The All England Tennis Club has confirmed they will not be starting matches earlier on Center Court at Wimbledon despite concerns raised by some players at last year’s tournament.
Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray were among those who called for matches to start earlier on the premier venue at Wimbledon to prevent the possibility of matches lasting two days. Djokovic’s fourth-round match and Murray’s second-round encounter were both affected in the 2023 tournament. Due to the Grand Slam having an 11pm curfew as part of their agreement with local authorities, any match running after that time must be finished the following day when conditions might be different to what they played the first part of their match in.
“Obviously the curfew is probably something that is much more difficult to change because of the community and the residential area we are in,” Djokovic previously told reporters.
“I think the matches could be pushed to at least start at 12:00. I think it would make a difference.”
However, Wimbledon has chosen to stick to their usual 13:30 start time which could be due to the decision to provide more prime time airtime to the BBC. Usually, three matches are held on Center Court during the championships but if one of those were to be a lengthy encounter, it increases the chances of the final match going into the second day. Something that some argue will be better for players rather than making them play into the early hours like at other major events.
“We are very comfortable with the start times that we have. We’re very comfortable with the fact we have one session instead of two and we’re very comfortable with the fact that we won’t have the situation whereby we finish early in the morning because we have an 11pm cut-off.” The Times quoted The All England Club chairwoman, Debbie Jevans, as saying on Thursday.
Sally Bolton, who is the Chief Executive of The All England Club, confirmed their decision was made following their annual tournament review. Even though some studies have established evidence that the average length of men’s Grand Slam matches has increased in recent years. The Athletic found the average duration increased by 23.4% between 1999 and 2023 from 2hr 21min to 2hr 54 min.
“We’re very happy with what we concluded,” said Bolton. “We’ve reviewed it, we’ve thought long and hard, looked at the data around the length of matches and the trends that are occurring in that space. We’re very confident and happy with the decision we have made.”
This year’s Grand Slam will have a record prize money pool of £50 million with the singles champions each taking home £2.7M. There have been increases in every round of the tournament but the biggest year-on-year rises are for the quarter-final stages or later.
Key dates for Wimbledon 2024
- Wednesday 19 June: Initial wild cards announced
- Monday 24 – Thursday 27 June: Qualifying Competition
- Friday 28 June: The Official Draw will be at 10am
- Saturday 29 – Sunday 30 June: Player’s post-tournament press conferences
- Monday 1 – Sunday 14 July: The Championships 2024
