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WIMBLEDON 2023: Novak Djokovic angry with organizers’ decision
Novak Djokovic had on Monday reached Wimbledon’s quater-finals for the 14th time after defeating Hubert Hurkacz in the fourth round.
Meanwhile, National Daily gathered that the 36-year-old was left unhappy with Wimbledon’s 11pm curfew and has urged tournament chiefs to start matches earlier to avoid scheduling issues.
Djokovic had started his fourth-round match against Hurkacz on Sunday but the match had to be completed on Monday after the action went on too late.
Wimbledon is the only Grand Slam that operates with a curfew, imposed in 2009 when the Centre Court roof was installed after an agreement with the local council over noise.
It also impacted Andy Murray’s match against Stefanos Tsitsipas earlier in the tournament and some have urged Wimbledon to either remove the curfew completely or start matches earlier on the show courts.
The first match on Centre Court each day is scheduled to start at 1.30pm but Djokovic feels that the action should start earlier in the day.
‘I think so,’ Djokovic said when asked if Wimbledon should push back the 1.30pm start. ‘I agree with that.
‘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.
‘I think the matches could be pushed at least to start at 12pm. I think it would make a difference.
‘Once the time is [past] 8pm, you know that there’s a high probability you won’t finish your match.
‘That was the case against [Stan] Wawrinka and Hurkacz. Both of the matches started almost actually 9pm. It was 20 to 9 or something like this, or 8:30pm that we walked out on the court.
‘I warmed up for both of those matches 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. You never know what’s going to happen.
‘Today I’m thinking, ‘I have at least an hour and a half’ – then after 20 minutes, my match is called because there was a retirement in the ladies match before us.
‘It’s tennis. That’s the unpredictability of tennis in a way. You have to be ready for both scenarios.
‘When I saw the matches that were played before me yesterday with Rublev-Bublik, and Swiatek-Bencic, I thought those matches could be long matches. But you don’t know that. You can only predict. It’s never a guarantee.
‘Yeah, it’s tricky, especially if there is a lot of players and a lot of stuff, members of the respective players’ teams, and they all occupy spaces for rest. It’s not easy to find a corner where you can just be by yourself.
‘That’s okay. At the end of the day, it is what it is. You have to adapt. It’s not the first, probably neither the last, time that I get to experience these type of particular circumstances.
‘Wimbledon has been so attached, I would say connected, with its tradition and history in not changing certain things, which I respect a lot. I think they’re wonderful things to keep with history, like the defending champion going out on the first day.
‘Even though it was nice for us to get a chance in the last couple of years to practice on the Centre Court before the tournament starts, I have to say I’m not a fan of that.