3-6 6-1 6-2 6-2 on Centre Court.

After Harris left the crowd stunned by taking the opener, Federer began to find his rhythm and rattled off victory in one hour and 51 minutes.

The Swiss, aiming for a record-extending ninth men’s title, will face Britain’s Jay Clarke next.

Clarke, 20, took his seventh match point to beat American Noah Rubin in four sets, clinching the additional prize of meeting the 20-time Grand Slam champion on Thursday.

• Britons Konta, Evans, Dart, Norrie and Clarke reach second round
• Theatrical Kyrgios comes through in five sets as Tomic loses in under an hour
• Andy Murray column: ‘Injury led to my interest in art – but my first painting was a disaster!’

Federer was ‘frozen’ as Harris threatened seismic shock

Harris, 22, was making his debut at Wimbledon – and had never even won a match on grass going into Tuesday’s meeting with arguably the greatest player of all time.

But the world number 86 rocked Federer with blistering serves consistently around 130mph and backed that up with some heaving groundstrokes in a first set which left Centre Court murmuring in disbelief.

After breaking Federer’s serve for a 4-2 lead, Harris confidently sealed the opener in 29 minutes as he threatened to create one of the most seismic shocks ever seen at Wimbledon.

Federer, who had dropped a set in the first round at Wimbledon for the first time since 2010, seemed to lack the assurance which has rarely gone missing in his illustrious career.

“I struggled early on, I felt a bit frozen, my legs weren’t going,” Federer told BBC Sport.

“I felt it was heavy out there, the ball wasn’t going when I was hitting it and he was hitting it big.”

The challenge for Harris was always going to be maintaining his level as Federer started to find more rhythm and make him work harder for his points.

As Federer rediscovered his timing and touch, Harris wildly slashed a forehand wide – with the ball sitting up invitingly for the South African and Federer stricken at the baseline – on a break point for a 3-1 lead to the Swiss.

From that point he could not recover, Federer winning 11 of the next 13 points to level the match and then continue to go through the gears as he broke twice in the third set.

Then it turned into a procession towards victory, with Harris looking like he might have to pull out with a calf injury which left him needing lengthy treatment.

But he refused to quit as Federer began to purr, a dipping, cross-court backhand winner sealing another break early in the fourth for the Swiss as he cruised to his 17th straight first-round win at the All England Club.

“He kept me nervous for a set and a half and I think that break was crucial in the second to turn things around,” Federer said.

“It took a big effort. Lloyd played a good match.”

• Barty & Kerber move into second round
• French Open finalist Thiem knocked out
• Live scores, schedule and results
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Centre Court, strawberries and cream … Wimbledon is famed for tradition but one is now missing – the use of ‘Miss’ and ‘Mrs’ at the end of games.

Marital status prefixes for female players have largely been scrapped by tournament organisers to bring parity with the men’s game.

That means no more “Game, Miss …” or “Game, set and match, Mrs…”

“We’ve got to move with the times,” said Alexandra Willis, a spokesperson for the All England Club.

“Hopefully we surprise people with the way we do that.”

Britain’s Heather Watson was among those to welcome the change, saying: “Equality is always good.”

Yet, as with the passing of all traditions, not everybody was completely won over.

Men’s world number one Novak Djokovic said he supported the move, but added: “I thought that tradition was very unique and very special. I thought it was nice.

“It’s definitely not easy to alter or change any traditions here that have been present for many years. It’s quite surprising that they’ve done that.”

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What Wimbledon say

• Prefixes are not used for pre-match announcements during warm-up or prior to first point (no change).
• Prefixes will not be used when announcing ‘game…’ score and end of match score ‘game, set, match…’ (change to achieve consistency for both women and men).
• Prefixes will be used for code violations, medical announcements and player challenges (no change – aligned with other tournaments).
• In summary, the only change is to remove the use of prefixes when announcing the score at the end of each game and at the end of each match.

British number one Johanna Konta starts her Wimbledon campaign on Tuesday with a first-round match against Romania’s Ana Bogdan, the world number 132.

