The Wimbledon crowd turned on Stefanos Tsitsipas at the start of the third set as Andy Murray was made to wait out on court with the 11pm curfew drawing near. Tsitsipas and Murray didn’t get their match underway until 7.45pm as the countdown began to the cut-off time, and the match was later suspended after the Briton won the third set.
The blockbuster contest was never going to be over quickly and that proved evident in the first two sets. Both sets needed tiebreaks to separate the tennis giants with just one break point opportunity being created in that time.
Two hours of play had already passed when Murray wrapped up the second set tiebreak to level the match. Both players then used the interval to go for a break off the court with Murray returning first.
After returning to his chair briefly, Murray then got up to his side of the court where he was made to wait by Tsitsipas. The Greek tennis ace eventually returned nearly six minutes after the final point of the second set.
But the crowd inside Centre Court were clearly not impressed as they jeered Tsitsipas for keeping them waiting. Both Murray and Tsitsipas were playing against the clock on Friday night due to the 11pm curfew.
Fans also greeted the news that the match would be suspended with a chorus of boos. The curfew at Wimbledon has been in place since 2009 when Centre Court opened its new roof.
A statement from Wimbledon in 2018 read: “The 11pm curfew is a Planning Condition applied to balance the consideration of the local residents with the scale of an international tennis event that takes place in a residential area. The challenge of transport connectivity and getting visitors home safely is also a key consideration.”
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