Novak Djokovic wants Wimbledon to start matches earlier at Centre Court. Good luck with that

1 / 11

Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

Serbia's Novak Djokovic reacts as he plays Poland's Hubert Hurkacz in a men's singles match on day eight of the Wimbledon tennis championships in London, Monday, July 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

WIMBLEDON ā€“ Novak Djokovic is a bit tired of not getting on Centre Court at Wimbledon until nearly 9 p.m. The waiting. The uncertainty. The rushing to try to finish matches by the 11 p.m. local curfew ā€” or the annoyance at having to stop midway through a contest and wait until the following day to resume.

He offered a solution Monday afternoon after winning his 32nd consecutive match in the grass-court tournament by wrapping up a 7-6 (6), 7-6 (6), 5-7, 6-4 victory over Hubert Hurkacz that began Sunday evening but was halted after two sets: Start play in the All England Clubā€™s main stadium earlier than 1:30 p.m. Maybe at noon, say.

Recommended Videos



ā€œIt would make a difference,ā€ said Djokovic, who is now into the quarterfinals and three wins away from what would be a fifth championship in a row at Wimbledon, an eighth overall at the place and a 24th career Grand Slam title.

ā€œThere are different ways that Iā€™m sure they will address this issue,ā€ said Djokovic, whose shoes are stamped with the number ā€œ23,ā€ a reference to his current major trophy count, ā€œand try to avoid having these kind of problems in the future.ā€

Yeah, Novak, good luck with that.

The head of the club made clear there is not much of a chance of such a switch.

ā€œMatches are happening at a time when theyā€™re accessible to people. Weā€™re seeing (TV) viewing figures that are beyond our expectations and beyond previous years,ā€ club chief executive Sally Bolton said, ā€œso I think they probably speak for themselves.ā€

Play begins on the smaller courts at 11 a.m. and at No. 1 Court at 1 p.m., with Centre Court the last to get play underway. Because the tournament site is right in a residential area, local rules prevent matches from continuing past 11 p.m.; often, if a set ends around 10:30 p.m., the encounter will be suspended until the next day so as not to risk going past the cutoff time.

That happened in Andy Murrayā€™s loss to Stefanos Tsitsipas in the second round, which got stretched into a second day after being the last on the schedule at Centre Court.

Djokovicā€™s third-round match, which also was last at that arena, appeared to be headed that way, too, but he managed to finish beating Stan Wawrinka at 10:46 p.m. Djokovic-Hurkacz, again last for the day at Centre Court, began with the retractable roof shut; they stopped at 10:35 p.m. When action picked up again a little more than 16 hours later, the cover was gone and the wind was whipping.

Djokovic said he warmed up at about 1 p.m. for both of those nighttime affairs and then was left with a key decision.

ā€œShould you go back to the accommodation? The house nearby? Or should you stay (at the club)? Yesterday, I decided to stay,ā€ said Djokovic, who will face No. 7 Andrey Rublev on Tuesday for a berth in the semifinals. ā€œI stayed, basically, for seven hours, waiting for my match to start.ā€

Once it did, Djokovic was not quite at his very best against the 17th-seeded Hurkacz, who is best known for being the player to beat Roger Federer at Wimbledon in 2021 in what wound up being the last match of the 20-time major championā€™s career. Hurkacz held three set points when he led the opening tiebreaker 6-3, but he showed some shakiness and couldnā€™t hold on. Then he led 5-4 in the second tiebreaker ā€” two points from taking it ā€” and again allowed Djokovic to come through before the interruption Sunday night.

After Hurkacz made things interesting by grabbing a set Monday, Djokovic reasserted himself, as he so often does.

ā€œPlaying Novak,ā€ Hurkacz said, ā€œis just an incredible challenge to compete against.ā€

One of Wednesdayā€™s menā€™s quarterfinals will be No. 3 Daniil Medvedev, the 2021 U.S. Open champion, against unseeded Chris Eubanks, a 27-year-old American making his Wimbledon debut. Eubanks never had been past the second round at a Grand Slam tournament until now. The other menā€™s match Wednesday will be No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz vs. No. 6 Holger Rune. Alcaraz got past 2021 Wimbledon runner-up Matteo Berrettini 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3, and Rune also came back from a set down to beat No. 21 Grigor Dimitrov 3-6, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (4), 6-3.

Womenā€™s quarterfinal matchups established Monday were No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka vs. No. 25 Madison Keys, and No. 3 Elena Rybakina vs. No. 6 Ons Jabeur.

Rybakina is the defending champion; she defeated Jabeur in last yearā€™s final.

ā€œThe first one or two weeks (after), I thought about it a lot. It was very painful," Jabeur said after eliminating two-time champion Petra Kvitova 6-0, 6-3 Monday. "The good thing about it is I know I gave it everything. Iā€™m someone that believes that it wasnā€™t meant to be, so I cannot force it more than it should be. Iā€™m glad that I have this belief. I believe in destiny. It wasnā€™t supposed to be that year. Maybe greater things are coming after that final.ā€

___

AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports


Loading...

Recommended Videos