Novak: Why did they make me wait to play?
IT’S LUSH AT LEICESTER BUT CENTRE COURT’S MORE LIKE A CHINESE DESERT
NOVAK DJOKOVIC has accused Wimbledon referees of dithering and making the ‘wrong decision’ in postponing his fourth-round match against Adrian Mannarino from Monday evening.
The three-time champion also criticised the Centre Court playing surface, pointing out a hole in the grass and saying the conditions were ‘not great’, following his delayed 6- 2, 7- 6, 6- 4 victory over the Frenchman.
Djokovic, 30, claimed the All England Club were ‘completely indecisive’ in taking two and a half hours to tell him and Mannarino their last-16 match would not be moved to Centre Court, and called for Wimbledon to follow the US Open and adopt fifth-set tiebreaks to speed up proceedings.
The world No 4’s match was scheduled to follow Rafa Nadal’s four-hour 48-minute defeat by Gilles Muller on Court No 1, which finished at 8.33pm.
Centre Court was empty from around 7pm after Roger Federer’s straight-sets victory over Grigor Dimitrov, yet officials opted not to move the match owing to crowd safety concerns.
‘I was obviously unhappy not to play on Monday night,’ Djokovic said. ‘We were kept for two and a half hours in the dark, in a way, without knowing what we are going to do. So you were on your toes warming up, cooling down. The referees’ office was completely indecisive.
‘I just think it was a wrong decision not to play us on Monday night, because we could have played. I think the last match on the Centre Court was done before 7pm. Having in mind that Centre Court has the roof and lights, we could have played until 11pm.
‘We went to the referees’ office before 8pm. There were security reasons. That was the only excuse, that basically was the explanation that we were getting. I just didn’t see any logic in not playing us on the Centre Court.
‘Should Wimbledon introduce fifth-set tiebreaks? I just don’t see any reason why not. If you are already getting to the six-all fifth set, you might as well decide it in a tiebreak. It is great drama, but that player has to go out tomorrow. It’s not really what your body’s looking for.’
The Serb, who will play Tomas Berdych in the quarterfinals today, showed chair umpire Carlos Bernardes what he claimed was a hole in the grass on Centre Court.
Mannarino, far more used to competing on the outside courts, said Centre Court was not as ‘destroyed’ as others he had played on, but Djokovic was less impressed.
‘During the match I mentioned there was a hole in the middle of the court. The chair umpire just asked me to show him and I did. He was not very pleased to see that,’ he said.
‘The courts, honestly, are not that great and many players are feeling the same. The groundsmen are the best in the world and it’s not easy, but I’ve played on better courts.
‘The more you play on it, the worse it gets, unfortunately,’ he added.
Despite his multiple com- plaints, plus the need for treatment and a painkiller to ease a troublesome right shoulder in the third set, Djokovic rarely looked threatened against Mannarino, a left- hander ranked No 51 in the world.
The Serb attempted to shrug off his injury, saying only ‘it’s been something I’ve been dragging back and forth for a while’ and ‘ pain is part of sport’. It did not seem to hamper him here, but we shall soon find out if all that time hanging around has taken a toll.