World Cup co-hosts still in with a shout as the first-ever round of 32 kicks off

The group stage is over and the World Cup has been reduced to the same number of teams who began the previous seven tournaments. The first ever round of 32 matches brings together two teams who might have been heading home in previous years as South Africa, who soared six places in the rankings to No 54 after beating South Korea, take on Canada, the world No 31 (today, ITV1 or BBC One, TBC, 8pm).

Cynics may wonder if the expanded format was created to give all three co-hosts a good chance of making the knockout rounds. South Africa were eliminated on goal difference when they hosted the World Cup in 2010 and Qatar were rubbish last time, but otherwise hosts have always escaped their groups. Mexico and the United States both progressed this time as group winners.

I hope that in the BBC’s revamp of its Wimbledon coverage, they haven’t ditched the bouncing brass intro that is Light and Tuneful, Keith Mansfield’s second greatest contribution to humanity (the first, of course, being the theme music for Grandstand). The defending men’s champion traditionally gets the opening match on Centre Court, but with all respect to Jannik Sinner – and indeed Iga Świątek, last year’s women’s champion - the star attraction for many will involve a 44-year-old wild card who hasn’t won a match there since 2019. Will Serena Williams have a dream return? (All week from tomorrow, BBC One, Two and iPlayer, from 10.30am).

Cricket is having an Indian summer. The men’s World T20 champions play Ireland in Belfast today (TNT Sports 4, 1.30pm) before a five-match series with England starts in Durham (Wednesday, Sky Sports Cricket, 5.30pm). There is much excitement and no little fear about the debut tour of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, the 15-year-old IPL sensation. Shouldn’t he be in school? Meanwhile, India’s women play their last World T20 group match against Australia today (Sky Sports+, 2.30pm) and may need a win to reach Tuesday’s first semi-final,.

The worst of the heatwave may have passed but temperatures are still expected to be in the low 30s in Barcelona next weekend, where the Tour de France begins (Saturday, TNT Sports 1 and BBC iPlayer, 4pm). This is the third time the Tour has started in Spain and the opening stage will be a team time-trial, the first time that has happened since 1971. That year, Eddie Merckx won his third title in a row, something Slovenia’s Tadej Pogačar hopes to match.

Finally, there is a lot of rugby next Saturday with the inaugural Nations Championship. New Zealand host France in the opening game (8.10am), then we have Australia-Ireland (11.10am), Fiji-Wales (2.10pm), South Africa-England (4.10pm) and Argentina-Scotland (8pm, all matches ITV1 or ITV4). No need to move from the sofa.

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