Breaking News: Andy Murray pressured Wimbledon chiefs after Novak Djokovic was ordered to leave court
Andy Murray once heaped pressure on Wimbledon bosses to revise scheduling at the All England Club after Novak Djokovic clashed with the evening curfew. Two years ago, the Serb had established a commanding two-set advantage over Hubert Hurkacz in their fourth-round encounter on Centre Court when the umpire was forced to halt proceedings due to SW19’s stringent regulations.
It mirrored Andy Murray’s predicament against Stefanos Tsitsipas during the same tournament, occurring just as the Scot had secured a slender one-set lead over his Greek rival. The interruption saw Murray surrender the momentum he had built throughout the evening before ultimately succumbing to Tsitsipas in a five-set thriller the following day.
Murray went on to suggest that he favoured modifications to the scheduling arrangements to address problems created by the 11pm curfew.
Taking to social media, he shared a Times article advocating for Wimbledon officials to abandon 1.30pm starts by pushing everything back by at least an hour, which would assist in completing matches before the nightly deadline.
His brother Jamie also endorsed the proposal by making light of Djokovic’s suspended match in a direct response to the original post. He simply posted: “Another night. Confirmed.”
The Wimbledon curfew, in place since 2009 when Centre Court’s roof was first unveiled, was a condition set by Merton Council for planning permission.
The rule has been steadfast, with only a slight extension in 2012 when Andy Murray triumphed over Marcos Baghdatis at 11.02pm.
Back in 2023, Murray was left disgruntled when his match against Tsitsipas was abruptly halted by the umpire with 20 minutes to spare before the official cut-off time.
The announcement was met with boos from the Centre Court crowd, and Murray himself appeared dissatisfied, questioning tournament referee Gerry Armstrong: “Why?”
However, he later conceded that it was the correct decision to halt the match after three sets due to the lack of time to finish a potentially decisive fourth set before the 11pm curfew.
“I didn’t necessarily think it was appropriate to keep going, because it was highly unlikely we’d finish the match unless someone was to win the set,” Murray explained.
“Sorry, it was unlikely someone was going to win that set in 20 minutes or 19 minutes, whatever we had left to play. It seemed like a reasonable time to stop.