Konta, who reached the semi-finals at SW19 in 2017, is one of eight British players in action on day two.

Wimbledon legend Roger Federer starts his bid for a ninth title against South African Lloyd Harris, who is making his debut at the tournament.

And two-time winner Rafael Nadal faces Japanese qualifier Yuichi Sugita.

Defending women’s champion Angelique Kerber plays in the first match of the day on Centre Court when she faces fellow German Tatjana Maria at 13:00 BST.

Swiss Federer is next up, before seven-time champion Serena Williams, seeded 11th, faces Italian qualifier Giulia Gatto-Monticone as the American begins her latest bid for her first major title since giving birth in September 2017.

The first match on Court One, also at 13:00, sees Australian world number one and top seed Ashleigh Barty play China’s Zheng Saisai, who is ranked 43rd.

They will be followed by Konta and Bogdan, then Nadal versus Sugita.

Playing for the chance to meet Federer

Heather Watson is already in the second round of the women’s draw and fellow Briton Konta, along with Harriet Dart and Katie Swan, will try to join her.

Grass is Konta’s favoured surface but the 19th seed suffered early exits in Birmingham and Eastbourne in the run-up to Wimbledon.

Dart meets American Christina McHale in the first match on court 14 at 11:00, while Katie Swan plays Laura Siegemund of Germany in the second match on court 12.

In the men’s singles, British number two Cameron Norrie is second on court 16 and faces Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin, who famously beat world number one Novak Djokovic at the 2017 Australian Open.

Meanwhile, 20-year-old Jay Clarke is aiming for the possible prize of meeting Federer and plays in the third match on court eight, where he faces Noah Rubin of the United States.

British number three Dan Evans opens on court 18 against Argentina’s Federico Delbonis and James Ward is first up on court 17 (both also at 11:00) when he faces Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia.

Another British player, Paul Jubb, the teenage wildcard who recently won the prestigious NCAA college title, plays in the fourth match on court 17 against Portuguese world number 66 Joao Sousa.

British number one Kyle Edmund sealed his place in round two with a straight-set win over Spain’s Jaume Munar on Monday.

Federer begins bid for 21st Grand Slam

Federer, who turns 38 in August, already holds the men’s record for the most Wimbledon titles with eight, and also the most Grand Slams – 20.

Nadal, 33, is only three behind him with 18, but has not won at Wimbledon since claiming his second title in 2010.

The Spaniard could play Nick Kyrgios in round two – Kyrgios takes on fellow Australian Jordan Thompson in the first match on court three, at 11:00.

Fifth seed Dominic Thiem of Austria is also in action, taking on Sam Querrey of the United States in the second match on court two.

Serena could set up Kerber meeting

French Open champion Barty has replaced Naomi Osaka at the top of the women’s ranking, with the Japanese player among the early casualties at Wimbledon.

Five-time winner Venus Williams is also out after being beaten by 15-year-old compatriot Cori Gauff in the biggest shock of day one, but younger sister Serena is still targeting her first Wimbledon triumph since 2016.

One more triumph would see the 11th seed, who has struggled with a knee injury, equal Australian Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles.

“I haven’t had enough match play but I saw some good doctors in Paris and I’m feeling better,” Williams said.

Defending champion Kerber, seeded fifth, will face Williams in round two if they both win their opening matches.

Sixth seed Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic also begins her campaign against Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur in the third match on court three.

Kvitova has been struggling with an arm injury but hopes to be fit enough to sustain a challenge for a third title.

How can I follow the championships?

Viewers in the UK can watch the best action on BBC One, BBC Two, BBC iPlayer and BBC Red Button, while there are also up to 18 courts to choose from through Connected TVs, the BBC Sport website and app, with every match live in HD for the first time.

BBC Radio 5 Live will also be at the heart of the action, with live commentary and expert analysis every day of the championships.

Today at Wimbledon on BBC Two each night takes an in-depth look at the day’s best matches and biggest talking points.

And you can stay up to date with all the latest news and go behind the scenes via BBC Sport’s social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

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