Andy Murray has been one of many to complain over Wimbledon’s 11.00pm curfew, forcing himself and several other players to complete their matches over two days.
Many pundits and supporters have pleaded with the tournament chiefs to either scrap the curfew or begin Centre Court matches earlier.
However, All-England Club CEO Sally Bolton insisted that those changes would not be implemented. “Historically over many, many decades we’ve always started play on our show courts around early afternoon,” she said.
“And that’s very much about ensuring that people have the opportunity to get on court so, as much as is possible the case, we have full courts for when the players walk on, and that’s still absolutely our intention.
“And the other thing we think carefully about is, when people buy a ticket to come to Wimbledon, they want to experience a day at the Championships and that involves going and seeing some play on outside courts, perhaps going to get something to eat, getting some strawberries and cream.
“We understand that our guests want that whole day. Of course every year we look at everything and we get feedback from all of our guest groups, from the player groups and all of our stakeholders.
“We will have a look at that beyond this year’s Championships but that’s the real background to why we have the start time when we do.
“Matches are happening at a time when they’re accessible to people. We’re seeing (TV) viewing figures that are beyond our expectations and beyond previous years so I think they probably speak for themselves.”
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