The World Cup could be responsible for low crowd numbers at Wimbledon, officials admitted today.
Attendance figures for the All England Club are down on last year with the tournament in South Africa being partly blamed.
Some 4,500 fewer people passed through the turnstiles yesterday than on the same day last year and it is feared that numbers could be down even further today because of England's crunch match against Slovenia.
A spokesman for Wimbledon said capacity had been reduced by 2,500 by renovation work and that fewer people were leaving the grounds because of exciting matches — meaning new visitors, who would boost the figures, could not get in. But the spokesman added: "The World Cup probably is a factor."
Figures for the first day showed 39,696 people attended, down 3,115 from opening day last year.
Yesterday, 41,437 people were at Wimbledon, down 4,518. Last year 46,826 fans attended on the third day but it is expected the number will be lower today.
Yesterday there were scores of empty seats at courts around the site, with Court 2 looking particularly bare. A spokesman for the club said exciting matches would play a part in apparent low turnout because people would not leave and therefore could not be replaced by new visitors. He said: "The ground has been at capacity throughout the first and second days [but] the more exciting the tennis, the lower the capacity will look. On Monday very few people were leaving because of the Federer match and the Djokovic match."
The club will not show today's England game on any screen at the grounds, or make any kind of announcement about the score.
A source said: "We are not going to have it. It is Wimbledon — we don't want everyone cheering the football during the tennis."
