UTV’S JUDITH HILL ON WHY SHE’S DETERMINED TO REPORT GOOD NEWS
48-PAGE WEEKEND MAGAZINE INSIDE
A RECORD-BREAKING day at Wimbledon ended with the second men’s semi-final between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic falling foul of the 11pm curfew.
After the epic encounter between Kevin Anderson and John Isner, Nadal did not hit the first serve of his match until 8.09pm. That gave two players who have contested some of the most gruelling matches in tennis history less than three hours or the pros- pect of completing the match today.
In the end, and to the surprise of no one, they did not come close to finishing. And so, with Djokovic leading 6-4 3-6 7-6 (11-9), it became the first match since the Centre Court roof was added in 2009 to be stopped due to the strict curfew imposed by Merton Council to avoid disruption to local residents.
Andy Murray’s third-round match against Marcos Baghdatis in 2012 pushed the limit to 11.02pm, and the time was exactly the same when Spaniard Nadal netted a final backhand.
The announcement of the curtailment of play was greeted with understandable disappointment by the crowd, the vast majority of whom had stayed as a contest more than worthy of a Wimbledon final played out in front of them.
But only one of these men can move through to take on Anderson tomorrow, and they will resume today, when ticket holders for the women’s final will get an unexpected treat.
The question since his meek loss to Sam Querrey here two