Novak Djokovic has called for the start of play on Centre Court to be moved forward, following scheduling issues that led to his fourth-round match falling foul of an 11pm curfew.
On Monday the Wimbledon champion completed his victory against the Polish No 17 seed Hubert Hurkacz in four sets, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (6), 5-7, 6-4, after the game was suspended overnight.
Djokovic said uncertainty over when matches will take place has affected his preparations and that start times should be brought forward from 1.30pm to midday.
“The matches could be pushed at least to start at 12pm,” he said. “I think it would make a difference. Obviously curfew is probably something that is much more difficult to change, I understand, because of the community and the residential area we are in.”
Djokovic started his match against Hurkacz in still conditions under the roof at 9pm on Sunday, and finished with the roof open and a strong breeze the next day. “Once the time is over 8pm, you know that there’s a high probability you won’t finish your match,” Djokovic said.
“I warmed up [for the match] around 1pm, something like this. Should you go back to the accommodation, the house nearby, or should you stay? Yesterday I decided to stay. I stayed basically for seven hours waiting for my match to start. That’s a lot.”
Earlier on Monday the chief executive of the All England Club, Sally Bolton, had defended the start times, which also affected the second-round match between Andy Murray and Stefanos Tsitsipas, with the Greek reversing an overnight deficit to win.
Bolton said timings will be looked at as part of the Championships annual review but insisted an afternoon start was part of Wimbledon’s heritage and popular with ticket holders and television audiences.
“Every year we look at everything, and we get feedback from all of our guest groups, from the player groups and from all of our stakeholders,” she said. “And so in the same way, as we always do, we will have a look at that beyond this year’s Championships.
“Historically we’ve always started play on our show courts around early afternoon. And that’s very much about ensuring people have the opportunity to get on court, so ... we have full courts for when the players will come. That’s still absolutely our intention.
“The other thing we think about carefully is the fact that when people buy tickets and come to Wimbledon, they want to experience a day at the Championships. That involves seeing some play on outside courts, perhaps getting something to eat, getting some strawberries and cream, we understand that our guests want that whole day.
“As far as the TV audience is concerned, matches are happening at a time when they’re accessible to people. We’re seeing viewing figures that are beyond our expectations and beyond previous years.”
The BBC does not release complete viewing figures until the end of the tournament but the most viewed match so far was Murray’s late-night encounter with Tsitsipas that drew 5 million viewers. This compares with 7.5 million for the men’s final last year, and 3.1 million for the women’s.
Statistics also show scheduling is being affected by the fact matches in both draws are taking longer. The average length of a men’s match at the Championships is now 156 minutes, up from 132 a decade ago. In the women’s draw, the average this year is 102min, the first time it has surpassed the 100min mark, and up from 93min in 2013.
A further, more traditional, problem is the impact of rain, with more predicted this week. But yesterday on Monday the matches moved swiftly and fans enjoyed the sun, tennis and other entertainments.
“It’s disappointing that some matches don’t finish on the day,” said Philippa Baker, a ticket holder on Centre Court, “but that’s probably more the case for the players, because some can cope with the changes better than others. For spectators, it’s the gaps between matches which are the problem. They’re too short to nip out for strawberries and champagne.”
