The 23-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic has called upon Wimbledon to rethink their scheduling and start matches earlier at the Centre Court as he prepares to play for the third day in a row.
The defending champion sailed into the quarter-finals at Wimbledon for the 14th time after a curfew-delayed four-set win against Hubert Hurkacz. The Serbian takes on Andrey Rublev in Tuesday’s quarterfinals.
The 36-year-old was leading Poland’s Hurkacz by two sets when play was suspended on Sunday night. The seven-time champion returned to Centre Court 16 hours later and dropped the third set before sealing a 7-6(6), 7-6(6), 5-7, 6-4 victory over Hurkacz.
Play at All England Club starts each day at 1:00 pm (British Summer Time) on Court One and 1:30 on Centre court, with a 11:00 pm curfew resulting in some matches being suspended until the next day.
Two matches have fallen foul of the curfew and have been forced into a second day. Besides Djokovic’s clash with Hurkacz, the other match to be suspended because of the curfew was Murray’s epic second-round encounter against Stefanos Tsitsipas.
“I think the matches could be pushed to at least start at 12:00. I think it would make a difference,” Djokovic was quoted as saying by BBC.
“I think there are different ways that I’m sure they will address this issue and try to avoid having these kinds of problems in the future,” he added.
However, the All England Lawn Tennis Club CEO, Sally Bolton has said there was no guarantee an earlier start time would be considered on Centre Court for next year’s tournament.
“Matches are happening at a time when they’re accessible to people. We’re seeing (TV) viewing figures that are beyond our expectations and beyond previous years. So, I think they probably speak for themselves,” Bolton said.
The Wimbledon curfew is at 11pm local time and has been in place since 2009 when Centre Court’s new roof was unveiled, which means that no play can continue past 11 p.m. local time with matches resuming the following day.
In a statement released in 2018, the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTC) said: “The 11pm curfew is a Planning Condition applied to balance the consideration of the local residents with the scale of an international tennis event that takes place in a residential area.
The challenge of transport connectivity and getting visitors home safely is also a key consideration. The curfew was introduced for the opening of the Centre Court roof in 2009.”
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