What a strange situation the Wimbledon organisers find themselves in. Three days completed at this year’s Championships and a handful of round one matches are yet to be completed – or even started. Yet, thanks to the Wimbledon Centre Court roof, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic can sit back and sip some Evian as they are already safely though to the final thirty-two. Does this seem entirely fair?
Whilst the two decorated champions get to put their feet up for a few days, things are not quite so rosy for the likes of John Isner and Marcos Baghdatis. The American is no stranger to three day matches at Wimbledon but this is a different kettle of fish. After their match was cancelled on Tuesday due to adverse weather, they managed barely a set and a half a day later as the rain once again wreaked havoc with the schedule.
These two are not the only players still battling away in the first round. In fact five matches on the men’s side and a further eight on the women’s side are yet to reach their decisive conclusion. Timea Bacsinszky has not even stepped foot on the grass yet and will instead kick off her campaign on the day she was due to play her second round match.
Could the tournament organisers have done more?
At this stage there has to be some questioning into the way the scheduling has been handled. Firstly, it’s worth acknowledging that – to a certain extent – it cannot be helped if there is terrible weather. Anyone who has been to the United Kingdom for a stretch of time longer than twenty four hours knows that an outdoor tennis tournament in the British summer will always be something of a gamble. Just ask anyone who went to Glastonbury last week. To describe the weather in Britain as temperamental would be doing it an injustice.
However, there are certain people that should be accustomed to its threatening ways. Some of those are the Wimbledon tournament organisers who have had to endure it for so many years. Therefore, if they knew that Wednesday afternoon was likely to be something of a soggy mess then questions have to be asked as to why play didn’t begin earlier. They obviously have the capabilities to do it as they have pulled Thursday’s start time forward by half an hour. So why not get ahead of the game and do it on Wednesday?
Luckily there was one place for fans to enjoy a full day’s play. Those fortunate enough to find themselves under Wimbledon’s swanky seven year old Centre Court roof were treated to a day of entertainment. Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer probably exchanged a sneaky high five as they find themselves well ahead of the opposition thanks to their billing under the Centre Court roof. I’m not questioning the logic that, given the cost of a ticket to the most recognisable court in global tennis, the best players in the world should take priority. They have earned that billing through their own successful endeavours.
Tradition versus Reality
Equally though, the draws consist of 128 players, not two or three. The sensible move would have been to cram as many matches under the roof as was logistically possible. Play started on Centre Court at 1pm today and they managed to get five matches finished on it. Is there some sort of rule that stops play beginning any earlier? Why not put Heather Watson against Annika Beck on at 11:30 and give the home fans as much tennis as possible?
Wimbledon is a tournament which prides itself heavily on tradition and obviously this plays a major part in scheduling decisions. Traditionally centre court play begins at 1pm. Traditionally play on the outside courts begins at 11:30am. Sometimes though, for the good of both the players and the fans, tradition needs to go by the wayside. Sometimes common sense needs to prevail. Most players don’t want to be playing two Grand Slam matches in a day, especially on the men’s side.
Just a few weeks ago the French Open suffered one of its most difficult and forgettable tournaments in recent memory as weather and poor scheduling viciously combined. If Wimbledon continues to favour tradition over what is actually happening, it could suffer a similar fate. At least the debentures will be pleased to see Novak Djokovic make it to the semi-finals in time, even if John Isner is into the fourth day of his third round encounter out on Court 8.
