Novak Djokovic was criticised by the Wimbledon crowd on Centre Court for the time he took to serve during Sunday’s men’s final against Carlos Alcaraz.
The commentators on the BBC pointed out his slow play repeatedly, with the Serbian running down the clock, then throwing the ball up and not serving on several occasions, adding to the already lengthy time between points.
Members of the Centre Court crowd shouted ‘get on with it’, while statistics during the match showed that at one point Djokovic had been taking 33 seconds to serve, compared to Alcaraz’s 27 seconds.
In the second set tie-break, Djokovic finally received a penalty for a time violation, having pushed the limit throughout the match until that point.
The decision from umpire Fergus Murphy was cheered by the crowd, with someone shouting “finally”.
Todd Woodbridge on commentary said: “Djokovic is very good at trying to halt momentum. When he is 30-0 or 40-0 down he takes a lot longer on his serve.
“If the clock is not being officiated to the degree we would expect then it is an advantage to Novak.”
New York Times journalist Christopher Clarey tweeted: “Alcaraz breaks to take the early lead in set two. Doing damage with his forehand now and cracking a smile or two, which he has plenty of time to do as he waits (and waits) for Djokovic to serve”
Ross McAfferty joked on Twitter: “Managed to squeeze in watching a cool video while Djokovic was preparing to serve there.
“Of course, by “cool we video” I mean the Godfather trilogy”.
Djokovic eventually lost a five-set thriller to Alcaraz in one of the all-time great Wimbledon finals but faced further controversy in the match when he smashed up his racket on the net post in anger.
