Fed feels for fans after early exits

ROGER Federer pleaded for grand slam tournament officials not to reduce matches to best-of-three sets after injured players were accused of taking the money and running at Wimbledon yesterday.

Seven men have retired from the first round of Wimbledon.

Serbian Victor Troicki quit after 20 minutes on day one.

Federer reached the second round after Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov quit when trailing 6-3, 3-0 after 43 minutes on Centre Court, complaining of an ankle injury.

Earlier, Novak Djokovic won in 40 minutes when Martin Klizan, suffering from a calf injury, retired at 6-3, 2-0 down.

It meant the Centre Court crowd had 83 minutes of action involving the two men who have won 10 Wimbledon titles between them.

“I feel for the crowd,” Federer said.

The Swiss great does not want grand slams to change their best-of-five sets format.

“I hope it doesn’t happen,’’ he said. “But I believe that more players clearly would finish their matches.”