David Beckham is the man fuelling football fan Olivia Nicholls’ Wimbledon dream.
The Norwich tennis star, 29, booked her place in the third round of the women’s doubles for the first time on Friday with a quickfire 6-2 6-0 victory over Peyton Stearns and Magda Linette alongside Czech partner Tereza Mihalíková.
At the start of the week, Nicholls had bumped into Beckham in the SW19 locker room before posing for a picture with him and posting ‘so this happened’ on her Instagram.
Acle-born Nicholls, a Norwich City fan away from the court, has been following the Euros throughout her Wimbledon run and hopes her unlikely encounter with Beckham can lay the foundations for success.
“I’m super excited and it was another really good match,” she said.
“We were really clinical – it’s our first time into the third round of a Grand Slam, which sounds pretty good.
“We’re just combining really well, gelling and knowing where each other are going to be without even communicating.
“It was incredible meeting David Beckham – it was the highlight of my week.
“I walked out of the locker room on Monday, saw him and asked the girls if I could ask for a picture with him and they said ‘yes, it’s once in a lifetime opportunity.’
“He was lovely – I went and asked him and we had a little chat about the Euros, so he was lovely.
“He wished me luck, I was asking him about who he was going to be watching, so it was nice to watch him.
“I’ve been following the Euros – it’s been quite nice to go home, watch the games and switch off.
“I’ll definitely be watching England on Saturday.”
Nicholls, the current world No.69, had only once before reached the second round of a Grand Slam heading into the Wimbledon fortnight.
Her and Mihalíková, 26, stunned sixth seeds Luisa Stefani and Demi Schuurs 6-4 6-0 on Wednesday before following it up with another fluent triumph ahead of the weekend.
Nicholls is now further than she has ever gone before but says she won’t be getting ahead of herself as she aims to book her spot in the last 16.
“It’s the classic one match at a time,” she added.
“We will have a very tough team in the next round, so won’t get ahead of ourselves.
“We’ll keep preparing in the same way and hopefully keep this up.”
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