Full houses was ‘always part of plan’ for semis and finals, says Bolton

Wimbledon chief executive Sally Bolton revealed it was always the plan to have capacity crowds on its two biggest courts for the quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals.

The All England Club announced the decision on Sunday as part of the UK Government's Events Research Programme, having operated at 50 per cent capacity for the first week, with spectators not required to wear masks while seated in the stadiums.

Centre Court, with a capacity of just short of 15,000, and Court One, which holds 12,345, will see full crowds from today through to next Sunday.

Bolton says they do not have any data back from the first week, in terms of infections that can be traced to people attending the tournament, but that the authorities have no concerns.

"When we had the plan for the Championships capacity signed off by the Government, Public Health and our local authority Merton, it was always envisaged that we would have the uplift we are now delivering during this period," Bolton said. "That was always part of the plan. We were clear that we wanted to monitor how week one went so effectively the final sign-off to move to plan that was originally agreed happened and was supported.

"We are part of the ERP so that data will be being gathered but we haven't got interim results from that.

"It is important that we are talking to Public Health England and particularly to the Director of Public Health locally every day about any concerns they may have or any changes we may make.”